Mouloud Mammeri

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Mouloud Mammeri is a Kabyle Berber writer, anthropologist and linguist (Algeria born in December 28, 1917 in Taourirt Mimoune (Ath Yenni) in Kabylie, He died in February 1989 near Aïn Defla in a car accident when he was returning from a conference in Oujda, Morocco.

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[edit] Biography

Mouloud Mammeri attends a primary school in his native village. In 1928 he emigrates to Morocco at his uncle's house in Rabat. Four years later he returns to Algiers and pursue his studies at the Bugeaud College.

He then leaves to the Louis-the-Large College in Paris intending to join the Teacher superior school. Mobilized in 1939 and released in October 1940, Mouloud Mammeri registers at the Faculty of Arts (Algiers). In 1942 he joins the Allied forces against the axis.

At the end of the war, He prepares in Paris a contest of professorship of Letters and returns to Algeria in September 1947 . He teaches in Médéa, then in Ben Aknoun and publishes his first novel, the forgotten Hill in 1952. Under the pressure of the events, he must leave Algiers in 1957 . In 1962, Mouloud came back to Algeria shortly after its independence.

From 1965 to 1972 he teaches Berber at the University at the department of ethnology, the teaching of Berber have become prohibted in 1962 by the Algerian governemet. He ensures Berber courses only under certain authorizations, He animates voluntarily courses until 1973 where certain disciplines such as ethnology and anthropology were judged as "colonial sciences".

From 1969 to 1980 Mouloud Mammeri directs the Anthropological, Prehistoric and Ethnographic Research center at Algiers (CRAPE). He also has a transitory passage as head of the first national union of Algerian writers, he finally quit it for discordance with sight on the role of the writer in the society.

Mouloud Mammeri collects and publishes in 1969 the texts of the poet kabyle Si Mohand. In 1980, the prohibition of one of his conferences at Tizi Ouzou on kabyle poetry caused riots (Berber Spring) in Kabyle.

In 1982, he founds in Paris the Center of Studies and of Research Amazigh (CERAM) and the review Awal ( the word ), and animating several seminar in the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS). This long scientific route enabled him to gather a sum of fundamental elements on the language and the amazighe literature. In 1988 Mouloud Mammeri receives the title of honorary doctor at Sorbonne university.

Mouloud Mammeri died the evening of February 26, 1989 in a car accident. His funeral was spectacular, with more than 200,000 people in attendence. officials did not attended the funerals whereas a compact crowd stressed slogans against the government.

[edit] Citation

“You make me the cantor of the Berber culture and it is true. This culture is mine, it is also yours. It is one of the components of the Algerian culture, it contributes to enrich it, to diversify it, and for this reason I hold (as you should do it with me) not only to maintain it but develop it.”  : Réponse of Mouloud Mammeri in connection with the donors of lessons , text circulating in Algeria in form typed in April 1980.

[edit] Jugement

“Its novels represent, if one wants, four moments of Algeria: “The forgotten Hill” the years 1942 and it Malayan in the native village with the departure for the country of the “others”; “The Sleep of the Juste” the experiment of the Algerian at those and the return, disappointed, his; “Opium and the stick” the war of liberation in a village of the mountain kabyle (...). Finally “the Crossing” since 192 finishes on the disenchantment (...). “The mystic fell down in policy”, the dogma and the constraint “is programmed”.”  : Jean Déjeux, Dictionnaire of the Maghrebian authors of French language , Paris, Karthala Editions, 1984, p. 158 (ISBN 2-86537-085-2)

[edit] Bibliography

[edit] Novels

  • "La Colline oubliée" », Paris, Plon, 1952, 2nde édition, Paris, Union Générale d’Éditions, S.N.E.D., col. 10/18, 1978 (ISBN 2-264-00907-1); Paris, Folio Gallimard, 1992 (ISBN 2-07-038474-8).
  • "Le Sommeil du juste" , Paris , Plon, 1952, 2nde édition, Paris, Union Générale d’Éditions, S.N.E.D., col. 10/18, 1978 (ISBN 2-264-00908-X).
  • L'opium et le bâton: roman (in French). (1965/1992). Paris: Éditions La Découverte. ISBN 2707120863.
  • "La Traversée" , Paris, Plon, 1982, 2nde édition, Alger, Bouchène, 1992.

[edit] Short Stories

  • « Ameur des arcades et l’ordre », Paris, 1953, Plon, « La table ronde », N°72.
  • « Le Zèbre », Preuves, Paris, N° 76, Juin 1957, PP. 33-67.
  • « La Meute », Europe, Paris, N°567-568, Juillet-Août 1976 .
  • « L’Hibiscus », Montréal, 1985, Dérives N°49, PP. 67-80.
  • « Le Désert Atavique », Paris, 1981, quotidien Le Monde du 16 Août 1981.
  • « Ténéré Atavique », Paris, 1983, Revue Autrement N°05.
  • « Escales », Alger, 1985, Révolution africaine; Paris, 1992, La Découverte (ISBN 2-7071-2043-X).

[edit] Theatre

  • « Le Foehn ou la preuve par neuf », Paris, PubliSud, 1982, 2nde édition, Paris, pièce jouée à Alger en 1967 .
  • « Le Banquet », précédé d’un dossier, la mort absurde des aztèques, Paris, Librairie académique Perrin, 1973.
  • « La Cité du soleil », sortie en trois tableaux, Alger, 1987, Laphomic, M. Mammeri : Entretien avec Tahar Djaout, pp. 62-94.

[edit] Translation

  • Les Isefra by Mohand ou Mohand (in French). (1969). Paris: F. Maspero. OCLC 186896.
  • Poèmes kabyles anciens (in French). (1980). Paris: F. Maspero. ISBN 2-7071-1150-3.
  • « L ‘Ahellil du Gourara », Paris, M.S.H., 1984 (ISBN 2-7351-0107-X).
  • « Yenna-yas Ccix Muhand », Alger, Laphomic, 1989.
  • « Machaho, contes berbères de Kabylie », Paris, Bordas.
  • « Tellem chaho, contes berbères de Kabylie », Paris, Bordas, 1980.

[edit] Grammar and linguistic

  • « Tajerrumt n tmazigt (tantala taqbaylit) », Paris, Maspéro, 1976.
  • Précis de grammaire berbère (kabyle) (in French). (1987). Paris: Editions AWAL. ISBN 2906659002.
  • « Lexique français-touareg », en collaboration avec J.M. Cortade, Paris, Arts et métiers graphiques, 1967.
  • « Amawal Tamazigt-Français et Français-Tamazigt », Imedyazen, Paris, 1980.
  • « Awal », cahiers d’études berbères, sous la direction de M. Mammeri, 1985-1989, Paris, Awal