Mouloud Mammeri is an Algerian Kabyle writer, anthropologist and linguist. Born in December 28, 1917 in Taourirt Mimoune Ait Yenni in Kabylie, Algeria; died in February 1989 near Aïn Defla in a car accident while returning from a conference in Oujda, Morocco.
Mouloud Mammeri attended a primary school in his native village. In 1928 he emigrated to Morocco to live in his uncle's house in Rabat. Four years later he returned to Algiers and pursued his studies at Bugeaud College.
He then went to Lycée Louis-le-Grand in Paris intending to join the École Normale Supérieure. Conscripted in 1939 and discharged in October 1940, Mouloud Mammeri registered at the Faculté des Lettres d’Alger. Re-conscripted in 1942 after the American landing, he participated in the allied campaigns in France, Italy, and Germany.
After the end of the war, he received his degree as a professor of arts and returned to Algeria in September 1947 . He taught in Médéa, and then in Ben Aknoun, and published his first novel, The Forgotten Hill in 1952. He was forced to leave Algiers in 1957 because of the Algerian War. Mouloud came back to Algeria shortly after its independence, in 1962.
From 1965 to 1972 he taught Berber at the university in the department of ethnology. Teaching Berber was prohibited in 1962 by the Algerian government. He voluntarily taught some Berber courses under certain permission until 1973, when certain courses such as ethnology and anthropology were judged as "colonial sciences" and disbanded.
From 1969 to 1980 Mouloud Mammeri directed the Anthropological, Prehistoric and Ethnographic Research center at Algiers (CRAPE). He also headed the first national union of Algerian writers for a time, until he left due to disagreements over views of the role of writers in society.
In 1969 Mouloud Mammeri collected and published texts of the kabyle poet Si Mohand. In 1980, the prohibition of one of his conferences at Tizi Ouzou on kabyle poetry caused riots and what would be called the Berber Spring in Kabylie.
In 1982, he founded the Center of Amazigh Studies and Research (CERAM) and a periodical called Awal (The Word) in Paris, and organized several seminars on amazigh language and literature at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS). Thus he was able to compile a wealth of information on the amazigh language and literature. In 1988 Mouloud Mammeri received an honorary doctorate from Sorbonne.
Mouloud Mammeri died the evening of February 26, 1989 in a car accident, which took place near Ain-Defla on his return from a symposium in Oujda (Morocco). His funeral was spectacular, with more than 200,000 people in attendance. No officials attended the funeral, where the crowd organized in demonstrating against the government.
Quote
“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 too) not only to maintain it but develop it.” (Mouloud Mammeri's response to the donors of lessons article published in Algeria in April 1980)
from French:
« Vous me faites le chantre de la culture berbère et c'est vrai. Cette culture est la mienne, elle est aussi la vôtre. Elle est une des composantes de la culture algérienne, elle contribue à l'enrichir, à la diversifier, et à ce titre je tiens (comme vous devriez le faire avec moi) non seulement à la maintenir mais à la développer. » (Réponse de Mouloud Mammeri à un torchon "les donneurs de leçons" paru dans le quotidien officiel dont les responsables n'eurent pas la dignité d'en publier le contenu et qui, de ce fait, circula en Algérie sous forme dactylographiée en avril 1980)
Opinion
« His novels represent, so to say, four moments of Algeria: “The Forgotten Hill” the years around 1942 and the unrest in the native village with the departure for the country of the “others”; “The sleep of the just” the experience of the Algerian in the new country and the return, disappointed, and his; “Opium and the stick” the war of liberation in a village of the kabyle mountain, and finally “the Crossing” the period after 1962 which finishes on the disenchantment.
“The mystique is back in politcs”, the dogma and the constraint are “programmed”.» (Jean Déjeux, Dictionnaire of the Maghrebian authors of French language , Paris, Karthala Editions, 1984, p. 158)
from French:
« Ses romans représentent, si l'on veut, quatre moments de l'Algérie : "La Colline Oubliée" les années 1942 et le malaise dans le village natal avec le départ pour le pays des "autres"; "Le sommeil du juste" l'expérience de l'Algérien chez ceux-ci et le retour, déçu, chez les siens; "L'Opium et le bâton" la guerre de libération dans un village de la montagne kabyle (...). Enfin "La Traversée" depuis 1962 se termine sur le désenchantement (...). 'La mystique est retombée en politique', le dogme et la servitude sont 'programmés'.» (Jean Déjeux, Dictionnaire des auteurs maghrébins de langue française, Paris, Editions Karthala, 1984, p. 158)
