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Literary Review
NEW VOICES
A soldier’s dialogues
ZIYA US SALAM
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Meet Yasmina Khadra, a soldier in the Algerian army, whose novels try to build bridges between the West and the Arab world.
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Photo: Gopal Sunger
Battles with the pen: Yasmina Khadra.
Quite calm, quite quiet. He has a brooding intensity that is hard to miss even when he smiles. Which is neither often nor does it come easy! That is Yasmina Khadra. Does it ring a bell? Well, not quite. Never mind. Here is another clue: He is a man w
ho started writing under a woman’s pseudonym to avoid censure, and may be popularity because he was an officer in the Algerian army. But as a writer he was good, in fact too good to live under the cover of obscurity for long. So, the guys with guns got after the guy with the pen. Off went the cloak of Yasmina and the world got to know Mohammed Moulessohoul, the man who writes on West Asia with a felicity and insight that few manage.
The Algerian writer had come to India to participate in the Translating Bharat deliberations, as part of the Jaipur Literature Week recently. He was not mobbed, not too many ran for a picture with him. But in a brief conversation, he left an imprint, revealing, through a translator, why and how he has helped build bridges between the West and the Arab world. And what it means to be a writer in a closed society.
Humorous in hindsight
“I was in the Algerian Army. I was a soldier who was fond of writing. I had written eight novels under my real name when the Army thought I was becoming too famous, so they imposed censorship on me.” If you thought he would become one brooding middle aged man — he was born in 1955 — think again. He is ready to smile about the Army today. “There was a time when the Army did not like it. Now, they do! I had won the battle of the bullet with the pen.”
So, how does his pen bring about a better understanding of the Arab world for the West? Explains the author whose book The Sirens of Baghdad relates the story of a terrorist-to-be who is radicalised by the humiliation of his father by the American forces. “The West mistakes us. It does not understand the culture, the polity. The media is spreading disinformation. Eventually, the people of the U.S. themselves turned hostile towards their Government. They are sandwiched between the Government policies and the bleeding, ground reality. When my earlier books were released, the American media praised them. When The Sirens of Baghdad was launched, there was a different reaction. America is not ready to understand how an Arab sees the Americans. I feel sad because my books could have given important clues to them.”
Earlier Khadra had penned The Swallows of Kabul, and told the world that “fanaticism is a threat to all”. Now, he wants West Asia to be left alone. “If the Arab countries are left alone, there would be peace. Rulers are fairly vulnerable. Many of them are corrupt, debased, depraved and not intelligent. They can be changed.” So, what is the impediment?
Says Khadra, who speaks in French and Arabic with only a few words of English thrown in, “America has made the situation disastrous in Iraq. It is like an elephant in a china shop. But the U.S. cannot leave like this, leaving behind the ruins of a great civilisation. It has the responsibility to rebuild. The mistakes are entirely American.” Fine. But what can a writer or a journalist do in times of a colossal tragedy? “Literature has not the sole purpose to talk of everyday news. There is a moral role to play too. A writer is meant to be enlightened. It is his duty to involve himself in major conflicts, engage in dialogue because he has the power to bring about a solution. My books have been a ferment of change in Algeria. They have helped the West to understand the Arab world.”
A wider audience
Though his writings are not quite the stuff of dinner talk in India, he aspires to be there. “In translations lies my hope. My book In the Name of God was translated into Malayalam two years ago. And my other books have been translated into 30 international languages. In India, publishers have evinced interest in translation but it is too early to say when the books can come out.”
As the conversation veers towards closure, Khadra reveals his humorous side again. “After the session here I am putting up in a guesthouse in Delhi. It does not seem too reputed or safe. Maybe, they feel writers are not so safe or I am not so well reputed!”
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