96
PARTISAN UVIEW
No one knows what might have become of North African literature
had the three countries of the Maghrib developed in independence and
their populations been educated in Arabic. But disregarding opinion on
this historical accident, because of France's presence on the southern
shore of the Mediterranean there are only French-speaking Maghrib
writers, for writers write for people who can read. And people who
can read
only
Arabic are less numerous in these countries than people
who can read
only
French or who know both languages. To this first
reason we can add another that is profounder and more important,
and which must be analyzed more closely.
All French North African literature is recent, dating from the years
immediately preceding or following World War II. That is, the litera–
ture developed at the same time as nationalist feeling in these countries.
It was at the very moment Moroccans, Tunisians, and Algerians began
to demand their independence with force that a literature was born,
issuing from their own peoples but in the language of their adversaries.
This can undoubtedly
be
accounted for in part by the fact that North
African writers are deeply convinced that the men they must convince
are not their Moslem brothers but the very Frenchmen to whom, since
they speak their language, they necessarily address themselves; but even
more by the fact that in peace as in war, an involuntary community
among oppressors and oppressed has developed which both persist
in
denying but which nevertheless exists. Discussing a recent book by
Albert Camus which happened to be about Algeria, Germaine Tillon
wrote in
PreUlves:
"How true it is that in their dreadful struggle the
two adversaries have never ceased-and cannot cease--fighting side by
side: the same grain nourishes them, they read the same books." And
about this same book, a Moslem Algerian schoolteacher wrote Camus:
"Gradually, for over a century, the Algerian peoples of European origin
have detached themselves from Europe to the point of becoming un–
recognizable and resembling only themselves; I mean, resembling those
other Algerians whom they despise but whose accent, tastes, and passions
they share." The Algerian community is born of this reverse assimilation,
not of Algerians to France, but of the French to Algeria. And it is only
natural that a common cultural basis has appeared which is the same
for the Kabyle Ferraoun, the half-Lorrainese, half-Spanish Algerian
Camus, the Oranian Robles of Spanish origin, Jean Daniel, a Berber
Jew, and Albert Memmi, a Tunisian Jew, as for Driss Chrru'bi and
Mohammed Dib, Moroccan and Algerian Arabs.
Furthermore, those Maghrib writers who offer the strongest evi–
dence and assert the most stringent claims do so in the name of prin-
