Algeria's Curtailing of Freedom of Expression Sparks Outcry from Critics, Intellectuals, and Politicians Following Author Boualem Sansal's Arrest

 

The sudden arrest of award-winning Algerian-French author Boualem Sansal and the ensuing silence regarding his release have produced a global outcry, bringing literary, cultural, and political circles to the writer’s defense. Sansal becomes the second author to agitate Algeria’s political and literary scene in recent months, next to fellow Algerian-French writer Kamel Daoud, whose recent legal tangle over his Prix Goncourt-winning novel “Houris” remains ongoing. Both cases raise apprehensions among critics and writers over Algeria’s course toward further restrictions on freedoms, especially concerning criticisms of the country’s history amid current talks about Morocco’s autonomy proposal for Western Sahara.

 

Born in 1949 in the municipality of Thénia El Ahad in the state of Tissemsilt, Algeria, to a father of Moroccan origin and an Algerian mother educated in France, Boualem Sansal graduated as an engineer from the National Polytechnic School in Algeria, the Higher School of Communications in Paris, and holds a doctorate in economics. He began writing at 48, publishing his first novel “Le Serment des Barbares” (The Barbarians’ Oath) two years later in 1999. The book recounts the rise of fundamentalists, terrorism, and social tensions in Algeria that led the country into its devastating civil war between 1992 and 2002. His other novels include “L'Enfant fou de l'arbre creux” (The Crazy Child of the Hollow Tree, 2000), “Dis-moi le paradis” (Tell Me Paradise, 2003), “The German Mujahid” (2007), “Harraga” (2007), “An Unfinished Business” (2010), and “2084: The End of the World” (2015), which won the French Academy’s Grand Prix for Fiction.

 

Discussions of Islamic extremism, Algeria’s Black Decade, and the Algerian regime are central to the majority of his works, placing him at odds with many of Algerian’s influential figures. Sansal was dismissed from the Ministry of Industry in 2003 after publishing his book “Tell Me Paradise” for his critical stance against the government. In 2019, he participated in protests in Algiers that culminated in the resignation of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika. According to the London-based Al Arab, the writer is known for his writings against obscurantism and support for democracy “without taboos and sometimes with a scathing style.” 

 

Some of Sansal’s critical positions have gained him a controversial reputation, some going as far as considering him a “traitor.” Algerian novelist Rachid Boudjedra included him in his book “History’s Disloyals” (2018), which focused on “Algerian writers who reconciled with colonialism and denied the sacrifices of their people in achieving independence,” in the words of Al Quds Al Arabi. The writer has received numerous accusations of Islamophobia, which he has denied consistently. He states, as cited in Al Arab, “I have never said anything against Islam that would justify this accusation…what I have never stopped condemning is the exploitation of Islam for political and social purposes.” He has also received countless threats and backlash for his refusal to denounce Israel. In 2000, Sansal visited Israel and participated in the World Writers Conference held in Jerusalem, and in 2008, he participated in the Paris International Book Fair, which celebrated Israel as a guest of honor. In 2014, he traveled to Israel to receive a literary award. Sansal commented on the backlash: “Writers are not politicians, and I see no reason to boycott them,” according to Al Modon.

 

 

 

 

 

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