Assia Belgacem on Translations, Indigenous Art and Fighting Islamophobia
The gap, the need and the resistance
I’m so grateful that Assia, at my request, decided to contribute to our newsletter. This is a moment for educating ourselves and widening our literary canon and fighting Islamophobia.
Assia’s activism has helped thousand’s of people decolonize the way they consume information and has helped diversify our reading so we can, through a reader’s sympathy, get to know the plight of our brothers and sisters from countries and races other than our own.
In regards to women in translation, one of the books and authors I find highly underrated, let alone read, is Zahia Rahmani.
She wrote a Trilogie about her life, her past, her background but only two books have been translated:
Zahia Rahmani:
In chronological order of publication in France:
- Moze (2003), hasn't been translated into English
- Musulman, un roman (2005) has been translated by Matthew Reeck and published by Deep Vellum in 2019 - title: "Muslim" a Novel
- France récit d'une enfance (2006) has been translated by Lara Vergnaud (2016) published by Yale University Press - title: France Story of a Childhood
In Moze, she tackles a "topic" or historical fact of the "Harki" people. They are Algerian Indigenous people who sided with the colonizers during the Algerian War of Independence. She talks about their situation both in Algeria after the independence AND their situation in France which was awful. First of all, France didn't even want to "save" them from their fate in Independent Algeria where the Harka (plural of Harki) were punished, tortured, killed, etc. So France didn't want to take responsibility for them and left many to die in Algeria.
She recounts how her father was tortured both at the hand of Algerian officials in independent Algeria and how he managed to escape to France with his family only to live another life of torture, in slums that looked more like prisons - children of Harka GREW UP there, were schooled in those slums, emprisoned spaces. They couldn't go out to the city, the slums became a village, people got old, babies grew up, learned French, and started asking for their rights.
And of course, those slums were hidden from regular white French people, they were made invisible so as not to "ruin" the landscape. Ultimately, her father commits suicide (not a spoiler) and she tries to understand his life. This is MOZE the book that hasn't been translated and in my opinion, should have been the first to have been translated. After reading these three books, I really wondered why Moze didn't make the cut. Why was Moze left out? Is it because it depicts an ugly side of France that doesn't go well with the cliché of France, a country of revolutions and human rights? Again, Harka history is erased, made invisible in English literature just the way they were made invisible in the French landscape.
"Muslim" - a Novel, is a book I absolutely loved. She really breaks down the definition of Muslim and WHO defines it. It's very important again because in Colonial Algeria, were considered Algerians white settlers, and indigenous people were considered and called either Indigenous or Arabs or Muslim. So from a French colonial perspective, the definition of Muslim is expanded to the US intervention in Iraq and the prison of Abu Ghraib. As much as I was glad to see it available in translation, I can't get to say the translation was good. Having read both versions and compared them, I was saddened to see that most of Rahmani's writing, the lyricism & comparisons were lost (when they could have been preserved).
For the last book of the trilogy, translated by Lara Vergnaud. I haven't read it in English but I am very reticent to read French-Algerian novels translated into English by white French people. I feel that besides translating, a lot of their opinions are added to the book or their interpretations. It's very exhausting to read such nonsense as an Algerian tbh, so I tend to stay away from it.
I think it's very important for the translator to be of the same culture, ethnic background as the writer, because when there is no bilingual editor of the same culture/ethnic background as the author then huge mistakes, offensive choices of words are printed.
For instance, recently Kaouther Adimi's novel was published in English - A bookshop in Algiers by Serpent's Tail. It had what I consider a massive mistake. The word "Indigènes" in French was translated into "natives" instead of "Indigenous Algerians". The latter would have been more appropriate to highlight the different categories because "indigenous" focuses on an illegal settlement or colonization, whereas "native" is quite neutral and doesn't carry the same meaning. In addition to that, with the colonial social hierarchies that existed in Algeria, the category "native" didn't exist. But the category "Indigenous" did. So when the translator doesn't have enough background knowledge on the history of the country, it can mess up the translation. Also: I did not like the book anyway, it was praising the colonizers who introduced books to us poor Indigenous Algerians lol.
Let's move on!
Another author I want to highlight is Faïza Guène:
She is French-Algerian, from the same hometown as me in Algeria yay! Her debut YA novel Kiffe Kiffe Tomorrow/Just Like Tomorrow is amazing (she wrote it when she was 17 years old, and it's been translated into many many languages!)
Will soon be released Men Don't Cry translated by Sarah Ardizonne and published at Cassava Republic Press! It's one of my favorite books, it has an accurate representation of a French-Algerian family with all its ups and downs, and the struggles they face as Algerians living in France. Her humor is also always spot on, I can't wait to read how that has been translated!
And a last author and book I want to highlight is Women in the Quran by Asma Lamrabet, a Moroccan Muslim woman. Although the translation isn't that great it's still worth a read especially for beginners. But in this book again, the publisher's note in the foreword describes Lamrabet's work as "a radical reinterpretation of the Islamic tradition based on scripture." What is normal? What is Radical? Who defines these words? If patriarchy is normal then should it really be considered normal? or anormal, and unjust. Lamrabet's work is far from being radical, it's a work that every Muslim should be doing: engaging with the Quran. But putting that aside, it's worth reading as usual with a critical mind.
Thank you so much Assia for helping us widen our horizon! Please find Assia’s microblog on Instagram here.