“Mater Africa” is Kenza Barrada’s first novel. It’s a thick, dense story of 420 pages (25 chapters), for those who love life’s great journeys. The author takes us into a forgotten memory, near and far from us: the African roots of Moroccanness. The plot is subtly woven between the 19th century and our time, passing through the independence of Morocco, with effects of prolepsis and analepsis which level the reading without disturbing it. We let ourselves be carried away by the author’s horizontal style, a realistic linear composition that flows like an African river.
“Mater Africa” relates the true biographical destinies of four flamboyant women. A mother, her two daughters and her rebellious granddaughter. The writing manages to reinvent these slices of life into romantic characters. There is the mother, Mariame, a Senegalese, thirty years old at the beginning of the plot, her end will be tragic. She is married to a Moroccan, a Fassi trader from the Fez of yesteryear, Haj Omar, a rich owner who was successful in business in Senegal and already has one foot in the Mecca afterlife. She had several children with him, notably two daughters, Habiba and Amina, heroines of the novel that the narrator will follow throughout their existence. Everything happens between two worlds which reverberate or, better, backscatter. Haj Omar, every evening, like a tribal leader “sat enthroned on his armchair in the middle of the hut, the children seated at his feet» (p.20). He is “a minaret, as straight as that of the village» (p.22). He loves his wife, but in his own way. Mariame, she,embodied the beauty of Sine Saloum» (p.19). The bays of Sine Saloum, ranked among the most beautiful in the world, have feminine curves of jade green or turquoise, which turn indigo blue in the rainy seasons. Her husband decides to leave him and his daughters forever, to Morocco. He wants to see them grow in the glory of his Moorish ancestors. He plans to persuade Mariame to leave her in Senegal. He is preparing a second life, without the first wife. It is the story of a rupture in filiation and a tragedy. Mariame will be sacrificed and will meet a pathetic end.
Amina and Habiba will grow up in Morocco. Habiba maintaining an indelible, visceral link with Africa. She returned to live in Senegal, her homeland of birth, wants to leave, cannot resign herself to it, does not know where to place the cursor of her existence, while her brothers and her sister Amina have no longer set foot there. for 50 years. Habiba, married to Idriss, a pious Muslim football fan, is an anguished woman, who symbolizes the search for oneself. She lives in her memories, regrets her mother whom she often sees in dreams and who ended up being carried away by the Sine Saloum river, caught up by her animist double: “She told me strange things… She asked me to reunite my sister and my brothers (…) that we had to make peace with Senegal, that it was important for future generations who descend from our sacred tree» (p.39). Like an ancient legend in the village, we sometimes hear, throughout the pages, the sound of tom-toms and the songs of the griots. One of the strengths of this novel is to mix cultures and characters in Haj Omar’s family. Habiba will eventually make her choice. She will choose one of the two countries.
In this gallery of successful portraits, there is Amina, Mariame’s second daughter. She is beautiful, focused on sex and men who do not hesitate to solicit her, despite her bourgeois marriage to Moha. She lives in Casablanca, in a stylish villa located on Impasse des Papillons, drives a Mini and dresses according to the latest trends. She frequents the Paradise nightclub and takes care of her lovers during the day, perfecting her makeup and naughty figure. She likes “run the tip of your nail along the contour of your lips, removing any excess gloss» (p.45). This is the trap of desire. In her own way, Amina is traumatized by the family history. She destroys herself in pleasure. His marriage is a failure. Only his daughter Zahrat seems a promise, a gift from heaven.
Zahrat, a young mutiny who represents the right mix of Haj Omar’s family: “She meticulously applies makeup to her face, around ten products specially created for oily black skin, for brown eyes with long eyelashes, for plump cherry-colored lips.» (p.57). Granddaughter of Mariame, of whom she only has vague family memories, she is detached from everything. But the whole novel tends towards it. She does not know Africa, and lives in a Morocco that she wants to be modern, secular, westernized. Zahrat practices yoga, likes to listen to “La matinale de Momo”, goes out during the day with her headphones. She reshuffles the cards of femininity and finds her place in the world. She loves Paris where she will stay for a long time, experiences love stories, meets young, trendy and globalized people. Zahrat, by looking for love, rediscovers his Africanness.
Ultimately, four feminine universes lie in wait, and each holds part of the answer. A rebus whose key to understanding is delivered late, through the character of Zahrat. The adventurous granddaughter peacefully reconciles with her African origins. She symbolizes the new generation. It’s a starting point. These four main stories, from mother to daughter, collide in an epic genetic landscape. Each of the heroines will have an unexpected destiny that the reader does not suspect at first glance. And when the reader finally closes the book, a question burns his lips: can one be Moroccan without being African?
“Mater Africa”. 420 pages. Éditions Le Fennec, 2024. Public price: 140 DH.
