what we know about the disappearance of the Franco-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal – Libération

For six days, his phone has been ringing in vain. The calm and thoughtful voice of Boualem Sansal no longer responds. According to several French media, the Franco-Algerian novelist and essayist was arrested on Saturday November 16 upon his arrival at Algiers airport. He was reportedly arrested by members of the general directorate of Algerian internal security and should be presented before the public prosecutor.

French President Emmanuel Macron, who personally naturalized the writer this year, said he “very concerned” by his disappearance, affirming that the “State services are mobilized to clarify his situation”. This comes in a context of strong tensions in diplomatic relations between Paris and Algiers. France's recognition this summer of Morocco's sovereignty over Western Sahara provoked the anger of Algeria, the historic sponsor of the Polisario Front separatists, who are demanding a self-determination referendum on this contested territory.

Critical and independent voice

At 75 years old, this man with long graying hair embodies a major voice of criticism towards the Algerian power. Despite censorship, he tirelessly denounced the authoritarianism of Algiers and the rise of Islamism, which made him a figure feared by the authorities. Born in 1949 in Theniet El Had, in the north of the country, this trained engineer has been in the crosshairs of the authorities for more than two decades. In 1999, his first novel Barbarian Oath (Gallimard) attracts attention because of his criticism of the management of post-independence Algeria, which he believes is plagued by corruption, ethnic violence and social inequalities.

While working as a senior civil servant at the Ministry of Industry, he was dismissed from his position in 2003 after taking public positions against the regime. A figure in contemporary French-speaking literature, he has published around ten works, including the German Village (Gallimard, 2008), in which he draws a parallel between Nazism and Islamist terrorism, and 2084: the end of the world (Gallimard, 2015) which earned him the Grand Prix du roman from the Académie française.

Despite the risks he faces, Boualem Sansal remains deeply attached to his native country. He continued to live for a long time in Boumerdès, a port city located about fifty kilometers east of Algiers. He refused asylum offered by France and Germany to remain a critical and independent voice inside Algeria. The essayist nevertheless travels regularly to France, where he recently settled for reasons linked to his wife's state of health. He had just found an apartment near the city of Versailles.

“Free Spirit”

According to information from Pointthe novelist's recent statements to the media Borders could have motivated his arrest for “attack on territorial integrity”. “When France colonized Algeria, the entire western part of Algeria was part of Morocco: Tlemcen, Oran and even as far as Mascara […]. When France colonizes Algeria, it establishes itself as a protectorate in Morocco and decides, arbitrarily, to attach all of eastern Morocco to Algeria, by drawing a border. he notably declared.

Boualem Sansal's arrest comes as journalists and writers are increasingly repressed by Algerian authorities. The novel Houris by the Franco-Algerian author Kamel Daoud, winner of the Goncourt Prize, was recently banned at the Algiers International Book Fair due to the evocation of “black decade”, period marked in the 1990s by extreme violence between the Algerian government and armed Islamist groups. At the end of June, the French writer Dominique Martre and her publisher were also arrested in Bejaïa, during the presentation of a work on Kabylia, then placed in police custody.

This new incident led to numerous reactions from French political leaders. Edouard Philippe said to himself “deeply concerned” by the disappearance of Boualem Sansal: “He embodies everything we cherish: the call to reason, freedom and humanism against censorship, corruption and Islamism.” On the left of the board, the First Secretary of the Socialist Party, Olivier Faure, spoke this Friday noon on the social network “compatriot”, “free spirit and link between Algeria and France” who fights against “corrupt power” and the “Islamist terrorism”. The leader of the deputies of the National Rally (RN) Marine Le Pen, for her part, welcomed a “freedom fighter and courageous opponent of Islamism”calling on the French government to act to obtain its “immediate release”.