Writer Kamel Daoud attacks Algerian power in the French press

The Franco-Algerian writer Kamel Daoud attacks the Algerian power, whose authoritarianism he criticizes, and the “left-wing press”, which according to him misunderstands him, in an interview published Thursday by the daily Le Monde. To the leaders of Algeria, the novelist, winner of the prestigious Goncourt 2024 prize for his novel “Houris”, accuses them of silencing their opponents through intimidation.

“Houris” cannot be published in Algeria, because it falls under a law prohibiting any work on the black decade between 1992 and 2002, which left at least 200,000 dead, according to official figures. “Recently, I read something by Albert Camus: + Exile is necessary for the truth. + We can reverse the formula for Algeria: lies are necessary to stay there,” he said.

He cites the example of an unnamed writer who gave up joining the movement in support of Boualem Sansal, a Franco-Algerian novelist in detention in Algeria since November for endangering state security. “I can’t judge others, their choices. I remember this writer who wanted to sign the petition and who called me back saying: +I can’t, my wife is leaving for Algiers in two hours.+ I understand” , explained Kamel Daoud. “The regime is harsh. You sign, you pay immediately. There is fear, therefore,” he added.

The writer’s other targets are “the Islamists first, who are in the process of privatizing cultural spaces in Algeria, publishing houses, bookstores, schools. These Islamists are delighted to see a writer in prison” , according to Mr. Daoud. Finally, there is the “left-wing press which cannot see us beyond the role imposed on us, that of ideological adjuvants”. “In other words, either we speak to this press according to its own expectations, neutralizing our own convictions, or we do not have the right to speak,” explains Kamel Daoud.

The author of the novel “Houris” has written a column in the weekly Le Point since 2014, where he attacks the left as regularly as the Islamists, which causes him to be attacked in return. “I am criticized for not being the good Arab, the one who is in permanent victimhood and decoloniality,” he lamented to Le Monde.