Think
about outstanding female writers from north Africa over the years. Chances are at least two female protagonists would
spring to mind: the late Alifa Rifaat (from Egypt); and Assia Djebar (from
Algeria).
Assia Djebar was recognised for
decades as a western-educated Algerian feminist, intellectual and spokesperson
for Algerian women. Her body of powerful writing and publications reflect this.
Djebar
as a top-notch intellectual
ultimately won the Neustadt International Prize for Literature; and also the
Yourcenar Prize. Yet she published her significant early works at a very young age, in her very
early 20's - works like La Soif (1957) and Les Impatients (1958). Other works
include Les Enfants du Nouveau Monde (1962) and Vaste a la Prison
(1995). Djebar's works were translated into many international
languages.
She was
born in Cherchell, near Algiers, in 1936.
Her writings were to stamp her out as
essentially a defender of women's rights in her native Algeria. She achieved
international renown as an academic, also going on to lecture at New York University.
Literary
pundits, upon hearing of her death, expressed
admiration and appreciation of her life and work - including the upliftment of
women in North Africa in general. Leke Giwa for example said: "Assia Djebar was a brilliant
writer, judging from English translations of her work. It has been quite
numbing for African and international literature that she and
world-class (South African writer and academic) Andre Brink died around the same
time at the same weekend".
Jane
Hiddleston, writing about Assia Djebar, has said:
“(Djebar) is "frequently
associated with women's writing movements, her novels are clearly focused on
the creation of a genealogy of Algerian women, and her political stance is
virulently anti-patriarchal as much as it is anti-colonial,”
Suggested Reading
Islamic Culture and the question of women's
human rights in North Africa: a study of short stories by Assia Djebar and
Alifa Rifaat. By Naomi E. Nkealah
