Moroccan writer Mohamed Choukri's rise from poverty to universal recognition

02/10/2005

Mohamed Choukri (1935-2003) is one of North Africa's most controversial and widely read authors.

[File] Choukri uses harsh language to convey his points

Mohamed Choukri's childhood was spent in abject poverty; as eight of his brothers and sisters died of malnutrition or neglect. When he was 20 years old and still illiterate, Choukri decided to learn to read and write classical Arabic, a decision that transformed his life.

After mastering the language, he became a teacher and writer, eventually being named the prestigious chairman of Arabic Literature at Ibn Batuta College in Tangier.

Choukri's first story, "Violence on the Ocean", was published in Al Adab magazine in 1966. The world was introduced to an exceptional, rebellious and angry writer ready to expose everyone through harsh language.

His last work was "Faces", a continuation of his autobiography, the lives of the people surrounding him and the life of the cities and the places he lived in or passed by.

His work is an absorbing pursuit of survival in a hostile world that allows him very little time to reflect, according to Professor Ferial J. Ghazoul.

The work is written in the style of a "naive narrator". Events are recalled from the point of view of a child. Ignorance, bewilderment and bitterness are all expressed as they were actually felt at the time.

Choukri describes scenes of sex and violence without any sense of guilt, because he portrays them as he experienced them then and from the viewpoint of an urban youngster. The idea expressed is that the most wicked would survive best.

When he is starving and has to pick food from the garbage and eat dead fish, Choukri announced there are only three ways to survive in the filthy underworld of Tangier: stealing, smuggling and whoring. While he participates in all three vices, he does express an occasional sense of shame or even revulsion at what he has been reduced to.

"Faces", with its colourful images and languages, truly reflects Choukri's way of life in a raw manner with no euphemisms.

"Choukri is graphic, but not pornographic: he recounts sipping a glass of tea, slashing another vagabond or spending a night in the brothel in the same tone. A voyeuristic reading is only possible if the significance, plot and closure are dismissed. Then, and only then, the readers will miss the element of conversion and dwell on the perversion", Ghazoul declared.

Choukri survived life on the streets to relate a tale of the underworld in the city, a tale of absolute denial and ruined childhood. Yet it is also an inspiring narrative because it shows one can pull oneself up from the gutter and that literacy and literature can change a life.