Moroccan writer Mohamed Choukri's rise from poverty to universal recognition
2005-10-02
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.
truly reflects Choukri's way of life in a raw manner with no euphemisms
"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.
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abde lkrim farhan Posted 2007-02-14
I wish you all the success in your career! And I also wish ...
امازيغي Posted 2007-02-27
Great Moroccan writer who deserves to be known!
Mohamed El jerroudi Posted 2007-06-06
After being censured from his livelihood, I spoke with Mohamed Choukri. You have asked for comments from his readers, but you continue to stop them by censure their own works. Decidedly, Mohamed Choukri continues to make disruptions even after his death. We lock our writers away in a closet, and never speak of them again, so as to make the sophist happy. A line from the mouth of Mohamed Choukri: “To me, writing is not a leisurely walk, but a protestation.”
mohamed Posted 2007-06-21
Mohamed Choukri is the best Moroccan poet and I love him, he's always present in my heart.
مجهول Posted 2007-06-28
My great thanks
capman Posted 2007-07-11
Mohamed Choukri is one of the authors who wrote about his indignation and the hardship he endured when he was young and when he was an adult as a result of the censorship imposed on his books in a country where the freedom of expression is repressed.
hoda Posted 2007-07-18
This message is for the author of the charter or rather policy of the comments forum. First of all, I am Moroccan so I have the right to express myself, something I find incomprehensible, and that proves we will rest forever in our shell, backward in the face of every criticism that could drive us forward. The second and final point: articles 2 and 8 are contradictory. (I do not think I have misunderstood them.) Please respond to my email and prove me wrong. -Sincere regards, Hoda
مبارك ابعازي Posted 2007-09-07
1- I don’t know how when most people write, commit serious mistakes against the Arabic language, in this sense, so how do you want us to talk about the future while the situation is like this? 2- The author of the article called the first story, published by Choukri in the Lebanese Literature magazine, “Violence and the Ocean”, while Choukri published it under the title “Violence on the beach”, is this due to the ignorance of the author of the title or the references he used are weak or is he just scorning the reader?
elfarh abderrahman Posted 2007-10-03
I am a young Moroccan and I love Moroccan authors, especially the genius of Driss Achraibi, may God have mercy on him. He has shown the true face of Moroccan life and the lives of us young people. That is just my opinion.
فدوى Posted 2007-11-19
Salam alaikoum, sincerely and honestly, the death of the great writer Mohamed Choukri is a loss to Morocco and the whole world. He’s a chivalrous and persevering man. I love his novels so much namely ‘The bare bread’ in which he sincerely and genuinely showed the suffering he endured when he was a boy until he turned twenty. I thank so much the author of the article. With my respects to everyone.
الشرادي صوفيا Posted 2007-11-24
I thank Mohamed Choukri for his valuable works.
amazighia Posted 2007-11-26
I do not know if it is because of the fact I live in Europe or it is the media’s (or the censorship thereof) fault that I do not know many Moroccan writers, such as this extraordinary example, not only of authorship but of a life. Of course, I am talking about Mohamed Choukri, may God rest his soul. I hadn’t the slightest idea about him, but now I have just finished reading his collection of short stories “Le Fou des Roses”. It was such a special collection, not to mention rich. In short, it is a shame that no one is doing anything to make these writers known, these writers who wanted to demonstrate a reality that they have always tried to hide from us, that they still hide from us today, and that many are unfortunately working on the process of hiding tomorrow. –Thank you
karim Posted 2007-11-28
The book of Mohamed Chokri was of great interest for me. Thanks to him, he taught us how to walk on our unkonwn path I even learnt that he died in 2003. Bye.
مجهول Posted 2007-12-02
Stupid you're following the pest.
محمد Posted 2007-12-12
A writer who deserves respect and esteem. He makes everyone who reads his autobiography experience with him the sorrow he lived.
مبارك ابعازي Posted 2007-12-16
I’m quite surprised at these comments which seem, at least for me; not to be of any great importance. Comments which are more than value judgments and critical attacks sometimes. But the commentator who calls himself ‘Anonymous’ is the most ignorant of the ignorant. I don’t know why people take the trouble of making a stupid comment about a matter of a high importance. The literature of Mohamed Choukri doesn’t need any void words, and the extended talk about him. It’s better for to us to make practical studies to value of the “Black Merle” which came to be through reading, which leads directly to writing a ‘White Merle’, according to the expression of Mohyie Eddine Ladhekani. The books of Mohamed Choukri “The tent”, “ The mad of roses”, “Faces”, “Era of mistakes”, “ The bright”, “the bare bread”, “Aberrance of the white merle”…
اكرم سلامة Posted 2007-12-17
I never read in my life a text representing hatred between social classes so nice and expressive as I did in reading Mohamed Choukri. Every sentence is filled with the injustice of the mean and oppressor. If only all our poor writers don't forget their class and kins.
najibel bakkali Posted 2007-12-28
Respects to this man who wrote about the short life he lived in the North of Morocco. Thank you.
حسن العماري Posted 2008-01-10
Choukri represents, in my opinion, an intellectual and creative development. His creative works reflect this development. He built his artistic world from the Moroccan reality. His textual structures reflect the oral narrative Moroccan heritage. The author sculpted a style with which he imitates the dimensions of the Moroccan reality in its surrealism. Therefore, he made for himself a personal line different from other writers. It is so sad that Chokri was read in a social Arab contexts featured by narrow-mindedness. 'Bare bread' was banned from schools in Egypt. He was also defamed..They limited his works to their sexual dimension...The artist catches with his artistic eye elements or raw material from the social tissue.
ibrahim Posted 2008-02-04
choukri is an outspoken figure that embodied the reality of Moroccan life. These kinds of writers are needed nowadays. In other words,his creative works portray the severe circumstances that a large group of Moroccan people are used to living in.
سعد بنحميدو Posted 2008-02-23
For me, Mohamed Choukri is a true and candid artist in his books. Thank you.
الريفي Posted 2008-03-07
There is no author like Mohamad Chokri. He was known by many poets and he has strong books like “Bare bread” which I never saw any book like it and no poet can write his biography. Long live Mohamad Chokri the Rifian and long live Rifians. Salam.
عبدو Posted 2008-04-07
A great author who has a high audacity. He wrote things that no other author could write. Now we need an author like Choukri to uncover our policies as Choukri uncovered his autobiography.
nina Posted 2008-05-08
Mohamed Chokri is an author who deserves respect because he wrote about his real life with audacity.
محمد شعيبي Posted 2008-05-19
Mohamed Chokri is the author of the era who wrote about his personal experience in the language of the souls which is audacious. Everyone has the freedom of expression.
سناني ابن سناني Posted 2008-05-31
‘Bare bread’, is a novel divulging the suffering of the person. In terms of the audacity of expression, the cause behind it is the suffering of the author when he was on the street, which is governed by the law of the jungle. The letters of his novel can be understood only by those who have lived in misery and suffering. Writing is mainly the language of the soul divulging its treatment. Honest words aren’t always nice. This is the best evidence of the author's sincerity in his expressions. Written by the pen of the lost author…Snani.
رشيدة بلمهدي Posted 2008-06-03
I don’t know who wrote this distorted article full of wrong facts. The late Mohamed Choukri wasn’t the eighth of his brothers, he was the oldest son. It is true that he conquered illiteracy at the age of twenty but he wasn’t a teacher or director of the Arabic language at Ibn Batuta university in Tangier which exists only in the mind of the author of this distorted article. The first story which he published in the magazine Adab and not Beirut Adab is entitled ‘Violence on the Beach’ and not ‘Violence and the Ocean’. ‘Faces’ is the last work of the late author but it isn’t narrated in the tongue of a naïve child… Writing shouldn't be taken so lightly. Show some scientific spirit.
سناء Posted 2008-06-08
Honestly, Mohamed Choukri is a really great author. He is distinguished by a nice style and the secret of its beauty is the closeness to reality which is shunned by everyone and they try to paint it with bright colours but this creative author had embodied his reality. What an audacity reflecting a strong personality and the best evidence is the novel “Faces” and this is what astonished me!!!
sanaà Posted 2008-06-26
What are these lies about this prominent author? They aren’t true. The late Mohamed Choukri wasn’t the eighth of his brothers. He wasn’t a teacher, school or even a simple tutor. It is true that he was illiterate. But he had defied this quasi-fatal handicap to become literate, holding the language and pen. This is how his life has changed from that of an ignorant person to to that of a learned one. He was faithful to writing which bore its fruit for him and rewarded him for his struggle, his first work “Violence on the beach”. As regards “Faces”, it is his last work and the greatest thing I have ever read. It is the story of a life, environment and people. It includes meanings and wisdoms. Honestly, he presented them on a golden dish. Their beauty cannot be appreciated with a price because they are secrets. He had exposed them to the world with audacity and without blame. When the experience becomes stronger than regret, the feeling of blame is erased. This is what he pointed out at the beginning if this novel. The narrator of these events is a man who had gone through time and he reached his goal. It is not important who he was or how he had reached it, the most important is that he reached it…it is not in the words of a kid. He went through the chapters of this novel; he made a small nebulous room in which he had talked about his childhood. He said that he was a mere kid who was slapped. But he stated that it was a blurry screen because it was childhood. He also said that a kid can only be understood by a kid. I hope that I have presented some sides of this valuable work.
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