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Echoes of the Experience (FIVE MOROCCAN SHORT-STORY WRITERS REVEALING Interviewing writers could
be an unpredictable venture due to the suffering, woes and bitterness
entailing the art of creative writing. In a society that still suffers from a
number of daily life hardships and suffering, writing becomes more
distressing agony than a talent or blessing. To earn a living through writing
is a painful ordeal than simply making a living. Writers’ hardships do not
stop here as they have a lot to tell.
With a view to get an insight into the lives and experience of writers, we
spoke to five Moroccan short-story writers: Esmail Ghazali, Ahmed Fetnassi, Ezzedine Maazi, Mohamed Tétouani and Saїd Ahbat. When asked about his
biography and writing career, Esmail Ghazali said he cannot forget about his early life when
he wasn’t more than a careless North African gangster. Pocket-knife was his closest
associate. But, thanks to God, the pen and writing became his most intimate
associates. His intense and obscure writings at the beginning of his writing
career have rescued him from falling into the world of criminality and
absolute loss. If he had been once a member of a small gang whose most
affiliates have experienced imprisonment, madness and death that Bohemian guy
is now reckoned as a member of the experimentalism’s gang. While at the age of 20, he
published the first book that actually forced him into the world of
story-telling, his second work was in The style blends a couple of
techniques, skills, faculties and tricks to conceive a novel art for Arab
story-telling based on a special radical hypothesis: the perfection of
metaphysical story-telling. He is also planning to publish a series of
short-stories and novels in the near future. Ahmed Fetnassi
on his part said the seventies with their thriving ideological, political and
cultural trends were his gateway to the world of theatre, which is replete
with the ironies of life. He still remembers the first role he played in the Hirman Play by the late playwright Abduljabar
el-Yemani. The stage was for him more
like an open book where he noted down his inner owes and setbacks. A series
of performances and experiences continued until the beginning of the 1990s
when he decided with a group of young artists to realise their dream. They
performed at the Mimiadj Playhouse where they
staged six playing concerts. Today, he is repeating the
experience with Ruaa Playhouse. The “Dream of a
Portrait” debut performance has recently staged. His role this time was
merely supervisory as he wanted to give the opportunity for the younger
generation to build their skills and expertise. Yet, he was attracted again
to writing a new play. Thus he produced the “Dada Salt” in 2003. “Dada Salt
was a response to the irresistible desire to empty my memory from the
recurring thoughts inside me, he says. These thoughts and memories continued
to haunt him for years. The imaginary place that he thought of continued to
pop up in his memory and formed for him the imaginative scene that guided the
detailed path of these revelations. Thus, he published his novel “The Sins”
in 2006. He is neither a confessions writer nor a literary technician. He is obsessed with the
echoes of a silent eloquence that controls him. This eloquence could be one
part of the metaphor implied even in his portraits displayed in Assfun Assiff exhibition, or
more or less the revelations implied in his paintings. He still remembers the
comments made by spectators of his exhibition held in France who dubbed him
as a magician coming from the south. To Saїd Ahbat the margins
of freedom are not known. They actually made him choose his literary
experience. It is always his belief that creativity is governed by a set of
factors existing inside every human. The thoughts sitting deep inside one
constitute the first part of the literary experience. They interact with
other issues related to the external human behaviours. Based on this, he sees
creativity as a reproduction of all these factors and issues while guided at
the same time by the artist’s experiences and thoughts. Ezzedine Maazi,
says it’s pretty difficult to speak about this delicate issue. He always
likes to talk about others: a friend or a loved one. By writing about them,
he really speaks about himself. Al-Ma’izi is a
story-writer who also writes essays and reviews for a number of newspapers,
magazines and websites. He works as a teacher. He is a member of a number
of literary associations, including the Short-story Club and the Writers
Guild of Morocco. Al-Ma’izi has published “The
Journals of a Teacher in the Mountain” in two parts and a collection of
concise short-stories entitled “Love in Grown-Ups’ Ways. He has various
interests in syndicate works, literature and culture in general. Mohamed Tétouani
claims there are certain concepts that are deemed as part of tradition and
thus should be preserved. He is a traditionalist who loves everything
traditional. It is a shame and a humiliation to rebel against norms and
traditions. As far as publishing
experiences is concerned, Ezzedine Maazi says publishing is more like walking on burning
sands. He really loathes publishing because it kills creativity and
traumatises writers. Creative writers become prisoners of fear and
uncertainty. Yet to Esmail
Ghazali, publishing is a sad and agonising
experience. How come that he can forget about the time when he was a
university student and ventured to suspend a full academic year to
concentrate on publishing his first cursed work. It was a difficult time,
where he got hungry sometimes. He had to pay again the fees
in full for the wasted academic year and mourn every penny spent on
cigarettes and other stuffs. It was a really damned work similar to a
resounding cry in the wilderness, the only thing one gets back is a
melancholic rhythm. He wretchedly still recalls
the moment when he and his friend novelist Achuer Abdussi were tricked by the owner of the Sa’adah Offset-printing Press. They were almost burned by
the scorching summer sun when they walked all the way from Zaitun to Hamriyah Quarters to
check how his premier work had been printed. They were shocked when they saw
how bad the layout of the book’s cover were, the low
quality paper and unclean typesetting. It was as if all the misfortunes
came to take their share of his first work. Writers in Morocco fund the
publication of the works from their own pockets as is the case with all of
his colleagues. In fact, he does not expect
anything from the useless cultural establishment neither does he recognise
the people running the cultural show. Instead of helping artists, they are
running after worthless material gains. He adds he will stick to his
anarchism following the Hegelian philosophy, though somehow differently. Concerning Saїd Ahbat, he
perceives artists who have no good personal connections with some
institutions as ignored. Nevertheless, the power of artists lies in their works.To Mohammed Tetwant:, publishing is a calamity. It has never been an easy
thing neither in the Arab countries nor even in Europe. But still there are
some key differences. Unlike in modern Europe,
Artists in the Arab world need to have very good connections and show loyalty
to influential circles to gain their confidence otherwise they will be cursed
writers. This is not any more the
case in Europe. As far as he can recall,
publishing was once marred by the hostility between Catholicism and
Protestantism. This conflict was primarily a by-product of Renaissance.
Despite this the religious circles did not set their own standards as is the
case in the Arab world in the past and present. Censorship is now practiced
to some extent in Europe on the publications deemed inconsistent with the
values of their societies. This unfortunately came after decades of liberal
policies towards publishing. Censorship has yet harmed
the quality of literary production there. Ironically, some publishing houses
were also implicated in printing and distributing works written by some
emigrants who offended their own countries. Being away from his homeland, he
is under no obligation to offer lip-service or appeal to anyone. Similarly,
his relation with some newspapers whether in Morocco or abroad is a matter of
simple contact. He is committed to traditionalism. He always attaches a
thank-you letter to his writings and takes a long breath until they are
published. He believes that writing is
an art still blessed by mercy. In this context, Ahmed Fetnassi considers the trauma of publishing is suffered
by all writers. It is an agonising nightmare that requires a lot of patience.
It is perhaps one of the paradoxes of the complex cultural scene. While his “Dada Salt” novel
was thankfully published with support from an institution, his novel “The
Sins” and many others playconcerts came to light
only after a horrendous journey and sacrifices. Self-reliance and dedication
gave him the stamina to realise his works. To get one’s literary works
published is really a distressing experience. This only confirms that
writers and artists, at least in Morocco, are not given the due care and
respect. Ships and the funniest
remark they made to him, Saïd Ahbat
said some people tend to ask the same questions every now and then. The types of questions made
to him sometimes make him ask himself whether the questions he prompted
through his work on their parts are in their favour. He thinks the authentic
creativity is what really leaves something inside him. Referring to his personal
experience, Ezzedine Maazi said he listened to some people who just liked
to dictate on him to adopt a certain approach.He
followed their advice unwillingly and became as a blind who is led by a
blind. So,he wrote the
“Protest of the Blind” tale to appeal to them to break ranks with him and
give him a break from their dictations. To Esmail
Ghazali, the rudest experience he has ever had was
when a muscled guy was hired by some one to assault
him after his first work was published. It was a silly instigator who was
driven by a silly motive. He was actually enraged because he exposed his
personality through one of the characters of his damned novel. He waited for
him together with two idiots in an alleyway. It was a horrific, unfair battle
where batons and knives were used. But, he managed to leave the scene thanks to
his parent’s prayers. He also feels proud of one experience.It
was about a man imprisoned at Akhanfir Jail. He
used to read his book in his dark prison’s cell. He has no idea how it
reached him. Once he was released the first thing he did was to look for him. By chance, a friend brought
him over to meet him at one public street. He hugged him passionately and
read to him a chapter from his book which he memorised by heart. He told him
he read it more than ten times and that it was his only solace during his
imprisonment. He also feels proud of
another experience that happened to him in a public park. A person strongly
held his shirt and dragged him cruelly. He seemed as if he wanted to give him
a blow and said: you bad guy, I read it more than once and felt as if I wrote
it myself. The guy was talking about
his last novel “Ratanat Dik
Khalas.” One more unforgettable and funny encounter
was by a woman who practices the oldest business in human history. He still remembers how she
received the news of releasing his collection “Dances in the Wilderness”,
given to her by a friend. She ran in the street shouting and rejoicing like
an insane. While he was shopping in a
fish market, said Ahmed Fetnassi, one seller
approached him and told him he heard through Tangiers Radio that his “Dada
Salt” tales had been released.” He added that due to his financial conditions
he was unable to buy the book. He smiled and returned the
second day and gave him a copy of it. He hugged him tightly to express his
appreciation. It happened that the two met again and discovered that he know
the small details of almost all places. By the end of their meeting, he asked
him to write about the forgotten people. He did not forget the echoes
of his word inside him. Following the publication of his novel “The Sins”, he
asked to see him along with a friend of him. Mohamed Tétouani
says: “I started writing at a very early stage of my life. I only started
thinking of publishing my works by the turn of 1970s. My first work was
published in the popular London-based Arabic language Al Arab newspaper. I
have been a regular reader of its culture page. At the beginning, most of my
readers were Arabs since I lived for a period of time in the Netherlands and
I had to visit Arab countries from time to time. I met readers whose pains
and worries were similar to mine. Since I belong to a generation who lived in
a time marred by a spate of setbacks – starting with the 1967 setback [the
defeat of Arabs by Israel] until this very day – most of the readers were
asking us to echo the despair of our societies and not to be far from their
concerns. One interesting experience that I came across happened to me when I
was invited to a story-telling event organised in the city of Araich, north of Morocco. There was a good presence of
members of the public and prominent writers from Ariahc
and other Moroccan cities. In brief, five or six writers got up to the
auditorium to read out their works. All at a sudden, a new person turned up
at the auditorium. It was a French poet, who was not invited, as I believe. She recited her poems in
French. The audience gave her a warm round of applause. I asked the person
sitting next to me why was all that excitement and applause? He
replied: ‘the audience did not express admiration for the Moroccan
writers and poets because they knew clearly what they were saying. However,
the unintelligible shouting of this blonde beat inside their ears since the
majority knew no French. That was why this blonde got all that applause.” Mohamed Tétouani
conceives of readers as bees, they pick up the nectar as they want and from
wherever they want. It is wrong to make assumptions of supposed readers.
There are readers who prefer to read headlines, others like skim reading,
while some others read for particular authors. Nonetheless, this has been
the case for now and ordinary readers have been sidelined
and left trying to discover. In fact, Tetwani is
not attempting to do away with assumptions. This had been practiced
widely in the 1960s and 1970s. They were then very much interested in
borrowing books even though they were in short supply. It is no longer
possible to control the notion of assumption in the time being due to the
high number of innovations, specialities and demands. The only thing that can
supply all these is the department store. As he was asked about the
readers’ reception of his books, Ezzedine Maazi said if the answer is found then writers should
have made up their minds along time ago about the
curse of writing and its misery. To Saїd Ahbat, writing
hasn’t brought many things one dreamed of, it gives one in the meanwhile the
love of the people and a lot of friends. This is really what’s good about it.Yet, Esmail Ghazali considers the resolve to continue committing [the
sin] of writing is akin to the resolve to continue committing [the sin] of
wanting to live. He couldn’t imagine himself living a worthy and meaningful
life without committing these sins. Writing remains to him an incurable,
ecstatic, intriguing and hopeless business. Writing is the only possible
way for challenging the principle of cruel death. As for the Arab societies,
which are controlled by outcast regimes, they have continually proved that
they are awfully inclined to believing lies and illusions. In this context, Majdoub Mohammed al-Maghout
says: I wished if countries can be changed like prostitutes in a brothel. Ahmed Fetnassi,
on his part is not that pessimistic. He believes that they still have a broad
and promising space within the gap between writing and reading. For this
reason, he was interested in that issue. If one was with him and saw
children extending their hand to snatch their coloured stories books, one
would only then hold higher hopes as he does. With regard to writing,
Mohamed Tétouani perceives it a craze and could
probably be an angel that can’t be repulsed. Though writing is like “a
Tsunami tide”, it had faced a dark uncertainty following the 1967 catastrophe. There were many camps and
blocs that affected all writers. The situation became very cloudy and
uncertain. It gives the opportunity for the detractors to take on one. These
were just very few problems that he wanted to highlight. It was a difficult
situation that made societies worn-out in all fields and not only in
politics, science and technology. It is a total loss that is a little bit
similar to the fall of Andalusia. But, he wants to stress with
all optimism that their ships were not burned and they will not bow and throw
ourselves for the devil. That was in the bygone days
and they are in a totally different time. Writers will get back to their
minds and readers will take interest in writing. As far as the issue of
literary writing in a globalised world is concerned, Ezzedine
Maazi thinks
that writing is a weapon for resisting all forms of domesticating and taming. It’s a veto against the
unwarranted death. Esmail Ghazali,
a careless person maintains that globalisation is only deepening the rift and
differences among nations of earth. It is apparently abusing humanity for the
sake of commodities and economies. The importance of literature
has always been a human and a global value. The essence of writing is its
urgency, value and meaning which will stay on as long as humans are on earth.Assuming that writing is a medium for expressing an
identity, Ahmed Fetnassi considers that creative
writing should inhale the dust of earth where it was inscribed. Living in a
world that’s replete with contradictions should not make one forget the duty
to defend one’s identity by writing its details and elements. Explaining further, Mohamed Tétouani asserts globalisation is up for those who want
it. If almost 80 percent of the people in the West veto the storm of
globalisation, Muslims, should stand by this anti-globalisation movement.
Globalisation only does good for a little minority
while harms the majority of people. Writing is a train that will
keep going against the will of it. Creativity will go on unchecked despite
all the hardships and uncertainty. To Saїd Ahbat, new
communication technologies have some negative aspects. Undoubtedly,
communication technologies can be employed for serving and promoting
literature and art. Concerning issues pertinent
to literary creativity, theoretical background, creative passage and future
projects, Mohamed Tétouani said creativity is
preceded by beauty – words only become complete when they draw a picture. Creativity is the spirit of
any literary writing as long as it interacts with a number of inspirations
and signals by employing the language. The beauty of any passage is
decided by the readers not the writers. Yet, Ahmed Fetnassi
does not have a definite answer for that. He absolutely cannot say that he
has a cultural or a creative project. The issue is to be decided by the
public and critics. What is he sure about is the cultural backgrounds. He is extremely keen to have
a multicultural identity – namely the Amazigh, African and Arab identities.
Without these identities, he cannot decide on the way how to write. Being a writer, says Esmail Ghazali means that he is
a project. He does not believe in spontaneity when it comes to the art. A
creative piece of literature can not be prompted by
the spur-of-the-moment. He is one of those who claim to have a project of
beauty based on a conscious vision and an artistic common sense. In this
context, Ezzedine Maazi
claims literary writing is the soul of the writer who works on a creative
project that embraces a unique sense for beauty. It gives one a unique and an
autonomous identity that is easily recognisable by the readership. On his part, Saїd Ahbat advocates
the idea that writers should be open to embrace all kinds of ideas instead of
eyeing things through one perspective. That is why he tries all
literary genres, but always finds himself in story-writing. This is probably
because he thinks stories are the most appropriate way for contemplating on
the world. As far as culture and
authorities, creativity and censorship, liberal thinking and redlines are
concerned, Ahmed Fetnassi considers writing and
creativity have no limits, though he does respect traditions and beliefs. Endorsing the same
principle, Ezzedine Maazi
always takes into consideration these concepts. He ignores them while feeling
uncomfortable. The more he feels
comfortable the more he becomes worried. To Saїd Ahbat, artists
and writers should only be accounted for their works and creativity. Their personal attitudes and
political affiliations should not be involved.Concluding
the discussion, Esmail Ghazali
argued that writing should not be influenced by whatever authorities, which made him always, take the risk of writing things
overlooking redlines. Authentic writings are wild, daring and bothering. Mohamed Saїd Raїhani Contents THE PROMETHEAN PASSION FOR
IMPROVING THE RACE (A STUDY OF THE PROBLEM OF EQUALITY
IN SHAW'S MASTER-PIECE, "PYGMALION" ) (FIVE MOROCCAN SHORT-STORY
WRITERS REVEALING THEIR FIRST STEPS TOWARDS LITERATURE) THE POWER OF DREAM IN MODERN MOROCCAN SHORT STORY |
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RIGHTS RESERVED
e-mail: mohamed_said_raihani@yahoo.com
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