Mouloud Mammeri was born on December 28th, 1917 in Taourirt Mimoun (Kabylia). He was a humanist and a famous man of culture. He discovered “anthropology” as he once put it himself, in the later days of his life. And consequently, he patiently started collecting the knowledge of his ancestors, the Berbers.

As a mountain dweller proud of his descent, but also as an aristocrat worried about beauty and precision, he put himself at the service of his culture. Against winds and tides and overcoming the obstacles of human stupidity, he used to be a loving defender of his thousand-year olf culture which is essentially oral on the one hand, and inequitably marginalized on the other hand.

And so he muted into an anthropologist, a linguist and eventually a true cultural activist. In this way, he investigated, collected, analyzed, and published a series of literary works about the Berbers describing their language and society, in French. He also worked and wrote in his mother tongue (Tamazight). “L’Ahellil du Gourara” was written in French but “Yennayas Cheikh Mohand” was one of the first books published in Tamazight.

His first novel “La colline oubliée” (The forgotten hill) was published in 1952. Then followed “Le sommeil du juste” (The righteous’ slumber) in 1955, “L’opium et le bâton” (The opium and the stick) in 1965 and finally “La traversée” (The crossing) in 1982. Mouloud Mammeri also wrote plays “Le banquet” (The banquet) preceded by “La mort absurde des aztéques” (The absurd death of Aztecs) in 1973, “Le foen” or “La preuve par neuf” (The proof by nine) in 1982 and “La cité du soleil” ( The town of the sun) in 1987. He published also two collections of poems, “Les isefra de Si-Mohand” (Si Mohand’s poetry) in 1969 and “Poèmes kabyles anciens” (Old Kabyle poems) in 1980 and two collections of Berber tales of Kabylia “Machaho“and”Telem Chaho” in 1980.

Besides his early contribution to the promotion of the Berber language (publication of “Handbook of Berber grammar”, of “Tajerrumt n’Tmazight” and of “Yennayas Cheikh Mohand”), it is under direction that would be published both highly regarder journals “Lybica” and “Awal” as well as the lexicon “Amawal”. What a lot of people do not know, it is that Mouloud Mammeri, under his pen name “Si Bouakaz”, was a contributor to the text read by M’Hamed Yazid to the assembly of the UN for the independence of Algeria.

He left us tragically in that night from 25th to 26th February 1989 at the steering wheel of his Peugeot 205, while coming back from Morocco where he had given a conference. But, before leaving, he said to us : “Whatever the point is of the journey where the term will reach me, I shall leave with the pegged certainty that, whatever are the obstacles history will bring him, it is in the direction of its liberation that my people (and through him the others) will go. The ignorance, the prejudices, the lack of education can hinder this free movement, but it is sure that the day inevitably will come when one will distinguish the truth of its forgeries-appearances. All the rest is literature”.

By Kamel Souami

Mouloud Mammeri

Mouloud Mammeri was born on the 28th of December 1917 in Kabylia. A patriot who struggled for the independence of Algeria from French Colonization, he also studied in Morocco and in France before becoming director of the Centre de recherche anthropologiques in Algiers.

But Mammeri is probably best known as a staunch advocate for cultural pluralism in Algeria and for the struggle for the recognition of the Amazigh culture and language throughout North Africa. In 1980 his lecture on ancient Amazigh poetry from Kabylie was canceled by the authorities. This act of cultural repression triggered massive demonstrations all over Algeria. Among the people in the front ranks of the demonstrations were Kabylie artists and intellectuals. The date in which the demonstrations started is still celebrated as Tafsut Imazighen “The Amazigh Spring” by Amazigh cultural movements all over North Africa. Mammeri was a founder of a review, Awal , dedicated to research into Amazigh culture, language and history. His novels include La Colline Oublié (1952), Le Sommeil du juste (1955) and l’Opium et le Baton (1965). He also collected the poems and stories of his native region in Contes Berberes de Kabylie and Poëmes kabyles anciens (1980).

by Mouloud Mammeri:

- 1. Lexique français-touareg, dialecte de l’Ahaggar, 1967, Alger, IRS-CRAPE, 511 p. (en collaboration avec J.-M. Cortade)
- 2. Les Isefra, Poèmes de Si Mohand ou Mhand, Paris, Maspero, 1969 (réédit. 1982), 480 p.
- 3. Tajerrumt n tmaziàt (tantala taqbaylit), Paris, Maspero, 1976, 118p.
- 4. Poèmes kabyles anciens, Paris, Maspero, 1980 (réédit. 1987), 470 p.
- 5. L’ahellil du Gourara, Paris, MSH, 1985, 446 p.
- 6. Précis de grammaire berbère (kabyle), Paris, MSH (Awai), 1986, 136 p. (première édition ronéotypée : Université d’Alger, 1967, 164 p.)
- 7. Cheikh Mohand a dit. Yenna-yas Ccix Muhend, Alger, CERAM, 1989, 208 p.