- Muḥammad Bābā Walid Ashfagh (?, Mauritania) – Wādī al-Naʿām (‘Ostrich Valley’, 2007). This novel is set in 2030 and predicts the future of Mauritania. It’s story takes place in Wādī al-Naʿām, a remote, desolate village in the countryside, where Chinese relocating the inhabitants to take advantage of its resources and Americans looking for a place to bury their toxic waste (reference). As local tribesmen try to deal with the foreign invaders, Aḥmad Walid, descendent of the poorest of tribes, climes to wealth by taking advantage of everyone and everything, until Mauritania is threated by a flood (also in S: Speculative Fiction: Dystopia).
- Rachid Mimouni (1945 – 1995, Algeria) – L’Honneur de la tribu (1989, English trans. The Honor of the Tribe, 2008). Narrated by an old man, this novel uses fables and legends to shed light on life in Algeria in an era of colonization and modernisation (reference). It tells the story of Omar El Mabrouk, a child who was believed to have died during the liberation struggle, but who appears as a provincial prefect in the minuscule village of Zitouna, where he implements a ‘modernization’ plan that includes ripping out the town’s eucalyptus trees to make way for soulless buildings. The novel reflects on the invasion of technology into the world of the tribe space, and its subsequent break-up (reference) (also in S: Social Issues and Societal Change: Modernity: Globalization and Consumerism).
- Nawāl al-Saʿadāwī (1931 – 2021, Egypt) – al-Ḥubb fī Zaman al-Nafṭ (1995, English trans. Love in the Kingdom of Oil, 2001, 2019). In this satirical and surreal novel, an unnamed woman archeologist, protagonist of the novel, vanishes from her hometown. Her attempt to disappear is an act of total disobedience of the reigning patriarchy that she tries to run away from but keeps being confronted with (reference). Women’s rights and the position of women, in this novel, are linked to the growing environmental concerns surrounding oil, as both oil and women are subject to a patriarchal system and male control (reference) (also in S: Social Issues and Societal Change: Patriarchism).
- Mustapha Tlili (1937 – 2017, Tunisia) – Le montagne du lion (1988, English trans. Lion Mountain, 1997). This novel is set during the French colonisation of Tunisia up until Bourguiba’s rule, and centres the struggles of a young widow, Horia El-Gharib, who lives in the rural area of Tunisia with her two sons. To survive, Horia takes on a conventionally man’s role in commerce and trade. When the authorities decide to make her village and the sacred ‘Loin Mountain’ that surrounds it a touristic destination, Horia heavily protests the strong influx of tourists together with her servant, the Nubian Saad (reference) (also in F: Children and Family Life: Marriage: Unmarried persons, widows, and widowers).
Refrences:
In order of appearance
- Muḥammad Bābā Walid Ḥāmid. “Riwāʾī ‘Wadī al-Nʿām’ Yaghriq Mawrītāniyyā kay Tataṭhar min Adrānhā.” www.maghress.com, 10 January 2008 https://www.maghress.com/almassae/5556 (last accessed 27 October 2021)
- EAL, p. 252
- Bernard Aresu and Jeffrey S. Ankrom. 1999. “Narrating the Tribe: Rachid Mimouni and Dystopia.” Research in African Literatures 30(3): 135-150, p. 139
- Layla Hendow. 2017. “Oil and Women: Invisibility as Power in Nawal El-Saadawi’s ‘Love in the Kingdom of Oil’”, in Seen and Unseen: Visual Cultures of Imperialism, eds. Sanaz Fotouhi and Esmaeil Zeiny, Brill: Leiden and Boston 79-97, p. 80, 81
- Jean Déjeux. 1988. “Mustapha Tlili, ‘La Montagne du lion’, 1988.” Hommes & Migration 1116: p. 43