Machaho Tellem Chaho

I was intending on briefly presenting the two volume comics Waratha (the Heirs) but I've changed my mind.  Instead, it is the preface that caught my attention. Waratha was published in 2012, the year commemorating Algeria's 50 years of independence, and this subject matter is the focus of this collective album.  There are five works per volume. Etienne Schreder prefaces that there is a majority of women cartoonists in this new group and asks: "Is it a sign of our times or a sign that women's interest lies more in stories that draw on roots and origins ?   It is true to say that the commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of Algeria's independence woke up in them stories anchored in their family memory, or in their own experience. Men, true to themselves, trusted more in their imagination ."  [my bold] According to Schreder, himself a cartoonist, women cartoonists are anchored in the womb, while men, unbridled, less womby , give fuller flow to t...

FIBDA opened on Tuesday afternoon, and Wednesday 9 October was its first full day.  I'm so glad I was able to make it as I walk away from it with exactly what I was looking for, Algerian comics in Derja among which Algerian Love , and a better idea of where Algerian mangas and the Algerian language in writing are heading. The below are works that caught my attention and made it in print and on FIBDA's stands. There was an overwhelming amount of French language comics, a minority of modern standard Arabic, and a few but solid comics in Algerian Derja ( ok, I've only seen one, with another not yet published in full but whose plates were exhibited, yet there could have been 10 more I didn't spot, right ).  There is at least one other Algerian Derja comic book in the mix, to be published by next year, written by Nawel Louerrad  (who also writes in Arabic). She was present to sign and promote her French album . Z-Link editions promotes Algerian m...

I’ve been party to several Twitter and email exchanges around the French author Camus (yes, French) in relation to Algeria over the last week or so. This speedily composed but typical sentence suffers from at least three identity problems. One of the main questions in the French media is: Camus is a controversial figure in Algeria. Wait, that’s not a question mais on s’en fiche, French media agencies don’t ask questions, they’ve already got the answers t’as compris. France is apparently celebrating the man’s centenary, while Algeria has just celebrated 50 years of its independence, who is mocking who. It goes without saying that by ‘France is celebrating’ we are talking about a small wannabe elitist group (elitist is like punk in France, it’s been long dead), unrepresentative of discussions around the table in flat-screen-TV obsessed homes, ZEP schools, monolingual universities, and unemployment agencies around the country. But should Camus be dropped in the onion soup, it would not...