From childhood, I have been fascinated by other cultures. It all started with the National Geographic magazines my father collected with passion and conviction. I would stow myself away in his office, full of books to submerge myself in exotic and faraway lands. At first, it was through the magnificent photographs of the magazines, and later by reading what I could of the words in English to try to dream and understand the articles that introduced me to the world of the geisha, the Tuareg, the Masai, the Inuit, the Amazon tribes of Brazil, marriage in India, China, Mongolia. Before turning 12, I was already obsessed with travel and books. As a young adolescent of 13 -14, I devoured books ; Alain Fournier, Alphonse Daudet, Arthur Rimbaud, Ernest Hemingway, and a few years later I discovered Rabindranath Tagore, Kahlil Gibran, Heinrich Boll, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Albert Camus. This passion for books as an open window into unknown worlds has stayed with me, with the exploration as a university student in my studies of Spanish and Latin American literature of the works of Federico Garcia Lorca, Pablo Neruda, Gabriel Garcia Marquez and after my studies the books of William Faulkner, Toni Morrison, Kateb Yacine, followed by the fortuitous discovery of the books of Amin Zaoui and Kamel Daoud.
It is for this reason that the books and chronicles of Kamel Daoud inspire me, the passion and conviction of the famous journalist and novelist when it comes to the importance of sharing culture freely, to save the world and its future generations of the misery of fanaticism and racism that are threatening to engulf the entire planet like a plague. His marvelous article the author shared today, November 17th, " All books are sacred : an unedited text by Kamel Daoud " is generous, enthusiastic, energetic and profoundly optimistic and concrete. The writer explains in very clear terms the obsessions of the world, those of the Western world, in which I grew up, and those of the so called " Arab " world he grew up in. Kamel Daoud explains with great eloquence and precision, by means of the Robinson and Friday myth, the dangers in which the world of the XXI st century finds itself if that world persists on the negation of the other, and how the only way to bridge the abyss between me and that other is through dialogue. Literature allows dialogue if that other is on a different continent, because books allow entry to the entire planet, to all the literature, to all the languages, even those one does not know, through he marvel of translation. Literature brings us closer to one another, makes us understand that the narratives, or narrative with which we grew up is only one of hundreds of possible narratives. The world ceases to be a closed universe once the key of literature and culture opens up our perspective. This article of Kamel Daoud has a heartbeat full of joy, hope, and is filled with the urgency and confidence that knows that truth is a mighty river, swollen with many rivulets that all lead to the center of the human heart, if that heart is open and well informed, if that heart receives the nourishment of books of all cultures, that with each page narrow the distance between me and that other I learn about each time I turn a page, and in this regard I will allow myself to share these words by the author, from the article :
" Literature helps to transform identity into solidarity and makes humans aware of their distressing condition. In literature we are equal and common, singular and distinct, and we all take turns being the center of the world, its moving navel. It is this dialogue through books and art that we have to pursue. "
When I was a child, how many times the adults of the neighbourhood, of the family told me " but why are you always interested in other worlds, other cultures and other languages? Don't you see that these worlds are too different, that you will never understand them ?" I did not believe that then, and I do not believe it now. As Kamel Daoud explains so well, it is when we reject that other, their culture, their version of the world, that we invite the wretched consequence that that other will in turn do everything in their power to deny me my culture, sooner or later. Two world wars and 90 million dead people prove its tragic truth. The world is already very polarized today, with a troubling resurgence of religious fanaticism, cultural and even linguistic racism. The journalist and novelist explains very clearly how the convictions and obsessions of one book, like the Bible or the Koran, can scorch the earth with hatred and its dangerous predilection of exclusion with in its monstrous extremes genocide, but books, as open windows to the world, as connections between cultures and perspectives of the world, can save us from ourselves and our worst inclinations when we forget that that other with their exotic language, their golden skin, and their slightly hesitant smile are just a fascinating person we have not gotten to know yet.
Another fascinating perspective on the part of the writer is that now that the western world is finally making approaches to admit their guilt in the horrors of colonization, it is time for the so called " Arab " countries to find the courage to take responsibility for their future in the post - colonial reality. A heartbreaking example is the dreadful treatment immigrants of the Maghreb suffer in Europe, and the tragic treatment of sub - Saharan immigrants endure in the countries of the Maghreb. No one can claim exemption of complicity in that tragedy.
Kamel Daoud shows a resolute courage in this article, and a concrete vision to begin to combat ignorance, indifference to suffering, and fanaticism, one book at a time. I am reading at the moment his essay " Le peintre devorant la femme " , on the need of eroticism that dominates the work of Pablo Picasso. Kamel Daoud succeeds in an honest and fascinating conversation, which the author approaches with sincerity and enthusiasm, and to which he also adds his perspective, as he himself puts it, as a man from the Southern Hemisphere, which adds an element of profound relevance to this conversation on art and eroticism and their mutual need. Kamel Daoud is fascinated by life and all its contradictions, mysteries, obsessions, and art, in this case the modern paintings of Picasso, who like literature is a way to understand, to integrate, not reject. When we read, we learn, we open our heart and mind, and that is the ultimate joy and freedom, and the most beautiful way to celebrate our so diverse community of cultures and its expressions, of numerous and complex petals, like those found on a lotus flower. Why limit ourselves, close the world and its being, and insist that there is only one petal to see and to discover? Why insist that there is only one petal, and destroy all the other petals of the lotus? Why invite death to the world, to humanity, instead of celebrating its magnificent and rich diversity?
Trudi Ralston
The article of Kamel Daoud of November 17, " Tous les livres sont sacres : un texte inedit de Kamel Daoud " can be found on Middle East Eye, www.middleeasteye.net, and it is a text that was read by the author on the occasions of a conference given at the Vidy Theatre in Lausanne on November 12, 2018.
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