by Kateb Yacine

Kateb Yacine was born in 1929 in the eastern Algerian city of Constantine. Kateb, his family name, means “writer” in Arabic, indicating that he was part of the literary branch of his clan. His father chose to have him educated at a French lycée (roughly the equivalent of a high school) in Constantine, rather than sending him to a Koranic school. Kateb would later call this being “cast into the jaws of the wolf ” (Arnaud, p. 114; trans. R. Serrano). On May 8, 1945 (V-E Day, marking the end of World War II in Europe), Kateb participated in demonstrations in the city of Sétif against French colonial rule, resulting in brief imprisonment and interrogation. In 1950 he moved to France, though his active support of the Algerian Revolution forced him to leave in 1955, shortly after Nedjma was accepted by a major French publishing house. He lived in Tunisia...