In the course of the last century a number of Arab authors writing in languages other than Arabic have appeared on the European scene and it is possible to name several individuals who have published in English and German, and in particular, in French.
Today a fourth language can be added to this group. A number of authors of Arab origin, whose families settled in Belgium and Holland in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, are now writing in Dutch. Having grown up in Europe and received their education in European schools, and having assimilated the character of Europe and adopted its languages, these writers, who in recent years have shone on the literary scene in Belgium and Holland, consider themselves unequivocally European. Indeed, many of them do not speak Arabic at all. They have, however, brought the Dutch literary establishment to a turning point, perhaps for the first time in the history of the culture and language; a rediscovery of the Dutch language through literary works possessed of a special magic and beauty.
These Arab writers have revealed to native Dutch speakers the poetry of their language, which has often been accused of lacking the eloquence and rhythm of other European languages such as English, French, Spanish and Italian. Scores of critics in Belgium and Holland have drawn attention to the significance of the literary contribution these young men have brought to the Dutch language. The situation calls to mind the statement, frequently repeated on the front pages of French newspapers in the mid-1990s, that "French literature would be dying were it not for two things: François Mitterand and Amin Maalouf!"
The young Dutch-Moroccan writer Hafid Bouazza (born 1970) is today's 'Amin Maalouf' of the Dutch language. This March he was awarded the 2004 Golden Owl Prize, Belgium's most important literary prize for Dutch writing (worth € 25,000), for his novel Paravion, published last year in Amsterdam by Prometheus. Alongside Bouazza, a number of writers of Arab origin have emerged in contemporary Dutch literature and have been nominated for high-ranking literary prizes awarded in Holland and Belgium, including Abdelkader Benali, Mustafa Stitou, Naima El Bazaz, Muhammad Ben Zakour, Yusuf El Halal, Fouad Laroui, and Ahmad El Sadiqi.
Hafid Bouazza was born to Moroccan parents in a small village on the Moroccan-Algerian border. Since 1996 he has produced a number of romantic works that have propelled him to the forefront of the literary scene in Holland, most notably De voeten van Abdullah [The Feet of Abdullah] (1996), Momo (1998), Salomon (2002) and Apolien (1998). Following his most recent prize, critics have drawn attention to Bouazza's mastery of the tools of his art and his stunning use of the Dutch language. He has managed to blend features of both Arab and Dutch cultures to create a new kind of Dutch novel.
In Paravion, the author portrays the emigration of his family from Morocco to Holland when he was a boy of just seven. The thoughtfully presented journey, which he makes with his mother and six brothers, is part of the imaginary world created in the novel. Bouazza uses a North African village, whose entire population leave for an unnamed foreign country with the exception of a child called Baba Balouk, and the character of this child and insight into his magical fictional world, as a kind of snare, or means of drawing the audience into the novel's real interest; the boy is merely a vehicle through which to communicate the story of three generations: father, son and grandfather. Indeed this is expressed in the name 'Baba Balouk' itself. It soon becomes clear that it is in fact the author's own life-story that we are reading, especially in view of the fact that the current Arab contingent in Holland spans three generations, of which Bouazza and his Arab literary colleagues represent the second.
Paravion thus tells the story of Arab emigration in Holland from the first settlers, through the second generation, to the total fusion and immersion of the third generation into Dutch society, the only society known to the latter. The author draws on magical realism and fantasy in this novel, whose titel is born out of a misunderstanding whereby the inhabitants of the Arab village in which the narrative is set, and which the author locates only vaguely in North Africa, think the word "Paravion", derived from the French for 'Air Mail' on the envelopes of letters sent by the emigrants, is the name of the country the emigrants have settled in. The mistake is never discovered and with this misconception as a starting point Bouazza proceeds to weave into the world of the novel techniques of magical realism that remind us of the miraculous stories of A thousand and One Nights. Thus the village men travel to Paravion – for us Amsterdam – on a magic flying carpet, the only way the primitive minds of the villagers are able to conceptualise travel from one place to another.
Bouazza brings features of both Arab and Dutch cultures into his most recent novel and thus a sense of fundamental cultural fusion is at the very core of this controversial work. He also incorporates aspects of Ancient Greek mythology and historical references highlighting the change that has taken place in modern Moroccan society over the past 30 years.
Bouazza wants to create a special and unique character for his protagonists and in several parts of the novel he has his characters using archaic Dutch terms and expressions that trace back to the Middle Ages and that establish an unprecedented relationship between the ancient and the old and the new in contemporary Dutch literature. This is coupled with the elements of traditional Arab culture which he borrows and sensitively and intricately weaves into the social fabric of modern Europe.
At this point we should note that Bouazza has in the past translated a number of ancient Arab poems into Dutch, including a collection of lighthearted Arabic poems, published in 2002 under the title Poems from Classic Arabic Erotica. He is currently preparing a new series, to be published annually, on translated classical Arabic poetry which will begin next year with a collection of Ibn al-Mu'tazz and will be followed with other collections and books including the maqamat of Badi' al-Din al-Hamadhani, al-Mutanabbi, and Abu Nuwas, the Epistle of Pardon [Risalat al-Ghufran] of Abu 'Ala al-Ma'arri and works of Imru' al-Qays, Zuhair bin Abi Salma and others.
Translated by "Christina Phillips"
Published in “BANIPAL” magazine
No 20 Summer 2004
