Memmi was also of North African descent, unlike Fanon who was born in the Caribbean island of Martinique, then as now part of France. At the same time Memmi retained a certain distance from the independence movements, and he sometimes expressed misgivings about growing nationalism in the Maghreb. Of the coloniser, Memmi writes that for him a colony was “a place where one earns more and spends less… Jobs are guaranteed, wages high, careers more rapid and business more profitable” than it was at home. In later years, Memmi turned to other instances of oppression, including of his own community of North African Jews. *A version of this article appears in print in the 20 August, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram WeeklyShort link:

Source: The North Africa Journal August 22, 2020 09:10 UTC