At the same time Memmi retained a certain distance from the independence movements, and he sometimes expressed misgivings about growing nationalism in the Maghreb. “It was the first time that someone from Tunis, least of all a Jew, had had something published in Paris. 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 1962, he published another portrait, this time the Portrait d’un Juif, which employed similar sociological-psychological methods but was also more autobiographical. *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 18, 2020 15:35 UTC