It was to be a gathering of writers who would tear Boualem Sansal from historic litigation, from diplomatic energy relations. “This is not a political evening, we’re going to talk about literature!” »»proclaimed the journalist François Busnel, Tuesday, February 18, on the Institute of the Arab World (IMA), on the opening of the assembly organized by the IMA and the Gallimard editions, in help of the Franco-Algerian novelist imprisoned in Algiers, since November 16, 2024, for “Breakdown in the integrity of the national territory”.
Now it was not. A author locked up for his phrases, it is a scenario that intently touches politics. From the outset, it has subsequently imposed itself on French-speaking authors and authors (Patrick Modiano, Nathalie Azoulay, Amélie Nothomb, Hervé Le Tellier, Christine Jordis, Camille Laurens, Laurent Gaudé …) and foreigners (Jonathan Coe, Arundhati Roy , Roberto Saviano, Jon Kalman Stefansson…) who wished to be current in a approach or a Another, on stage and at a distance, by means of texts or drawings (Joann Sfar, Xavier Gorce).
All of them had this straightforward information in thoughts: if Boualem Sansal is in jail, it’s {that a} energy determined so. Denouncing the more and more dictatorial character of mentioned energy, a number of stakeholders didn’t hesitate to problem it straight. Some, like the author Erik Orsenna or the president of the IMA, Jack Lang, spoke of Algeria with a passionate spite – their speech was a protest of affection. Both recalling {that a} technology of French was born to politics, and to the best of freedom, by supporting the struggle for the independence of this nation, they regretted that such a super is now threatened.
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https://www.lemonde.fr/afrique/article/2025/02/19/des-ecrivains-reunis-en-soutien-a-boualem-sansal-a-l-institut-du-monde-arabe-nous-sommes-la-pour-toi-sans-l-ombre-d-un-mais_6553357_3212.html