Abdullah Al-Manshouri: I grew up in the Amazigh language and she taught me how to weave the letters of anger and joy into it
The poet and storyteller Abdullah Al-Manshouri was born in Tammasint, part of the Imrabatn community - Al Hoceima Province. He studied primary school in his hometown and secondary school in Imzouren High School, after which he was forced to move to the city of Bougaz, Tangier, where he captured him and adopted him to become one of its residents for a period of thirty-six years. His works include it.
Al-Manshuri, haunted by the expressive word, tells us in this dialogue about the beginnings of his literary career, the challenges that it has encountered, and about the future of Amazigh literature. He asserts that “far from pessimism and melancholy, the future of Amazigh writing is ambiguous and does not bode well,” and about his motivation to write in the Amazigh language, he adds, “With it, the difficult letters were breastfed.” I can speak and I no longer stutter.”
I grew up in the Amazigh language and she taught me how to weave the letters of anger and joy into it
?Welcome to the pages of the newspaper “The Amazigh World” as part of its monthly dialogues. First, how do you bring readers closer to Abdullah Al-Manshuri
Abdullah Al-Manshuri is a native of the dear countryside. And exactly from Tamasint, the fatherland, which is still struggling with time despite all its long-standing setbacks.
He studied primary school in this town, then moved to the city of Imzouren to continue weaving his letters in secondary school, but he would be expelled from the baccalaureate level during the events of the 1980s.
In the second month of 1987, Al-Manshuri will leave the countryside and settle in the city of Tangier, although he dreamed of crossing to the other side, but his family was captured by the city of Bahrain and adopted him to become one of its residents for a period of thirty-six years.
?Every writer has beginnings on the path of literature. What is the story of your involvement in writing? When and where was your first literary experience
An important question, and very important for everyone who inhabits it and is inhabited by the expressive word, as it is closely related to the experience that emerged as the first spark for any creative person who was able to make his way into the world of writing.
Regarding my experience, and the story of my involvement in this thorny and unlimited experience, it was never my choice, but rather writing chose me and made me enter its world extending towards infinity. This is related to purely family circumstances, following a disagreement with my family one summer vacation when I was pursuing my studies at Imzouren High School and I left home.
The following year, I returned to school without the help of my family, and I had to fend for myself. In fact, I wrote an application to the internal department to guard the students, and I got this small job that spared me the need for food and lodging.
In a room on the first floor of the interior department, I created the first poem in my rural language, entitled: “Thubert Thashmrach” (The White Dove). This title is a symbol of the mother, may God have mercy on her. This was in the early eighties of the last century. This poem tells about my suffering and my longing for my family, especially my mother.
?Your experience in writing is diverse, from poetry to stories to novels. Where do you find your search among all these literary genres? And why
From the beginning, poetry, this beautiful artistic genre, was for me a writing project, which I considered from the first glance to be an inexhaustible spring. Especially since the Amazigh scene needed not only someone to defend it politically, but we had to pay attention to the literary field and cultivate its seed, which is perhaps the first pillar for achieving identity.
I confirm once again that my interest in literature was legitimate, and not to write a poem or a collection of poems and disappear as some people do. That is why I researched and explored this field, delved into the folds of literary genres, and read many poetic texts, novel texts, as well as short and very short story collections, and also theatrical texts by various international playwrights, Johann Goethe, and Shakespeare, to name but a few.
After this exposure to various literary texts, I was convinced that this was not enough, so I broke into the field of criticism, without which these fine arts might not be possible. Rather, I tried to break into comparative literature, scoop up culture, and get to know the largest possible number of intellectuals from the East and West.
As for the last part of the question, where do I find my pleasure in writing? I may be wary of the word “erroneous,” and prefer to replace it and call it “pleasure.” At the beginning of my writing career, I used to find my pleasure in writing poetry, and after I became acquainted with the genre of fiction and short stories, I began to side with To narration, as it may entice more reading and attract a wide audience of readers, despite the world’s bias toward images, especially with the massive spread of various types of social media.
?It is said that criticism aims to illuminate creative work. What share does your creative writing receive from criticism
I may agree with you on this matter. If any creativity has not been subjected to critical reading, it is still considered raw material, and we may not put it in the category of creativity, as much as we place it between two crescents and classify it aside until it is its turn to sift it and purify it from the impurities that may taint it and make it far away. A far cry from true creativity.
As for my writings, as I previously mentioned, they are still raw material that has not yet been subjected to any criticism, except for one attempt at my novel “Love and Identity,” which was made by my friend, the young poet Abd al-Rahim Dadi al-Tasouli, who holds a degree in Arabic literature.
Since I write in the Amazigh language, which is still searching for its place among other languages, and has not yet risen to the level of ancient literary writing that characterizes other societies, it is natural for my works and other works written in this language to remain without critical readings, because the Amazigh literary field still lacks To the critics, even if there are attempts calculated on the tips of the fingers of one hand, they remain very timid and timid.
?Poets turning to writing novels has become a general phenomenon. Can we say that this is the time of the novel par excellence, and that it is time for other literary genres to step aside
A question that has been asked a lot to poets as well as to writers, and it has also been asked in the literary field in general after noticing that many writers broke into this field as poetry, and after that they left, or neglected, this beautiful artistic genre, and embraced narration, whether narrative or fictional. The narrative narrative is what concerns us in this context so that we do not deviate from what we have restricted the question to.
The issue is not that other literary genres have come to step aside, but rather the issue is the issue of belief in this or that genre, and the ability to master the components and elements of each genre separately. This is why we can never say, for example, that the time of poetry has ended, but we can say that the number of true poets who write poetry with all its characteristics is no longer the number that was known in the past. We are talking here about the true poets who were creating the true poem that might impress. The recipient and makes him immerse himself in the meanings of each poetic sentence. As for the semi-poets, perhaps they are the ones who contributed to killing the poetic taste in the recipient and made him alienate from it and embrace another genre, such as the novel, for example.
Even creative people have begun to lean according to the recipient's whims, so it is not reasonable for him to continue writing what the broad audience is repulsed by, otherwise this creative person will continue to create for himself only and does not care about his audience.
The novel is a modern literary genre that appeared in Europe with the emergence of the bourgeois class, as Georg Lukács says. Poetry is no longer suitable for this class, which needs modern issues that suit the problems in which this class is floundering. It was natural for some poets to move from poetry to novels, and this phenomenon has continued to this day.
?What prompted you to write in the Amazigh language and preserve it as a poetic and literary language
This question reminded me of a question that was asked to the Amazigh race: Where did they come from to North Africa? He is originally from the same region, and did not come from any other direction. The Amazigh researcher, Muhammad Shafiq, opposed this question, highlighting and emphasizing that if we ask from where the Amazighs came to North Africa, we should ask the same question to all peoples, where did they come from to that region they inhabit? For example, we have the right to ask where the Arabs came from. The Arabian Peninsula? We have the right to ask all the peoples of the world the same question.
What prompted me to write in the Amazigh language!? This is as clear as Tifinagh on the rocks of Tamazgha/North Africa. It is my language, and with it I learned letters that are difficult to pronounce and I no longer stutter in it. It is the language in which I grew up and grew up, and it is the one that taught me how to weave the letters of anger and the letters of love.
Since it has been deprived of teaching, research and development for a long time, perhaps this is another factor that made me write in this ancient language, the existence of which was confirmed by Herodotus and other historians in ancient times. And since the dust has been dusted off of it, albeit somewhat modestly, in the last decades of the last century and even the beginning of this century, then it is an opportunity for me and people like me to write in our language and develop it as much as possible, especially since it is at risk of extinction like some other languages that are subject to neglect, as confirmed by the concerned international organization. In these languages.
For me, my problem is not with languages, as all the languages of the world are beautiful languages, since they are a tool of communication between man and his brother. Rather, my problem is with those who exclude my language and force me to abandon it to embrace his language, and this is a form of nonsense, if not madness.
?Do you face certain challenges in writing in the Amazigh language? How do you overcome it
As I emphasized previously, writing is a future project for me, whether in my Amazigh language or in another language.
As for the challenges that I face as a writer in the Amazigh language, they are difficult and different challenges, as the Amazigh language, or the Amazigh issue in general, still suffers from marginalization and exclusion, and there is no hint of releasing it or encouraging it to assume its place among other languages.
?So if the Amazigh language is in this situation? How can someone write it
This is the biggest challenge, as the Amazigh creator often belongs to the oppressed class, so his first priority is to struggle for a living, so what will his condition be like with creativity in this language!
But despite all this, and I am speaking here from my personal experience, I was able to write in this language and publish in it, to confirm once again that the project that I founded from the beginning was a project that had strong and solid foundations, and would not be affected by any storm that might come one day except by stepping off the mount of life.
The suffering of writing can only be relieved by writers, and yet you find them clinging to it and taking pleasure in it, the first of which is the idea and how to embrace it and write about it!? The writer may review many references, in an attempt to convey this idea to the recipient, and after all this hardship, comes publication and the suffering of funding, correction, and so on.
In the end, it remains to be seen how this book will be promoted, especially since book sales today are witnessing a dramatic deterioration in the face of social media.
These are challenges that we writers face, especially Amazigh writers who write in a language that is still under siege.
?What is the difference between your creativity in Amazigh and its counterpart in Arabic
There is not a huge difference between my creativity in my mother tongue and the language of Dhad, but it may be in the way of thinking and imagination, as well as in the two cultures, each of which belongs to its environment. When we write in Amazigh and imagine and think in it, we must return to the environment in which this language arose, and how it was woven into it. The culture of the region, so we go back to recalling what characterizes its environment. Likewise, when we write in the language of Dād, we must return to the environment in which we were born and raised, and the imagination takes us to the symbols that characterize the region.
I believe that this is the difference that may exist between my creativity in my mother tongue and the language of others.
?What are the topics that attract your attention and force you to write about them, whether in Arabic or Amazigh
In fact, we cannot identify all the topics that might make us write about them, as they are many different topics. The writer may choose a topic to write about, but he may succeed or fail at it. But if the topic is of the moment, as in poetry for example, the writer often succeeds in it.
A true writer often hunts for his subjects, lets them come by chance, embraces them, and takes them wherever his adventures take him. But he must know how to hold on to the wheel, and try as much as possible to move toward safety.
In the midst of the challenges facing writers, including reluctance to read and problems with publishing, how do you see the reality and future of Amazigh writing within the local and national literary map?
In all honesty, and far from pessimism and gloom, the future of Amazigh writing is ambiguous and does not bode well. As mentioned in your question, the reluctance to read and the difficulties that the writer faces in publishing and publishing may negatively affect the future of writing and the book, in addition to what social media has created and is witnessing in its tremendous competition against the paper book. Most young people, and even adults, have been attracted by digitalization, and none of them no longer value what is written on paper. The biggest example of this is what happened to newspapers and magazines. But despite all this aversion to writing on paper, we should not give up. Rather, a solution to this dilemma must be found, especially as we notice that young people have recently begun to averse electronic reading and have begun to return to books, even if only in a very small way, because paper reading is... That is ingrained in the mind, and many of them have paid attention to that.
?You lived most of your life in Tangier. To what extent does the city resonate in your work
In fact, no writer can live in a country without his works being influenced by that country. Tangier, for example, in its international era was a pole for many international writers, most notably Paul Bowles, the expatriate American writer who lived for nearly sixty years in this city, and most of his works were inspired by it. . As for our friend, the late international writer Muhammad Shukri, the name of the city was linked to his name. We cannot mention Shukri without associating him with the city of Tangier, and vice versa, and this is mainly due to his writings about this city overlooking Europe.
As for me, who has lived in this city for the better half of my life, and as one of those inhabited by the expressive word, it is very natural for me to in turn draw inspiration from some of my works from this city, especially my novel “Love and Identity” and my autobiography, which is in print.
?After nearly twenty years have passed since your first collection of poems, “Emtaun N Thamja” or “Tears of the Flute,” what has changed poetically and humanly for you
My collection, “Imtaun n Thamja,” or “The Flute’s Cries,” as I prefer to translate this title, came at the height of the maturity of the Amazigh cultural movement, and many of the poems included in this collection focus on this topic, in addition to other poems, that talk about the poet’s suffering in the midst of the ocean. What created this collection.
As you kindly said about the period that has passed since the publication of this collection, which is approximately two decades, many things will of course change, including the change in age. When I published this collection, I was still young, and I was working hard and never tired of moving around, like a blue bird that never tires of flying. I used to read and write a lot and research diligently into all matters that concerned my hobby and identity.
Now, we have advanced relatively in age, and that desire that pricked us every now and then during our youth is no longer what we have now. But this does not mean that I have given up reading and writing. Quite the contrary, I still read and write, but not on a regular basis.
?Are you satisfied with your literary career and have you achieved everything you aspired to in this literary journey
At all, I am not satisfied with my literary career, and it still has not achieved what I aspired to.
As you previously indicated, writing for me was from the beginning a future project, in which I sought to write in all kinds of literature, and why not research other things, and this has not stopped yet.
?After five literary publications, divided into poetry and novels, what are your future plans regarding writing
During this period in which you hosted me for a dialogue, I placed my autobiography in one of the publishing houses here in Tangier for it to be printed. I also own four works that have not yet been published: two collections of poetry, a collection of short stories and a novel. After all this, I hope to enter the theater in the future, if I have the rest of my life. .
Free word..
I thank the newspaper “The Amazigh World”, and I assure you that Abdullah Al-Manshuri is still struggling and striving on his creative path, and will not leave him until the day he steps off the mount of life.
Interviewed by: Khairaldin Jamaei