Panic in Algeria: The Goncourt that Shakes the Generals

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3 weeks ago

Kamel Daoud: The Favorite for the Goncourt Prize that Shakes the Military in Algeria

On the eve of the awarding of the prestigious Goncourt Prize, panic grips the ruling circles of military power in Algeria. Kamel Daoud, with his novel “The Houris,” is the favorite to win tomorrow the highest literary award in the French-speaking world, which honors giants like Marcel Proust, André Malraux, and Simone de Beauvoir. If the Algerian novelist Kamel Daoud is crowned tomorrow with the prestigious Goncourt Prize, it will not only be recognition for the author of “Meursault: contre-enquête” (winner of the Goncourt Prize for Best First Novel in 2015), but also an important event for Algerian literature.

Behind the Scenes, the Censorship Machine Moves to Blow Up Kamel Daoud

Before this announcement, our sources reported that the Algerian security services are moving in the shadows by exerting pressure and subtle intimidation directly on members of the Goncourt jury and on Kamel Daoud himself as we write, with the aim of sabotaging this award. Our sources informed us that the threats and fears range from subtle diplomatic threats to anonymous letters accusing the writer of treason, defamation, and even invoking his alleged past as an Islamist or claims of domestic violence. The smear machine is operating at full capacity.

What does the military regime in Algeria fear from Kamel Daoud to the extent that it wishes to silence him after failing to muzzle Hichem Aboud? The answer is not merely sensitivity to criticism but a cold calculation: behind the literary prestige lurks another more terrifying threat to the regime: the truth. Indeed, the international media coverage of the book threatens to reignite a debate the regime seeks to silence: a debate about the imposed silence under the charter, the absence of treatment in school curricula, and the disregard for victims. This forbidden subject in Algeria is broached through the novel “Fajr,” the silent survivor of a brutal massacre. This direct confrontation, amplified by the international media coverage that the Goncourt Prize bestows, will shine a light on dark aspects of Algerian history that the regime prefers to ignore, particularly allegations of war crimes involving current military figures.

In fact, figures like General Chengriha and General Abdelkader Heddad, whose responsibilities for civilian killings and extrajudicial executions are documented in other works, come under scrutiny. In La Sale Guerre by Habib Souaïdia (Editions La Découverte, 2001), “Colonel Chengriha” – who was unknown to the public at the time, before becoming one of the regime’s most powerful figures – is mentioned 14 times. Souaïdia recounts his direct responsibility for the murder of at least 40 people, including one shot dead in cold blood, leaving his body in a pool of blood, along with eight violations of the Geneva Conventions and nine violations of military law, during the period from 1993 to 1995 alone in the Lakhdaria area. Enough to freeze the current military leaders in power. A reality that the regime has sought to bury for decades. A perspective that terrifies a regime accustomed to managing history as a state secret, and that has extracted the card of “non-interference” in Algeria’s internal affairs. This will add pressure on a regime that faces notable challenges due to its lack of legitimacy in power: its diplomatic failures, particularly with the Polisario, the current crisis with medical students demanding their rights to mobility and a more dignified life.

This is what terrifies the Algerian military regime: not just the Goncourt Prize itself, but what it can provoke. If the intelligence services continue to intensify their efforts to intimidate the jury and the author, it is because international media coverage threatens to reveal something even more explosive: a renewed focus on the black decade and the direct links of some generals currently in power to crimes against humanity and extrajudicial executions during that period. A truth that the regime thought it had buried forever, by resorting to methods from the time of the “chouhadas” and wishes, including the assassination of General Arab Ben Nacer, the director of military justice, who was tasked by President Bouteflika to investigate these events. Now, through the pens of the best Algerian writers, the truth may resurface under the spotlight of the highest literary prize: the Goncourt Prize.

Literary Prestige Against Military Authoritarianism

Tomorrow, the Goncourt jury will not only issue a verdict on the fate of a novel. They will decide whether historical truth can triumph over intimidation, and whether literature still has the capacity to defeat fear. The eyes of the literary world will be fixed on this announcement, while the military regime in Algeria holds its breath, aware that the debate surrounding Kamel Daoud and his work transcends the realm of literature. Because, in addition to a prestigious literary honor, the fundamental importance of freedom of expression, along with the vital role of writers in defending it, is a concept that writers and journalists in Algeria have increasingly forgotten.

The regime is aware of this: writers can be more terrifying than an army, and the pen can be more destructive than a T-50.

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