In 2012, the Algerian novelist Boualem Sansal wrote an article for Index about his controversial visit to Israel, where he was inspired by an encounter with the writer David Grossman to launch the Strasbourg Appeal for Peace.
“I muse how wonderful it would be if the writers of the world came together to fight for peace,” he wrote. The article, A Nightmare with a Happy Ending, was full of hope, despite the fatwa issued by Hamas accusing him of high treason against Islam, the Arabic nation and its martyrs for travelling to Israel. “Working for peace is a big deal,” he said. “It requires great numbers and great determination. Who knows what we will be able to achieve.”
Twelve years later, the 75-year-old writer finds himself accused once more. On 16 November he was arrested at Algiers airport and detained by the authorities. His lawyer later confirmed he was being held on national security charges. Algerian state media said he was accused of “attacking national integrity and unity and state institutions”. Sansal faces life imprisonment if found guilty.
French media has suggested the writer’s arrest could be connected to statements Sansal made to the far-right publication Frontières that the disputed territory of Western Sahara was historically part of Morocco. A documentary which aired on state TV in Algeria on Sunday, entitled Servants of Western and Moroccan Agendas, claimed attacks on the unity of the state were acts of terrorism. “Morality and culture have failed to educate Boualem Sansal. He is nothing but an agent under the cover of a writer,” said the documentary, according to the French newspaper, Le Figaro.
An appeal in the French magazine Le Point by fellow Algerian writer Kamel Daoud sparked an international response. Writers including Annie Ernaux, Orhan Pamuk, Wole Soyinka, Salman Rushdie, Andrey Kurkov, Roberto Saviano and Alaa Al Aswany called for Sansal’s immediate release.
Sansal has been a fierce advocate for free expression. As a consistent critic of Islamism and the authoritarian tendencies of the Algerian government, he has also made enemies. Inconveniently for his liberal supporters, Sansal has attracted support from the right in France for his stance on the so-called Islamist threat to the country.
Dr Joseph Ford of the Institute of Languages, Cultures and Societies at the University of London told Index: “Boalem Sansal has long been a controversial figure in Algeria and increasingly in France, where some of his latest work has alluded to far right conspiracy theories regarding the so-called threat of the Islamisation of France. Nevertheless, detaining him isn’t a good look for the Algerian authorities internationally, and I would expect they’ll either have to charge him or release him soon.”
His writings have tackled the historical horrors of his home country, including the civil war against Islamist insurgents which ended in 2002, and the bloody war of independence fought against France between 1954 and 1962.
As Sansal’s arrest shows, this colonial legacy has left deep scars in Algeria’s national consciousness. In an essay for Index in 2011 entitled A Lesson in Tyranny, Sansal wrote on this subject: “It is because the French won the Battle of Algiers by these methods, by torturing the inhabitants of the city, sparing neither women nor children, that they lost the Algerian War. And it is because the Algerian rebels carried out terrorist attacks on civilians, including women and children, that their victory has a bitter aftertaste of defeat. They lost all notion of freedom, which led to the harshest, most miserable dictatorship imaginable.”
The Algerian writer has been the recipient of national and international prizes including the 2012 Arabic Novel Prize, awarded by the Arab Ambassadors Council in Paris, although the €15,000 prize money was withdrawn following his visit to Israel. In the Index article later that year he justified his trip by saying: “I believe that in order to judge a country one should see it with one’s own eyes. Propaganda is not enough.”
Boualem Sansal is one of Algeria’s most prominent and outspoken writers, who has established an international reputation for his work. Twelve years ago, he called on the writers of the world to fight for peace. Now they must come together to fight for him.
