Hymns to her Pains Book Cover

Rachida Cherni’s Hymns to her Pains: A novel of reality and what is left unspoken.

A new novel written by Tunisian writer whose fictional texts are famous for realism and defending human rights and especially women’s rights was published in Beirut by Arab Scientific Publishers, Inc.

The novel deeply depicts tragedies of mothers in their relations to prisons of opinion through the suffering of a Tunisian family that its younger son, Gaith, was arrested due to his political attitudes. Through the character of the mother, Khadhra Jeballia, Rachida Cherni reveals images of the true struggle of the Tunisian woman in her spontaneity, honesty, depth, violence, suffering, sorrows, and tears. Besides, she reveals her challenge to authority and the agents of prisons to protect and defend her son in all Tunisian prisons; in Borj Erroumi, Kasserine, Sfax, and El Haouareb. The writer stops at the failure of the Tunisian youths, and their despair of their status quo. So the middle child immigrates in an illegal way, and the older is lost in taverns. The youths of the country were not but “alive/dead creatures that are fed by coercion, and have no future.”

Hymns to her Pains (Tarateel li Alamiha) is a novel of reality, and what is left unspoken, in terms of social wretchedness, political tension, and the corruption of the system in all its choices, especially in the judiciary, media and education. Rachida Cherni predicted the deep causes of the political, social, and economic fall of the regime. She wrote in a precise and deep way starting from her family situation, and her love to her mother, siblings, and environment in Tunis and Ain Draham. The narrator, Dounia, was not but Rachida Cherni as a member of this Tunisian family that was intimidated by the former regime. She was not but a daughter of a mother who knew all sorts of plights and sorrows.

Analysing the character of Khadhra Jeballia, Rachida Cherni recollected the first half of the twentieth century, and particularly the era of colonisation. She revealed some aspects of resisting the coloniser by inhabitants of the north-west. She recollected the Fellaghas who dwelled the mountains, and the heroisms of Ali Ben Ghedhahem, Daghbaji, Bechir Ben Zdira, and other symbols of the national struggle. Writing, for Rachida Cherni, is not but a journey of recollection, revelation, and prediction through experimenting with narratorial techniques that are characterised by the variety of references, especially in relation to the diversity of protagonists, and places, the involvement of characters, one after the other, in narration, and the use of poetry, music, history, fine arts, riddles as essential backgrounds by which the narrator, Dounia, is illuminated:

“The cow never begets a gazelle.

She begets a calf with protruding ears.

Lions’ children are fighters,

but a hyena’s child always falls in the trap.” P.124

The mother Khadhra Jeballia, in her depth, is not but a metaphor of Tunisia, the land, and the country that comes out from cellars and darkness to freedom and lights. The death of Khadhra Jeballia stands for the martyrs of this country who have sacrificed their blood as a price for freedom:

“Oh, Khadhra! You are Tunisia’s colour.

The crows’ night is short,

and all life

is cheaper than your tear.” P. 165

Originally appeared in the Tunisian daily Alchourouk 31/05/2012 by Mohamed Issa El Mouadeb.

You can read the original text in Arabic here.

Translated from Arabic by Ali Znaidi.

The Granta Book of the African Short Story Book Cover. Photo borrowed off http://grantabooks.com

Rachida Cherni is considered one of the outstanding Tunisian writers who carved a name in the Tunisian literary scene. She writes short stories and novels. Through her writings she attempts to add a flavour to the Tunisian culture.

She got some exposure to English-speaking audience as some of her work was translated into English. She was featured in three issues of Banipal (Banipal N°10/11, Banipal N°39, and Banipal N°44). She was also anthologised in Sardines and Oranges: Short Stories from North Africa by Banipal Books.

Besides, she was anthologised in The Granta Book of the African Short Story which you can read a review of it in The Guardian.

Mohamed Issa El Mouadeb is one of the writers included in this anthology. The following article is his review of this anthology.

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Tunisian Shadows Book Cover

Tunisian Shadows is an anthology of short stories edited by Tunis-based Iraqi writer Abderrahman Majid Rabii. It is published by Arab Encyclopedia House in Lebanon in a second added edition.

The book falls within the framework of introducing Tunisian literature. Rabii chose to be interested in the art of the short story through selecting 43 short stories pertaining to different  generations: From the sixties to the nineties and beyond…

“The short story” as a modern term is an art that came to the Arab culture from the West. The press contributed to establish and spread this art during the twentieth century. The corpus of the Tunisian short story began with the appearance of the first Tunisian short story around 1905 which was written in French by Hassan Hosni Abdelwahab and titled “The Last Evening in Granada.” Then it was followed by other attempts by Salah Souissi, Mohamed Manchou, and Mohamed El Fadhel Ben Achour.

But, technically speaking, the artistic short story began with Ali Douagi. Then it witnessed several transformations. On the occasion of the publication of Tunisian Shadows we need to define the characteristics of the Tunisian short story and its trends in the sixties and the nineties—the periods that are represented in the book.

-The sixties: It was a period that witnessed the emergence of the avant-garde movement. This movement craved after developing the form of the classical story, and coming up with new forms because true creation is the one that is established at the level of totalities. Thus, avant-gardists’ fictional writings were devoted to the creation of the fictional form because it is an object in itself. This made them avoid details.

Rabii included short stories of writers belonging to this generation, Mohamed Salah el-Jabri, Amor Ben Salem, Mahmoud Belaid, Ahmed Mammou, Mohamed Ridha Kefi, Nafla Dhhab, and Aroussia Nalouti chief among them.

-The nineties: The most distinctive features of this period were the final abandonment of the classical standardised writing, and the total difference from the avant-gardist story through caring for details. This was through the use of various techniques, chief among them, the poetics of discourse, the mysterious, and enriching the storytelling’s context with the attitudes of dodge and surprise.

Rabii chose short stories of writers belonging to this period. Among them, we can cite Massouda Abou Bakr, Faouzia Aloui, Rachida Cherni, Alia Rhayem, Ibrahim Dargouthi, Lazhar Sahraoui, and others.

The Tunisian short story in all its stages is a scene of revelation, a transmission of the traits of popular life and the images of the countryside and the city, a portrayal of the lesser-known and the forgotten, and a transmission of human emotions in all their situations: Love and hatred, loyalty and betrayal, deep-rootedness and orphanhood, imprisonment and liberation…

Introducing the book, Abderrahmane Majid Rabii says:

“These selections were the fruit of a personal effort that I am alone

responsible for it. They finally came as a representation of all

generations. Although some names were instated for their pioneering

value and because they represented a period that was similar to

the continuation of the late founding period, there existed some names

that were the most outstanding symbols of the generation of the

sixties, others from the following decades, and emerging names that

were not lucky to get exposure, but I bet on them because something

like certainty is stirring me that these names would serve as a fresh

reservoir for the story of the next century in Tunisia.”

Tunisian Shadows introduces a bunch of the most beautiful and quality texts of Tunisian fictional creation. It is edited by a Tunis-based Iraqi writer who lived with all generations and kept abreast of their experiences…

And the news of a country covers all its regions…

But we ask: “Why did the book mention such names and such texts?”

Rabii says: “My taste was the sole judge and the sole criterion… And someone else might disagree with me when editing a new anthology so that he/she would choose names I did not include.”

Originally appeared in the Tunisian daily Alchourouk 12/06/2012 by Mohamed Issa El Mouadeb.

You can read the original text in Arabic here.

Translated from Arabic by Ali Znaidi.