Edmond Amran El Maleh

Edmond Amran El Maleh
Native name	إدمون عمران المالح
Born	(1917-03-30)March 30, 1917 Safi, Morocco
Died	November 15, 2010(2010-11-15) (aged 93)
Occupation	Journalist, Writer
Notable awards	Grand Prix du Maroc

Edmond Amran El Maleh (Arabic: إدمون عمران المالح) (30 March 1917 – 15 November 2010) was a Moroccan writer and activist.

Biography[edit]

El Maleh was born in Safi, Morocco to a Jewish Berber family.^[1][2] During his youth he joined the Moroccan Communist Party. He moved to Paris in 1965, working there as a journalist and a teacher of philosophy.

He only began writing in 1980, at the age of 63, traveling back and forth between France and Morocco. He stated that, in spite of his long stay in France, he had devoted his entire literary life to Morocco. From 1999 until his death he lived in Rabat.^[3][4]

There is controversy about his political stance; however, nothing has ever been corroborated. He was buried, according to his wishes, in the Jewish cemetery in Essaouira. He wrote in French.

Works[edit]

• Parcours immobile (Maspero, 1983)
• Abner, Abnour (La Pensée sauvage/Le Fennec, 1996).
• Le café bleu. Zrirek (La pensée sauvage, 1999)
• Mille ans, un jour (Le Fennec, 1990 – André Dimanche, 2002 (1986))
• Le Retour d'Abou El Haki (La Pensée sauvage, 1990).
• Jean Genet, Le Captif amoureux et autres essais (La Pensée sauvage/Toubkal, 1988 )
• Aïlen ou la nuit du récit (La Découverte, 1983, réédité par André Dimanche, 2000)
• Parcours immobile (Maspéro, 1980 puis réédité par André Dimanche, 2001) : Roman
• La maIle de Sidi Maâchou (Al Manar 1998)
• Essaouira Cité heureuse
• Une femme, une mère (éditions Lixus, Tanger 2004)

References[edit]

Further reading[edit]

• Bou'Azza Ben'Achir, Cheminements d'une écriture (1997). 238 pages. ISBN 2-7384-5217-5
• Vogl, Mary B., 2003, "It Was and It Was Not So: Edmond Amran El Maleh Remembers Morocco," International Journal of Francophone Studies 6.2, 71–85.
• "Taksiat," short story from the collection Abner Abounour by Edmond Amran El Maleh, reprinted with an English translated by Lucy R. McNair, Contemporary French and Francophone Studies/Sites, April 2007, Vol. 11, Issue 2. In same issue, an interview with Moroccan painter Yamou with reference to El Maleh.

External links[edit]

• The Writer Edmond Amran El Maleh: A Moroccan Jew with Arabo-Berber Roots Qantara.de
• El Maleh's political views
• El Maleh decorated by King Mohamed VI
• minorities.org report of The Independent (7 Oct 2005) dubbing El-Maleh the "Moroccan James Joyce"