Tahar Ben Jelloun(1947 — ?)
Tahar Ben Jelloun
France, Maroc
6 min read
Tahar Ben Jelloun is a French-Moroccan writer and poet born in 1944 in Fès. A French-language author, he explores exile, immigration, and the condition of Maghrebi societies. He received the Prix Goncourt in 1987 for The Sacred Night.
Frequently asked questions
Famous Quotes
« Racism means placing the other, the stranger, beneath oneself.»
« Friendship is a religion without God or Last Judgment.»
Key Facts
- Born December 1, 1944, in Fès (Morocco)
- Publishes his first novel Harrouda in 1973
- Receives the Prix Goncourt in 1987 for The Sacred Night
- Publishes Racism Explained to My Daughter in 1998, translated into many languages
- Elected member of the Académie Goncourt in 2008
Works & Achievements
His first novel, poetic and bold, revealing his singular voice that blends Fez, Tangier and the French language.
An essay drawn from his doctoral thesis, giving voice to the emotional distress of North African immigrant workers.
A novel about a girl raised as a boy, which brought him recognition and explores identity and the condition of women.
A sequel to L'Enfant de sable, this novel earned him the 1987 Prix Goncourt.
A short educational book born from his daughter's questions, translated around the world and used in classrooms.
A novel about the secret prison camp of Tazmamart, which won the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award in 2004.
A novel about young Moroccans' longing to emigrate and the illusions of a European eldorado.
Anecdotes
In 1966, as a young student, Tahar Ben Jelloun was sent to a disciplinary camp of the Moroccan army for taking part in demonstrations. During eighteen months of punishment, he secretly wrote his first poems on scraps of paper. It was there, deprived of his freedom, that his vocation as a writer was born.
In 1987, he became the first writer from the Maghreb to receive the Prix Goncourt, France's most prestigious literary award, for his novel The Sacred Night. A Moroccan author writing in French thus entered the grand history of French letters.
In 1997, his daughter Mérième, about ten years old, went with him to a demonstration against an immigration law and asked him: “Tell me, Papa, what is racism?” From these questions came the book Racism Explained to My Daughter (1998), translated into dozens of languages and read in schools the world over.
When he arrived in France in 1971, Ben Jelloun worked as a psychotherapist with North African immigrant workers. He listened to their silences and their solitude, an experience that would feed into his essay La plus haute des solitudes.
The writer is also a painter: he wields the brush as well as the pen and has exhibited his canvases. For him, painting and writing are two ways of giving voice to the world and to memory.
Primary Sources
“— Tell me, Daddy, what is racism? — Racism is a fairly widespread behavior, common to all societies, that has sadly become commonplace in certain countries.”
“For a long time I searched for the black stone that cleanses the soul of death.” — the opening line of the novel inspired by the secret prison of Tazmamart.
An essay drawn from his thesis, subtitled “The Emotional and Sexual Misery of North African Emigrants,” it gives voice to the silent distress of immigrant workers.
A father, disappointed at having only daughters, decides to raise his eighth child — a girl — as a boy named Ahmed: the novel questions identity and the condition of women.
Key Places
Birthplace of Tahar Ben Jelloun in 1944, a major cultural and spiritual city of Morocco.
City where his family settled when he was a teenager; he attended a French high school there. He still lives there part of the year today.
Here he studied philosophy before becoming a teacher and then leaving for France.
Military camp where he was interned for eighteen months in 1966-1968 for taking part in protests; it was there that he wrote his first poems.
He settled here in 1971, pursued his studies, and built his career as a writer and columnist.
