Mohamed Choukri

Mohamed Choukri (1935-2003) was a Moroccan writer who worked in Arabic. Born in the Rif region while it was under Spanish protectorate, he became known far beyond the Arab world through his translations, particularly his frank autobiographical fiction about poverty, violence and sexuality in mid-twentieth-century Tangier.

He was born in Beni Chiker, near Melilla, into a large and very poor family whose first language was Riffian. Around 1945 the family moved to Tangier, where he learned Spanish while working as a guide for sailors. At eleven, after running away from a violent father, he lived on the city's streets, surrounded by hunger, drugs and prostitution. As an adult he taught himself to read and write in Standard Arabic, which differed from the dialect he spoke every day. After a period in Larache, where he attended primary school, he returned to Tangier in the 1960s and stayed there for the rest of his life. He met Paul Bowles, Jean Genet and Tennessee Williams in those years, and they later appeared in his writing.

His best-known work is the autobiographical trilogy that begins with For Bread Alone. Bowles translated it into English in 1973, and it became an international success, yet it was banned in Morocco from 1983 until 2000 because of its explicit references to sex and drugs. Choukri wrote in a direct, plain Arabic, sometimes mixed with Moroccan dialect and Riffian, and without the polished tone expected in the literary tradition. His blunt prose deals with a brutal father, life on the margins and the memory of Tangier. He also wrote short stories and memoirs about Bowles, Genet and Williams, and translated Spanish poets into Arabic.

His legacy rests on the foundation he set up before his death, which holds his manuscripts and copyrights. His novel was adapted for film in 2004, and he appears as a character in Mathias Énard's novel Zone, a sign of his lasting presence in contemporary literature.