Immigration and Abandonment in Ryad Assani-Razaki’s Deux cercles and La main d’Iman

Abstract

Immigration and Abandonment in Ryad Assani-Razaki’s Deux cercles and La main d’Iman Holly Collins (bio) “Africa is a young girl who, having been raped at the age of six, sees herself rejected in adolescence. This deflowering is the reason that some of us are now repulsed by the idea of any form of seed, no matter the fruit it may bring. What to say? Sorry? The little girl will grow, however. She will become a woman.” —Ryad Assani-Razaki1 Since its early laureates in the late 1970s and early 80s (Gaétan Bru-lotte, Madeleine Monette, Robert Lalonde, and Chrystine Brouillet), the Quebec Prix Robert-Cliché for a first novel has presaged future literary success. Ryad Assani-Razaki joined this list of prizewinners in 2011, receiving the Robert-Cliché for his novel La main d’Iman (The Hand of Iman). Assani-Razaki, who moved from Benin to North America in 1999, has been praised for a “precise and poetic writing, endowed with an extraordinary sensitivity.”2 His talent as a writer coupled with a dedication to social justice set Assani-Razaki apart from many authors who fall on one side of this divide. In this article, I examine how two of his works highlight important issues related to colonial legacy, neo-colonialism, deadly Mediterranean and Saharan crossings, racism, classism, and women’s rights. Assani-Razaki shows that professed altruism, both on an individual and national level, cannot be accepted without consideration of possible ulterior motives or self-interest. He uses his writing to insist that social movement and improvement come, not from the “elect” or putative superior nations and classes, but rather from the unexpected. Those who are marginalized or written off as lowly are, in the end, the everyday heroes and saviors. Before he received the Robert-Cliché, Assani-Razaki first published a collection of short stories titled Deux cercles (Two Circles, 2009) that centers on the immigrant experience.3 The author explores the difficulties immigrants face living simultaneously in two circles—one in which they are human and the other in which they are objectified in the gaze of a host culture. Cultural métissage (“hybridization”) and disenchantment are key themes throughout the short stories of Deux cercles. This [End Page 18] article’s epigraph, drawn from the story “La valise en carton,” highlights the context of his Robert-Cliché winning novel La main d’Iman. In an unnamed, but presumably West African country, the main characters of La main d’Iman navigate life in a racially and socioeconomically stratified postcolonial city. Leaving seems to be the only way to escape the repetition of colonial oppression and subsequent violence. Yet, as both Assani-Razaki’s novel and short stories reveal, immigration is not a perfect escape. Rather, in both works, Assani-Razaki portrays immigration as a fruitless search for El Dorado. Recalling Marie-Andrée Chouinard’s Devoir article “Ecrivain d’ailleurs ou écrivain tout court,” I tread lightly on the subject of Assani-Razaki’s “migrant author” status.4 However, the theme of immigration subtly but insistently pursues the reader throughout La main d’Iman. Although his novel seems scarcely to address this subject, the final letters of each chapter title spell out IMMIGRATION: icI, islaM, iridiuM, infléchI, iceberG, impuR, impedimentA, ingraT, infinI, indigO, and illusioN. Assani-Razaki deftly leads the reader through each chapter, winding his way to a conclusion that lands heavily on the one-word title, repeated as the final word of the chapter. The reader wonders from the beginning of each chapter how, for example, something as out of place in Africa as “iceberG” will become significant. With each carefully chosen word, Assani-Razaki introduces his reader to the world of his three main characters: Toumani, Alissa, and Iman, for whom the novel is named. Eventually, Iman embarks fearfully upon his dream of leaving, and those left behind must live in the vacuum he creates. This article explores the role of the title character Iman (whose name means “faith” and “belief” in Arabic) as a savior both literally and figuratively. But his salvation is aborted, as Iman abandons his friends and country, and the beneficiaries of his...