The Interplay between History/Memory/Space in Tassadit Imache's: Presque un Frère and Le Dromadaire de Bonaparte

Abstract

This article examines two texts by the postcolonial ‘Beur’ writer Tassadit Imache. It analyses the way the texts represent the link between historical memory, social space and personal narratives. It assesses Imache's criticism of French selective historical memory and the way North African immigrants' contribution to the economy and culture of France has been ignored. Imache suggests that colonial violence, prejudice and hierarchy are still exercising strong effects on the life of the youth of the banlieues, many of them are of North African origin. The differentiation of social space that had already been at work in colonial North Africa where the natives and the colonisers inhabit different social spaces has been practised in France where spatial barriers have been implemented in big cities. Imache uses the space of the banlieue as the site of historical memory, the memory of migration and colonial racism but also most significantly for the ‘Beurs’, it is a site of revolt against authority and the perpetuation of colonial racist attitudes.