Tahar Djaout (11 January 1954 – 2 June 1993) was an Algerian journalist, poet, and fiction writer. He was assassinated in 1993 by the
Armed Islamic Group
The Armed Islamic Group (GIA, from french: Groupe Islamique Armé; ar, الجماعة الإسلامية المسلّحة, al-Jamāʿa l-ʾIslāmiyya l-Musallaḥa) was one of the two main Islamist insurgent groups that fought the Algerian gover ...
.
Early life
He was born in 1954 in
Oulkhou, a village in the
Kabylie
Kabylia ('' Kabyle: Tamurt n Leqbayel'' or ''Iqbayliyen'', meaning "Land of Kabyles", '','' meaning "Land of the Tribes") is a cultural, natural and historical region in northern Algeria and the homeland of the Kabyle people. It is part of ...
region. After university he worked as a journalist for ''Algérie Actualité'', and by the late 1980s, he became one of Algeria's foremost literary talents.
Assassination
He was assassinated by the
Armed Islamic Group
The Armed Islamic Group (GIA, from french: Groupe Islamique Armé; ar, الجماعة الإسلامية المسلّحة, al-Jamāʿa l-ʾIslāmiyya l-Musallaḥa) was one of the two main Islamist insurgent groups that fought the Algerian gover ...
because of his support of
secularism
Secularism is the principle of seeking to conduct human affairs based on secular, naturalistic considerations.
Secularism is most commonly defined as the separation of religion from civil affairs and the state, and may be broadened to a si ...
and opposition to what he considered fanaticism. He was attacked on 26 May 1993 as he was leaving his home in
Algiers
Algiers ( ; ar, الجزائر, al-Jazāʾir; ber, Dzayer, script=Latn; french: Alger, ) is the capital and largest city of Algeria. The city's population at the 2008 Census was 2,988,145Census 14 April 2008: Office National des Statistiques d ...
, Algeria. He died on 2 June, after lying in a coma for a week. One of his attackers professed that he was murdered because he "wielded a fearsome pen that could have an effect on Islamic sectors."
After his death the BBC made a documentary about him entitled 'Shooting the Writer', introduced by Salman Rushdie.
Work
* ''
The Last Summer of Reason'' Novel,
Ruminator Books, 2001] (French edn: Le dernier été de la raison, Paris,
Seuil, 1999]
* ''The Watchers''
ovel, Ruminator Books(French edn: Les Vigiles, Editions du Seuil, 1991)
* ''L'invention du Desert'',
ovel, Editions du Seuil, 1987* ''Les Chercheurs d'Os''
ovel, Editions du Seuil, 1984* ''Les Rets de l'oiseleur'' (short stories)
NED, Algiers, 1983* ''L'oiseau minéral'', poems,
igean, L'Orycte, 1982* ''L'exproprié'',
ovel, SNED, Algiers, 1981* ''Insulaire et Cie'', poems
igean, L'Orycte, 1980* ''L'Arche à vau-l'eau'', poems
ditions Saint-Germain-des-Prés, Paris, 1978* ''Solstice Barbelé'', poems,
ditions Naaman, Québec, 1975
See also
*
List of Algerian assassinated journalists
External links
* Tahar Djaou
* Silence is Death: The Life and Work of Tahar Djaou
by Julija Suky
* "Islamists Killed Tahar Djaout: We Should Give Life to His Ideas," by Jennifer Bryson, January 16, 2009
* Ali Chibani, ''Tahar Djaout et Lounis Aït Menguellet. Temps clos et ruptures spatiales,'' Paris, L'Harmattan, 2012
References
1954 births
1993 deaths
People from Aït Chafâa
Kabyle people
Algerian writers
Algerian male poets
Assassinated Algerian journalists
Algerian secularists
Algerian journalists
20th-century Algerian poets
20th-century male writers
20th-century journalists
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