Au pays de la paresse. Algérie 1930. Roman colonial

THE WORLD OF NOMADS IN THE ALGERIAN HIGH PLATEAUS

The nomad Amor falls in love with the beautiful Nedjma. To be able to pay the dowry, he is forced to work in the Ouenza iron mine (between Souk-Ahras and Tébessa). However, Nedjma's father prefers his rival Seghir, who offers him the fertile lands he has always coveted.

Amor then decides to kidnap Nedjma and take refuge in Tunisia...

Once again, with incomparable accuracy and lucidity, Charles Courtin, drawing on his long experience as a local administrator, depicts the world of nomads in the Algerian High Plateaus.

These nomads "in the land of laziness," who became sedentary under French colonization, are once again transforming into "modern nomads" by leaving their douars to work for the "infidels" – at the Ouenza mine or by crossing the Mediterranean.

And it is through this money and this slow change in mentality that the Muslims seem to be preparing their revenge:

"The Muslims were buying back their lands from the Christians. Their wages, the money with which the roumis rewarded their fatigue, they allocated to this insidious reclaiming of the soil. They were taking back the land of their ancestors, piece by piece, painstakingly. This work that they despised was a weapon that the roumis offered them to defeat them, a formidable weapon that might lead to the defeat of their race, because they would only sense the threat too late."

Notes, comments, and analyses by Wolf Albes.

Includes documentation on the Ouenza mine.

Reprint of the original 1942 edition (Librairie Alphonse Lemerre, Paris) : Au Pays de la Paresse

France-Algeria Collection 57

22 €