as a boarder.

Kateb Yacine was in his third year at the collège when the May 8, 1945 demonstrations occurred. He participated in these demonstrations that ended with the massacre of between six and eight (according to nationalists forty-five) thousand Algerians by the French army and police. Three days later he was placed under arrest and imprisoned for two months. From that point on he became a partisan for the nationalist cause. Expelled from secondary school, watching his mother's psychological health decline, passing through a period of dejection and immersed in the writings of Lautréamont and Baudelaire, his father sent him to the high school in Bône (Annaba

Annaba

Annaba is a city in the northeastern corner of Algeria near the river Seybouse. It is located in Annaba Province. With a population of 257,359 , it is the fourth largest city in Algeria. It is a leading industrial centre in eastern Algeria....

). There he met 'Nedjma' ('the star'), an 'already married cousin' with whom he lived for 'maybe eight months', as he later acknowledged.

While living with Nedjma he published his first collection of poetry in 1946. He had already become 'politicized' and started giving lectures under the auspices of the PPA, 'the great nationalist party of the masses'. Yacine went to Paris in 1947, "into the lion's den" as he put it.

In May 1947 he joined the Communist party and gave a lecture in the 'Salle des Sociétés savantes' on emir Abd al-Qadir. During a second visit to France the following year he published 'Nedjma ou le Poème du Couteau' ('a hint of what was to follow') in the revue 'Le Mercure de France'. He was a journalist at the daily 'Alger républicain' between 1949 and 1951, his first great reportages coming from Saudi Arabia and Sudan (Khartoum). After returning to Algeria, he published (under the pseudonym Said Lamri) an article denouncing
'swindling' at the holy place of Mecca

Mecca

Mecca is a city in the Hijaz and the capital of Makkah province in Saudi Arabia. The city is located inland from Jeddah in a narrow valley at a height of above sea level...

.

After his father's death in 1950 Yacine worked as a longshoreman in Algiers

Algiers

' is the capital and largest city of Algeria. According to the 1998 census, the population of the city proper was 1,519,570 and that of the urban agglomeration was 2,135,630. In 2009, the population was about 3,500,000...

. He returned to Paris where he would stay until 1959. During this period in Paris he worked with Malek Haddad

Malek Haddad

Malek Haddad was an Algerian poet and writer in the French language.- Partial bibliography :...

, developed a relationship with M'hamed Issiakhem

M'hamed Issiakhem

M'hamed Issiakhem is one of the founders of the modern Algerian painting.- Biography:M'hamed Issiakhem born on in Tizi Ouzou . Since 1931 his family moved out to Relizane where he spent most of his childhood. In 1943 he handles a stolen, from a French military camp, grenade, which explodes...

, and, in 1954, spoke extensively with Bertold Brecht. In 1954, the revue Esprit

Esprit (magazine)

Esprit is a French literary magazine. Founded in October 1932 by Emmanuel Mounier, it was the principal review of personalist intellectuals of the time. From 1957 to 1976, it was directed by Jean-Marie Domenach. Paul Thibaud directed it from 1977 to 1989. The philosopher Paul Ricoeur often...

published Yacine's play 'Le cadavre encerclé', which was staged by Jean-Marie Serreau but was banned in France. 'Nedjma' was published in 1956 (and Kateb will not forget the editor's comment: "This is too complicated. In Algeria you've got such pretty sheep, why don't you talk about your sheep?"). During the Algerian war for independence Yacine was forced to travel abroad for a long time due to the harassment he faced from the DST

Direction de la surveillance du territoire

The Direction de la Surveillance du Territoire was a directorate of the French National Police operating as a domestic intelligence agency. It was responsible for counterespionage, counterterrorism and more generally the security of France against foreign threats and interference...

. He lived in numerous places, subsisting as a guest writer or working various odd jobs in France, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Yugoslavia and the USSR.

After a stay in Cairo

Cairo

Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...

, Yacine returned again to Algeria in 1962, shortly after the independence celebrations. He resumed writing for the 'L'Alger républicain' but traveled frequently between 1963 and 1967 to Moscow, France and Germany. 'La Femme sauvage', which he had written between 1954 and 1959, was performed in Paris in 1963. 'Les Ancêtres redoublent de férocité' was staged in 1967 and 'La Poudre d'intelligence' in Paris in 1968, then in dialectal Algerian Arabic in Algiers in 1969. In 1964 Yacine published six essays on 'our brothers the Indians' in 'L'Alger républicain' and recounted his meeting with Jean-Paul Sartre

Jean-Paul Sartre

Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre was a French existentialist philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary critic. He was one of the leading figures in 20th century French philosophy, particularly Marxism, and was one of the key figures in literary...

 while his mother was being committed to the psychiatric hospital in Blida

Blida

Blida is a city in Algeria. It is the capital of Blida Province, and it is located about 45 km south-west of Algiers, the national capital. The name Blida, i.e...

 ('La Rose de Blida', in 'Révolution Africaine', July 1965). He left for Vietnam in 1967, completely abandoning the novel and wrote 'L'Homme aux pieds de caoutchouc', a controversial play celebrating Ho Chi Minh

Ho Chi Minh

Hồ Chí Minh , born Nguyễn Sinh Cung and also known as Nguyễn Ái Quốc, was a Vietnamese Marxist-Leninist revolutionary leader who was prime minister and president of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam...

 that was published, performed and translated into Arabic in 1970.

The same year Yacine returned to make a more permanent home in Algeria. During this period he had a significant change in philosophy: he refused to continue writing in French, and instead began working on popular theatre, epical and satirical, performed in dialectal Arabic. Beginning this work with the theatre company 'Théatre de la Mer' from Bab El Oued in 1971,
sponsored by the Ministère du Travail et des Affaires Sociales, Kateb traveled all over Algeria for five years, putting on plays for an audience of workers, farmers and students. His main shows were entitled 'Mohamed prends ta valise' (1971), 'la Voix des femmes' (1972), 'La Guerre de deux mille ans' (1974), 'Le Roi de l'Ouest'(1975) and 'Palestine trahie' (1977).
Between 1972 and 1975 Kateb went with the tours for 'Mohamed prends ta valise' and 'La Guerre de deux mille ans' to France and to the German Democratic Republic

German Democratic Republic

The German Democratic Republic , informally called East Germany by West Germany and other countries, was a socialist state established in 1949 in the Soviet zone of occupied Germany, including East Berlin of the Allied-occupied capital city...

. The Algerian government in Sidi-Bel-Abbes more or less sentenced him to direct the city's regional theatre as a kind of exile. Having been forbidden to appear on television, Yacine staged his plays in schools or businesses. He was often criticized for his emphasis on Berber tradition and the 'tamazight' language, as well as for his liberal positions on issues of gender equality such as his position against women being required to wear a headscarf.

In 1986 Kateb Yacine circulated an excerpt of a play about Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999, and was the first South African president to be elected in a fully representative democratic election. Before his presidency, Mandela was an anti-apartheid activist, and the leader of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing...

, and, in 1987 he received the Grand prix National des Lettres in France.

In 1988 the Avignon Festival staged 'Le Bourgeois gentilhomme ou le spectre du parc Monceau', a play about Robespierre that Yacine wrote at the request of the Arras

Arras

Arras is the capital of the Pas-de-Calais department in northern France. The historic centre of the Artois region, its local speech is characterized as a Picard dialect...

 Cultural Center for the bicentennial commemoration of the French Revolution. Yacine settled in Verscheny in Drôme

Drôme

Drôme , a department in southeastern France, takes its name from the Drôme River.-History:The French National Constituent Assembly set up Drôme as one of the original 83 departments of France on March 4, 1790, during the French Revolution...

, and traveled often to the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 and continued to make frequent trips to Algeria. At his death he left an unfinished work on the Algerian riots of October 1988. In 2003 his works are admitted to the Comédie-Française

Comédie-Française

The Comédie-Française or Théâtre-Français is one of the few state theaters in France. It is the only state theater to have its own troupe of actors. It is located in the 1st arrondissement of Paris....

.

Taught in the language of the colonizer, Kateb Yacine considered French the Algerians' spoil of the war for independence. He declared in 1966 that "Francophony is a neocolonial political machine, which only perpetuates our alienation, but the usage of French language does not mean that one is an agent of a foreign power, and I write in French to tell the French that I am not French". Trilingual, Kateb Yacine also wrote and supervised the translation of his texts into the Berber language. His work manifests his multicultural country's search for identity and the aspirations of its people.

Kateb Yacine is the father of three children, Hans, Nadia and Amazigh Kateb

Amazigh Kateb

Amazigh Kateb is an Algerian singer and musician.He emigrated to France in 1988, he was the main figure of the group in Grenoble Gnawa Diffusion . He is the son of the famous writer Kateb Yacine, founder of the modern Algerian literature...

, singer for the band Gnawa Diffusion

Gnawa Diffusion

Gnawa Diffusion is a French and Algerian Gnawa music band based in Paris, France. The group's lead singer, Amazigh , is the son of the Algerian writer and poet Kateb Yacine. Although there is a strong Gnawa influence, the band is noted for its mix of reggae and roots music...

.

Books by Kateb

• Soliloques, poèmes, Bône, Ancienne imprimerie Thomas, 1946. Réédition (avec une introduction de Kateb Yacine), Alger, Bouchène, 1991, 64 pages.
• Abdelkader et l'indépendance algérienne, Alger, En Nahda, 1948, 47 pages.
• Nedjma, roman, Paris, Editions du Seuil, 1956, 256 pages. (English translation by Richard Howard, Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1991, ISBN 0813913128 and ISBN 0813913136 [pbk.])
• Le Cercle des représailles, théâtre, Paris, Editions du Seuil, 1959, 169 pages [contient Le Cadavre encerclé, La Poudre d'intelligence, Les Ancêtres redoublent de férocité, Le Vautour, introduction d'Edouard Glissant
  Édouard Glissant
  Édouard Glissant was a Martinican writer, poet and literary critic. He is widely recognised as one of the most influential figures in Caribbean thought and cultural commentary.-Life:...
  
   : Le Chant profond de Kateb Yacine].
• Le Polygone étoilé, roman, Paris, Editions du Seuil, 1966, 182 pages.
• Les Ancêtres redoublent de férocité, [avec la fin modifiée], Paris, collection TNP, 1967.
• L'Homme aux sandales de caoutchouc, hommages au Vietnam et à Ho Chi Minh
  Ho Chi Minh
  Hồ Chí Minh , born Nguyễn Sinh Cung and also known as Nguyễn Ái Quốc, was a Vietnamese Marxist-Leninist revolutionary leader who was prime minister and president of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam...
  
  , théâtre, Paris, Editions du Seuil, 1970, 288 pages.
• Boucherie de l'espérance,oeuvres théâtrales, [quatre pièces, contient notamment Mohammed prends ta valise, 1971, et Le Bourgeois sans culotte], Paris, Editions du Seuil, 1999, 570 pages. ISBN 2020339056
• L'Œuvre en fragments, Inédits littéraires et textes retrouvés, rassemblés et présentés par Jacqueline Arnaud, Paris, Sindbad 1986, 448 pages (ISBN 2-7274-0129-9).
• Le Poète comme un boxeur, entretiens 1958-1989, Paris, Editions du Seuil, 1994. ISBN 2020221934
• Minuit passé de douze heures, écrits journalistiques 1947-1989, textes réunis par Amazigh Kateb, Paris, Editions du Seuil, 1999, 360 pages. ISBN 2020387301
• Parce que c'est une femme, introduction de Zebeïda Chergui, théâtre, [contient un entretien avec Kateb Yacine avec El Hanar Benali, 1972, La Kahina ou Dilhya; Saout Ennissa, 1972; La Voix des femmes et Louise Michel et la Nouvelle Calédonie], Paris, Editions des Femmes, 2004, 174 pages.

Introductions and prefaces

• Les Fruits de la colère, préface à Aît Djaffar, Complainte de la petite Yasmina
• Les mille et une nuit de la révolution, préface à Abdelhamid Benzine, La Plaine et la montagne
• Les Ancêtres redoublent de férocité, préface à Tassadit Yacine, "Lounis Aït Menguellet
  Lounis Ait Menguellet
  Lounis Aït Menguellet was born in Ighil Bouammas in Tizi Ouzou Province, is a Berber singer from Algeria, who sings in the Berber language...
  
   chante…", textes berbères et français, Paris, La Découverte, 1989; Alger Bouchène/Awal, 1990 [dernier texte de Kateb Yacine, addressé à Tassadit Yacine le 29 septembre 1989, un mois avant sa mort].

• Kateb Yacine also wrote many prefaces for his painter friends, M'hamed Issiakhem (Œil-de-lynx et les américains, trente-cinq années de l'enfer d'un peintre) et Mohammed Khadda
  Mohammed Khadda
  Mohammed Khadda was an Algerian painter and sculptor who is considered to be among the founders of contemporary Algerian painting. He debuted in 1960. His influences included Cubism and Arabic calligraphy. He tended toward the non-figurative or abstract...
  
  .

On Kateb Yacine

• Hommage à Kateb Yacine [with a detailed bibliography by Jacqueline Arnaud], Kalim n° 7, Alger, Office des Publications Universitaires, 1987, 264 pages.
• Ghania Khelifi, Kateb Yacine, Eclats et poèmes, [chronology and many documents], Alger, Enag Editions, 1990, 136 pages.
• Kateb Yacine, Eclats de mémoire, documents réunis par Olivier Corpet, Albert Dichy et Mireille Djaider, Editions de l'IMEC, 1994, 80 pages (ISBN 2-908295-20-2).

External links

• Images de Kateb Yacine, excerpts, articles from the Algerian press
• Bibliographie par Charles Bonn (L'Harmattan, 1997), presentation de Kateb Yacine par Mireille Djaïder.