MEDI1TV Afrique : Culture - 16/07/2024
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00:00Welcome to Médien-TV, and the book in this chronicle is the first novel by the French-Moroccan author Fatemeh Ouassak,
00:22entitled Rue du Passage and published by La Tess.
00:26Fatemeh Ouassak's journey is fully understood through the question of the territory and his attachment to the neighborhoods that cross his identity,
00:35that of his childhood, in the suburbs of Lille, and that of Bagnolet, a suburb of East Paris,
00:40adjacent to a motorway exchange where today the 48-year-old essayists live and work.
00:46After two remarkable essays published in the La Découverte edition, La Puissance des mers in 2020, Nous serons libres in 2023,
00:53it marks the end of March, Rue du Passage.
00:56This novel is a kind of fictional newspaper about a child from a popular neighborhood, about those who make him live.
01:03A work that draws from the nostalgia of his own teenage years, that of the chewing-gum flash,
01:09the smell of cumin that embalms the staircases, and of Cyndi Lauper.
01:15I invite you to listen to Fatemeh Ouassak.
01:18I drew my inspiration from my memory.
01:22So in those 80s that I myself went through,
01:2780s that I spent in a popular neighborhood inhabited by immigrants, exiles,
01:35people from Africa, North Africa in particular.
01:41And I tried to go and look for the moments of joy in particular, the moments of solidarity.
01:48I tried to go and look for beauty.
01:51A certain aesthetic also, quite typical of the 80s.
01:55The 80s in general, so acidulated colors,
01:59balls, the rope to jump, a certain musicality too.
02:05In Rue du Passage, Fatemeh Ouassak celebrates his walkers and walkers,
02:09whose unknown work, never named,
02:12allowed exiled people to unite, to gather and to help each other.
02:17Through the gaze of a curious child named Salima, she explores the landscapes of her childhood
02:22and the inhabitants that make them up.
02:25The cassette walker who brought news from the country,
02:28the spice doser, this culinary diva,
02:31on whom the families could count to turn their mess into a real feast.
02:36The caftanier, a kind of fatal woman living on the last floor of the building
02:40and who made sublime robes by hand.
02:43The rossignol of the basement, who sings the call to prayer.
02:46Fatemeh Ouassak opens the doors of his neighborhood,
02:49which organized itself, good year, bad year,
02:52to the rhythm of the call to prayer, births, deaths,
02:56but also stories of love and joy and pride,
02:59because there were some, she says.
03:02Thus, Fatemeh Ouassak traces the thread of a forgotten story,
03:05of the great story, that of the working class immigrants in France.
03:09We listen again to the writer.
03:11I really wanted to tell a story, a little story, in fact,
03:15banal, everyday.
03:18I really wanted to go through the tale,
03:23through the gaze of a child too,
03:26a childish gaze,
03:31where the child is looking for magic,
03:34looking for fun, for play.
03:36I really wanted to go through that to actually say more things,
03:40to actually have an even more radical speech
03:44than the speech I could have in my previous books,
03:48that is, in my political essays.
03:50I find that the literary story, and in particular the tale,
03:54allow you to say more things.
03:57First of all, in a very immediate way,
04:01to be able to realize, as through a photograph,
04:06a little bit, in a slightly impressionist way,
04:09what were these communities, these popular neighborhoods.
04:12Rue du Passage is Fatemeh Ouassak's third book,
04:16and for this new publication, she therefore chose fiction.
04:20And the author admits that in reality,
04:22it is more the story of the book that is imposed on her.
04:25Indeed, in 2020, her father calls her to tell her
04:29that an old man he knew had just died
04:32in a worker's home.
04:35Fatemeh Ouassak believes she recognizes the man
04:37who was passing these famous tapes
04:39from one bank to the other of the Mediterranean
04:41when she was little.
04:42And since that day, she has been writing a text
04:45as a tribute to the emigrated workers.
04:48Let's listen to Fatemeh Ouassak.
04:50This child, Salima, is between 5 and 10 years old.
04:54So it's between 1983 and 1988, 88, 89.
05:01And I really wanted to put the story of the emigration
05:06of the workers of the 80s up to this very curious girl,
05:13who is looking for her guardian angel.
05:18This curiosity, this search, this quest,
05:22I find that it allows to express a lot of what I wanted to express,
05:30that is to say, once again, joy, pride, solidarity.
05:35It's really the literary story,
05:38and precisely the literary story through the gaze of this little girl
05:42that allows that, I think.
05:45And music to finish,
05:47and this new clip in tribute to the city of Dakar,
05:50in Senegal, King Baba and Ndeye Diouf declare their flame
05:55in the Senegalese capital.
05:57It's actually an improbable meeting
05:59between the rapper King Baba and the traditional Griot singer Ndeye Diouf.
06:04Both of them are moving as ambassadors for the city of Dakar
06:07in their duo event.
06:09A surprising collaboration,
06:11in addition to a title that works very well,
06:14since King Baba is based in the traditional universe of Ndeye Diouf.
06:18Dakar is honored,
06:20and it's a transgenerational bridge
06:22that creates the two artists to speak to as many people as possible.
06:25The clip opens on an image of the village of Ndakarou in 1960,
06:30before the locality becomes the municipality of Dakar,
06:33the current capital of Senegal.
06:35Let's watch this clip together.
07:03And thank you to you, dear viewers,
07:32for your loyalty and information.
07:34We continue on our different channels,
07:36Median TV Arabic, Median TV Maghreb, Median TV Afrique,
07:39and of course on our digital media, medianews.com.
08:02Let's go.
08:32Let's go.