Hawad

Hawad (* 1950 in Niger north of Agadez ; actually Mahmoudan Hawad ) is a Nigerien writer and calligrapher who lives in France .

Live and act

Hawad comes from a nomadic living Tuareg family from the mountains Aïr in northern Niger. In his youth he traveled to Algeria , Libya and Tunisia , where he came into contact with Sufism and other mystical currents. At the age of 17 he embarked on a long caravan journey that took him via Egypt to Baghdad . When he returned to Niger in 1969, living conditions had deteriorated significantly due to the onset of drought, which led to the famine of the 1970s and 1980s . Hawad then lived in Europe for two years, where he joined the hippie movement. After returning to the Aïr again, he settled in Aix-en-Provence in southern France. He is married to the French social anthropologist Hélène Claudot-Hawad .

Hawad writes poetry and prose with surrealist traits. His works are created through an oral presentation in the Tuareg language , which he and his wife translate into French in a second step . Hawad illustrates his books with lettering from the Tifinagh script , which has a decorative character. He himself describes his calligraphy as furigraphie (a combination of words from furor and graphics ). Central themes of his texts are the rebellion as well as episodes from the past and present of the Tuareg. Recurring metaphors for his Tuareg image are thirst - as an experience of desert life - and continuous movement, which is reflected in the nomadism practiced by some Tuaregs. The Hawad, little known in Niger, primarily has a western readership. He is close to anarchist traditions and expresses his solidarity with the Zapatistas and Chicanos , at the same time he practices a European-oriented nationalism with regard to his ethnicity . He distances himself from Islam , the religion widespread among the Tuareg. He rejects tourism as a source of income for his region of origin because of its possible neo-colonial - orientalist orientation. Some of Hawad's works have been translated into Italian and Dutch . The poet Adonis provided translations into Arabic .

Works

• Caravane de la soif . Édisud, Aix-en-Provence 1985, ISBN 2-85744-197-5 .
• Chants de la soif et de l'égarement . Édisud, Aix-en-Provence 1987, ISBN 2-85744-294-7 .
• L'anneau-sentier . L'Aphélie, Céret 1989, ISBN 2-85744-294-7 .
• Froissevent . N. Blandin, Paris 1991, ISBN 2-907695-18-5 .
• Testament nomad . N. Blandin, Paris 1991, ISBN 2-907695-16-9 .
• Yasida . N. Blandin, Paris 1991, ISBN 2-907695-19-3 .
• Buveurs de braise . MEET, Saint-Nazaire 1995, ISBN 2-903945-63-2 .
• Touaregs. Voix solitaires sous l'horizon confisqué . Peuples autochtones et développement, Paris 1996, ISBN 2-912114-00-4 .
• Le coude grinçant de l'anarchy . Paris-Méditerranée, Paris 1998, ISBN 2-84272-050-4 .
• Notre horizon de gamelles pour une gamelle d'horizons . Paris-Méditerranée, Paris 2001, ISBN 2-84272-103-9 .
• Sahara. Visions atomiques . Paris-Méditerranée, Paris 2003, ISBN 2-84272-167-5 .
• Houle des horizons . Non Lieu, Paris 2011, ISBN 978-2-35270-101-9 .
• Dans la nasse . Non Lieu, Paris 2014, ISBN 978-2-35270-177-4 .

literature

• Saley Boubé Bali : Hawad et la poésie de l'errance . In: Ecriture . No. 42: Littératures du Niger. Lausanne 1993, p. 171-179 .
• Gérard Martin: Hawad: l'écriture nomade . In: Marie-Clotilde Jacquey (ed.): Littérature nigérienne (=  Notre librairie . No. 107 ). CLEF, Paris 1991, p. 82-85 .
• Jean-Dominique Pénel, Amadou Maïlélé: Littérature du Niger. Rencontre . Volume I: Kélétigui Mariko, Mamani Abdoulaye, Idé Oumarou, Yazi Dogo, Hawad, Ibrahim Issa. L'Harmattan, Paris 2010, ISBN 978-2-296-12858-3 , Chapter V: Hawad , p. 205-238 .

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b} David Porter: Eyes to the South. French Anarchists and Algeria . With a foreword by Sylvain Boulouque. AK Press, Oakland / Edinburgh / Baltimore 2011, ISBN 978-1-84935-076-1 , pp. 445 .
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Christopher Wise: Hawad . In: Simon Gikandi (Ed.): Encyclopedia of African Literature . Routledge, London 2003, ISBN 0-415-23019-5 , pp. 303 .
3. ↑ ^{a b c d} Christopher Wise: Hawad . In: Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Emmanuel Akyeampong (Eds.): Dictionary of African Biography . Oxford University Press, New York 2012, ISBN 978-0-19-538207-5 , pp. 43 .
4. ^ ^{A b} Abdourahmane Idrissa, Samuel Decalo: Historical Dictionary of Niger . 4th edition. Scarecrow, Plymouth 2012, ISBN 978-0-8108-6094-0 , pp. 260 .
5. ↑ Jean-Dominique Penel: hawad: de l'espace morcelé à l'espace dilate . In: Christiane Albert, Rose-Marie Abomo-Maurin, Xavier Garnier, Gisèle Prignitz (eds.): Littératures africaines et territoires . Karthala, Paris 2011, ISBN 978-2-8111-0512-9 , pp. 207-208 .
6. ↑ Joe Lockard: Le Coudre Grinçant de l'Anarchie. (No longer available online.) In: Bad Subjects. June 2, 1999, archived from the original on August 6, 2012 ; accessed on September 12, 2015 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.