10. Sep 2011

Noufel Bouzeboudja releases new book

Algerian author and ICORN's writer in residence in Fanoe, Denmark, Noufel Bouzeboudja, has published a new collection of poems in France under Edilivre. Titled Du Haut de nos Potences ('From Above Our Gallows'), the work explores themes including the revolutions in North Africa, freedom of expression, dictatorship, and religious extremism.

The following extract is taken from the Foreword, written by Dr. Boussad Berrichi (University of Canada):

Du Haut de nos Potences is a collection of poems written in an exciting, turbulent, full of meaning style. The quest for the Self, the meaning of life and confidences haven’t the same function, or the same role in a sustained narrative prose than in the concentration of a poem. Noufel Bouzeboudja’s poetry is refined, subversive and liberating. It examines the political, social, economic and cultural situations of the dominated and the dominating communities. It compares the weakness of some with the force of the others and it provides an overview of the complaints brought against the Dominator by the Dominated. The "poetic fight" of Noufel Bouzeboudja aims to expose the suffering caused by political systems in this global village, mainly the misery of some citizens. He tries to believe that personal growth is possible in a world dominated by violence.

Below is a selection from Du Haut de nos Potences:

Come brother

Sit down beside me

Shake that dust from your memory

…

Brother,

No need of their gods:

God-oil, God-dollar

God-power, God-star

…

My mouth filled with

Earth, blood, ashes

But above all with

Syllables and cries, cries, criiiies

Why do you dread

Why are you afraid

Of the shouted or written cries?

…

Crash of misunderstandings

Dangerous are the invisible walls

The invisible walls: FEARS

The concept of Me and the other

Of We and the others

Fear of the other

Of his difference

…

Neoliberal straitjacket

Imposed since many years

Re-colonization under the aegis

Of the transnationals

Leaders in complicity

Under creditors’ mastery

Let Washington or Paris club decide

Retooling the World

Ultimate required criteria: Docility

…

Philosophical Trinity:
Religion, Power and Capital
Planning the contours of the world
Setting the norms and regulating them

...

Plump zealists’ parade
Shaking with a greedy hand
A thick and bushy beard
Sketching smiles
At innocent manipulated teenagers
Ready to burst into thousand pieces
…

Why praying

Or being furious for anything

A book of verses

A Kalashinkov, a rifle

A sword

What’s for?

Blood more and more!

…

I’m with you in peace

No need of words:

Western, non-western immigration

And those electoralist manipulating aims