Boualem Sansal بوعلام صنصال | |
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| Born | Boualem Sansal (1949-10-15)15 October 1949 (age 75) Theniet El Had,Tissemsilt,French Algeria |
| Occupation | Novelist,essayist |
| Language | French |
| Nationality | Algeria France (since 2024) |
| Period | 1990s–present |
| Notable works | The Barbarians' Oath (1999) An Unfinished Business (2008) 2084: The End of the World (2015) |
Boualem Sansal (Arabic:بوعلام صنصال, born 15 October 1949 inTheniet El Had) is an Algerian author who writes in French. In 2024, he became a French citizen. He holds an engineering degree from theNational Polytechnic School and a PhD in economics. Sansal has worked as a teacher, consultant, business leader, and senior official in Algeria’s Ministry of Industry. After retiring from his high-ranking government position, he began writing novels at the age of 50. He is known for his outspoken criticism ofIslamism and the Algerian government.
Sansal has authored several novels that have earned him literary awards mainly French, including thePrix du Premier Roman (1999), thePrix Nessim-Habif [fr] (2008), thePeace Prize of the German Book Trade (2011), and theGrand Prix du roman de l'Académie française (2015).
He was imprisoned in Algeria on 16 November 2024, shortly after publicly challenging the country’s borders inFrontières [fr], a far-right French media outlet. His arrest has escalated the diplomatic tensions betweenAlgeria and France. On March 27, 2025, he was sentenced to five years in prison.
Boualem Sansal was born on 15 October 1949,[1][2][3] inTheniet El Had (during theFrench colonial period), a village in the Ouarsenis Mountains, inAlgeria. His father, Abdelkader Sansal, is ofMoroccan origin and comes from a family in theRif region of Morocco that settled in Algeria.[4][5] His mother, Khdidja Benallouche, received a French-style education.[5] Boualem Sansal spent part of his childhood in the Belcourt neighborhood ofAlgiers.[6]
Boualem Sansal has an engineering degree from theNational Polytechnic School as well as a PhD in economics. He has worked as a teacher, consultant, business leader, and senior official at the Algerian Ministry of Industry.[7]
He began writingnovels at the age of 50 after retiring from his job as a high-ranking official in the Algerian government. Theassassination of PresidentMohamed Boudiaf in 1992 and the rise ofIslamic fundamentalism in Algeria inspired him to write about his country.[8]
Sansal continues to live with his wife and two daughters in Algeria despite the controversy his books have aroused in his homeland.[9] At the 2007 International Festival of Literature inBerlin, he was introduced as a writer "exiled in his own country". He claims that Algeria is becoming a bastion ofIslamic extremism and the country is losing its intellectual and moral underpinnings.[10]
Sansal took French citizenship in 2024.[11]
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In November 2024, Boualem Sansal was taken into custody in Algiers by the police on charges of "undermining national unity"; criminal proceedings were also brought against him.[12] Sansal's arrest occurred in a context whenAlgeria's relations with France were at an all time low.[13][14][15][16][14][17][18][19] Sansal was charged with undermining Algeria's territorial integrity and economy, insulting authorities and possessing documents that endangered national interests.[20] He was accused of undermining the integrity of Algerian territory, for having taken up, on Frontières, a Frenchfar-right media outlet, Morocco's position according to which its territory had been amputated for the benefit of Algeria under French colonization.[21][22][23][24]
Shortly after Sansal's arrest, when his whereabouts were still uncertain, French PresidentEmmanuel Macron expressed concern about his situation:Algeria Press Service, the Algerian government's news agency, responded with a scathing release that confirmed Sansal's arrest, called him a "denier" of his country's history and sovereignty, and accused the French government of being under the influence of an "anti-Algerian", "Zionist" lobby.[25] Literary figures, including fourNobel Prize winners, demanded Sansal's release.[26][16] French foreign ministerJean-Noël Barrot also expressed concern over Sansal's fate and questioned Algeria's intentions regarding itsrelations with France.[27] In February, Algerian PresidentAbdelmadjid Tebboune mentioned that "Boualem Sansal is not an Algerian problem. It's a problem for those who created it [...] It's a sordid affair aimed at mobilizing against Algeria."[28]
In December 2024, Sansal, suffering fromprostate cancer,[29] was transferred to a care unit.[30] On January 23, 2025, theEuropean Parliament passed a resolution calling for his immediate release.[31] Algerian lawmakers signed a statement rebuking the European Parliament's resolution, which they said contained "misleading allegations with the sole aim of launching a blatant attack against Algeria."[32] TheArab Parliament also condemned the European Parliament's resolution, calling it "irresponsible" and a "blatant and unacceptable interference" in Algeria's domestic affairs, and calling on the European Parliament to "respect the decisions of the Algerian judicial system."[33]
In February 2025, Sansal's French lawyer, François Zimeray, claimed that Sansal was going on ahunger strike.[11] President of the Algiers Bar, Mohamed Baghdadi, however, contradicted this claim, asserting that Sansal is "not on a hunger strike." Baghdadi also expressed surprise that Zimeray "continues to say that he is still his lawyer" after Sansal said that he wanted to defend himself.[34] In March 2025, Zimeray announced that he was going to theUN to denounce Boualem Sansal's "arbitrary detention."[35]
Sansal's imprisonment also caused controversy in France, where several left-wing figures and organizations appeared reluctant to support him.[36][37][38][39] HistorianBenjamin Stora commented that Sansal's statements had "hurt Algerian national feelings" and political scientist Nedjib Sidi Moussa claimed that Sansal was hostile to Muslims and immigrants, likening his positions to those of theFrench far right.[40]La France Insoumise did not support the European Parliament's resolution, with 4 of its MEPs voting against it and 2 abstaining: one of them,Rima Hassan, said she had voted against the resolution because Sansal's case was used by "the right and the far right".[41] On March 4, the FrenchNational Assembly passed a resolution calling for Sansal's release, with all left-wing MPs abstaining.[42]
On March 20, theDar El Beïda court requested ten years in prison for Sansal.[43] Zimeray was not allowed to attend the audience.[20]Echorouk El Yawmi reported that Sansal had said he would dispense with a lawyer, including the one appointed by the court, and represent himself in court. He denied having been in contact withKabyle independentists as the court surmised. Sansal was also charged on March 13 of "intelligence with foreign entities"[44] by giving sensitive information to the French ambassador in Algeria,[15] though that charge was dropped one week later.[44] The court eventually removed the criminal charges concerning Algeria's territorial integrity.[19] Macron called upon Tebboune, hoping for a "a quick outcome" so that Sansal could "regain his freedom".[43]
On March 27, 2025, Sansal was sentenced to five years in prison and to a fine of 500,000 dinars (about 3,730 US dollars).[45][46]
Since the publication ofPoste restante: Alger. Lettre de colère et d'espoir à mes compatriotes in 2006, Sansal's books have been banned in Algeria.[10]
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Sansal's 2008 novelLe village de l'Allemand ou le journal des frères Schiller, is the story of two Algerian brothers who burrow into the past and discover that their father had been aNazi officer who fled to Algeria after the war. The book explores the fine line betweenIslamic fundamentalism andNazism.[10]Le Village de l'allemand is the first of Sansal's novels to be translated into English, and was published in the US in September 2009 asThe German Mujahid and in the UK asAn Unfinished Business.
The novel follows the unique journey that brothers Malrich and Rachel Schiller individually took in discovering the dark past of their late father, a formerSS officer, who was responsible for the deaths of countless Jews during the Holocaust.[47] Although the story is fictional, Sansal incorporates many historical events to create a very realistic backdrop. The most significant events Sansal addresses include the end ofWorld War II,the Holocaust, theAlgerian War of Independence, and the rise of Islamic Fundamentalism[48] within France. The novel is found to be very controversial because the destructive power of Nazi Germany during World War II is compared to that of Islamic Fundamentalists in Europe after the war. The narrative suggests various themes including the impact of both guilt and violence, the glorification of oppressors, and how the burden of one person's sins can be felt by others. It addresses how knowledge regarding the significance of the Holocaust is understood and misunderstood in vastly different ways around the world. Furthermore, Boualem Sansal highlights the fact that there is very little known aboutNational Socialism in theArab world. National Socialism was the political ideology of the Nazi Party. The novel suggests that generations which follow World War II and, more specifically, the Holocaust, have a responsibility to educate themselves on the matter using whatever resources are available to them. People also must spread that knowledge to those who cannot access it themselves in order to ensure that such a terrible genocide never occurs again. The benefit to history is that we, as human beings, can learn from the mistakes of the past in order to make better decisions in the future. Sansal's story proves that individuals can have incredible impacts on improving the lives of others and protecting their communities. It does not take an army to enact change or rather, it should not take an army to enact positive change.
Sansal's work has won top literary awards inFrance, among them the Prix du Premier Roman in 1999 for hisdebut novel,Le serment des Barbares (Gallimard, 1999), which has since been made into a film based on ascreenplay by Jorge Semprún.[9]
In 2008, Sansal received the Prix Nessim Habif fromAcadémie royale de langue et de littérature françaises de Belgique.
On 16 October 2011 Sansal received thePeace Prize of the German Book Trade.[49] On 19 December 2011, he was announced as being on the jury for the62nd Berlin International Film Festival, scheduled to be held in February 2012.[50]
Sansal was the recipient of the 2012 Editions GallimardArabic Novel prize for his book "Rue Darwin." The prize is awarded by the Arab Ambassadors Council, based in Paris. However, after the Council learned that Sansal had attended theJerusalem Writers Festival earlier in the year, they revoked the 15,000 euros prize money he had been slated to receive.[51] Commenting on the decision to withdraw the prize money, Sansal said it was "completely unacceptable", adding that Arab countries – and his home country, Algeria, in particular – had "shut themselves in a prison of intolerance".France Culture radio director and head of the jury that awarded the prize, Olivier Poivre d'Avror, said before resigning his post in protest, that the prize money had been withdrawn as a "sordid" consequence ofHamas pressure. "Between being nominated for the prize and actually receiving it, Boualem Sansal visited Israel … Hamas immediately issued a statement calling his presence an act of treason against the Palestinians. The reaction of Arab Ambassadors Council was a direct result of this."[52] A spokeswoman for the Arab Ambassadors Council claimed the council's decision had not been influenced by the Hamas statement on the matter.[53] Israeli Foreign MinisterAvigdor Lieberman urged the international community to denounce the boycott against Sansal.[54]
Sansal said he does not regret visiting Israel, stating, "I am glad I visited Israel and returned with great happiness". Sansal also said "Israelis have all the reasons in the world to be proud of what they have achieved in their country in such a short period of time...In so many fields, Israel is at the international forefront and it is very impressive." Sansal also said that he was moved by Lieberman's support, and, "His statement was so gracious in comparison to Arab governments. He told them: 'You're persecuting intellectuals. We embrace them and care for their safety. That is why your citizens are rebelling against you.' That is a harsh blow to Arab governments." Sansal criticized Hamas as well, saying that it was a terrorist movement that "has taken Gazans hostage. It has taken Islam hostage."[54]
Sansal was awarded the 2015Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française for his novel2084: la fin du monde.[55]
