A call for participation was launched on social networks a few months ago by Lazhari Labter in order to be able to print this book, which has not found a publisher. Finally, this long-term work, dedicated to Laghouat, his birthplace, was able to see the light of day.
The names of the people who have contributed to the financing of this beautiful book are at the beginning of this book as so many thanks to all those who have helped make this project a reality. A copy of this beautiful book is given to each contributor.
Lazhari Labter makes us discover one of the most beautiful oases in southern Algeria, at the foot of Mount Lazreg and Jebel Amour: Laghouat. During the colonial period, this enchanting city attracted a plethora of writers, painters, explorers, conquerors and travelers.
It was from the beginning of the 19th century, and more exactly after the capture of Laghouat, that painters began to show an interest in this city and its region, quickly followed by writers. On June 3, 1853, the artist painter from La Rochelle Eugène Fromentin left his luggage there.
The city still bore the stigmata of the massacre committed by the French army on its population, six months earlier, on December 4, 1852. “The very aspect of the city, the silence of the streets, the abandoned air of the houses , the loneliness of the markets, something else threatening and shadows warn you that this place has just been the scene of terrible events, and even in the least abused places everything indicates a city half dead – and of death violent; I was going to say murdered. ” (Page 30).
This testimony is reported by the painter in his famous work Un été dans le Sahara, published in 1857. Eugène Fromentin also produced sketches and paintings including Laghouat, Vue de Laghouat (visible at the Zabana National Museum in Oran ), A street in Laghouat (Chartreuse Museum, France). These canvases were painted in June 1853.
Eugène Fromentin stayed for six months in Laghouat. During this period he was very productive both artistically and literally, signing several writings on this southern city, hundreds of studies and paintings. A feat that forced the admiration of Théophile Gautier to the point of making him say: “Mr. Fromentin has a privilege that I have never seen anyone have to an equal degree! He has two muses: he is a painter in two languages. ”
Fromentin inspired other travelers who followed suit on the route des Portes du Sud, like the Saint-Simonian Henri Duveyrier, who became famous at the age of 24 following the publication of his book Les Touareg in 1864. He wrote in his Journal released in 1900 that he was captivated by the gardens of Laghouat. “I no longer recognized myself, I who, until then, had been almost insensitive to the beauties of nature; I had never experienced this feeling of ecstasy. ”
Reaching Laghouat was not an easy task in the 19th century, as the city was far from the capital, the winding roads and rudimentary transportations, as Lazhari Labter reminds us: “Few of them dared to venture so far into the Sahara. You had to arm yourself with courage and patience to cover the 400 km that separated Algiers from Laghouat, crossing swamps, wadis, mountains, gorges, ravines and desert expanses, populated by wild animals. ”
Writer and aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry stayed at the Hotel Transatlantique (now Marhaba) in Laghouat from May 5 to July 2, 1943 where he met writer Jules Roy. Strange fact: the author of The Little Prince has not written any text on Laghouat. And he was not the only one since Albert Camus did not write anything about this city after visiting it either. “Certainly, Albert Camus superbly described to us the beauty of the Saharan night which falls on Laghouat in an unparalleled twinkling of stars seen through Janine’s eyes from the top of the northern rampart of Fort Bouscaren, but he passed by. its history, ”notes the author.
Interest in this beautiful oasis did not fade after independence. Seduced by this profusion of paintings and literature produced by artists and writers extolling the beauty of Laghouat, swarms of tourists have landed in this city.
In 1969, a sand yacht race, organized between Laghouat and El Goléa, attracted a cohort of tourists and journalists with the presence of Françoise Hardy. The famous singer of All the boys and girls then gave the race start.
Lazhari Labter also pays tribute to Etienne Dinet, painter who sublimates Laghouat with his paintings. The painter discovered Laghouat in 1885. With his brushes, he immortalized the landscapes of this city as well as its inhabitants, as Eugène Fromentin had done before him.
His most famous paintings are Terrasses de Laghouat, Une rue de Laghouat, Oasis de Laghouat, Clair de lune in Laghouat. The author tells us that it was on the advice of Etienne Dinet that the villa Abdeltif was created in Algiers in 1907, a replica of the Medici villa, a residence for artists of all stripes.
The name of the famous poet Abdallah Ben Kerriou is inseparable from the city of Laghouat. The author shares with his readers one of his prettiest poems, A walker came to meet me. Also find an excerpt from the novel The Red Years by Leila Aslaoui (Casbah éditions) where she talks about her childhood in Laghouat.
Other Algerian authors, poets and artists who have written about this city are also in the spotlight such as Amèle El Mahdi, Amar Belkhodja, Arezki Metref, Mohammed Chettih, Kheira Ziregue-Soufari, Amine Lotfi Soukehal, Othmane Loucif, Hamza Boubakeur … . This beautiful book, dedicated to the memory of Ferhat Mokhtari and Mohamed Hadj Kaddour, is embellished with photos and canvases. A biography of all the cited authors is provided at the end of the book.
Soraya naili
Laghouat, seen by chroniclers, writers, painters, travelers, explorers and conquerors of Lazhari Labter. self-publishing. Year 2021. 241 pages. 4000 da.
LSA 02.10.2021
