Artist and cultural entrepreneur, Sofiane Si Merabet, 43, is the author of The confused Arab (Belfond, 236 pages, 20 euros). He runs the Instagram account @theconfusedarab and questions Arab identities and memories.
He explains that nostalgia is the most shared feeling among the different Arab communities. Why?
The word “nostalgia” does not have a negative connotation among Arabs. The HaneenIt is a feeling that we grew up with, whether in the diaspora or in Arab societies. In the diaspora, it is the myth of the lost country. But even people who stay in their country raise their children with the idea that things were better before.
Among the Arabs, this nostalgia is linked to a feeling of the degradation of civilisation linked to the myth of Andalusia, to pan-Arabism, etc. There is a desire to reassure ourselves by looking to the past. Today, this way of thinking is being questioned thanks to the diasporas established in Western countries. There is also the influence of the Gulf countries, which manage to show another relationship with the present and the future.
You live in the United Arab Emirates. Are you living, in a way, a double exile?
My departure for the Gulf was voluntary and linked to a desire to rebuild my identity. I went there for the first time in 2004. Seeing signs in Arabic on modern buildings made me realise that it was not just a language of the past linked to religion. This acted as a band-aid for the fact that my Arab identity was denied and misunderstood in French society.
I have a double nostalgia, that of a dream Algeria and that of the France I left behind. In my childhood I was taught: “Algeria is your identity, and whether good or bad, it is part of you.” This is what helped me to be curious and more assertive in constructing my identity. Having left France sixteen years ago allows me to see how much my country has changed. If I feel nostalgia, it is above all for the image that France projected to the world. Words like “Republic”, “secularism”, “equality” had value. By rediscovering my Arab identities, I learned to love my French identity even more. Jordan Bardella and Eric Ciotti do not have the monopoly on saying what France should be like.
Was your departure from France more of a choice or a painful one?
I had a job with potential for advancement in France and I was doing very well, even though I was stuck in the glass ceiling. I left because I needed to live in an Arab country. The Gulf was a revelation for me. I understood that the Arabs were not condemned to poverty and underdevelopment. In the Gulf, there is a pre-colonial imagination that allows us to escape direct and civilizing adversity.
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