In a column, written in the form of a slam, Fikry El Azzouzi describes himself as follows:

Life for me is a blessing.
I have written miracles
which all of you have read.
Books, theatre, columns, scenarios,
I’m sure to have forgotten something.
I can mean something,
I love my lifestyle.
Not only am I exotic and enticing
I also have a sexy brain.
#egotripper #gettothepoint
Describing the spirit of the times. 
That is my goal.
Putting my finger on the wound.
So you can feel it.
Art for art’s sake?
Not my DNA.

This combination of irony, self-mockery, provocation, directness and engagement is typical of Fikry El Azzouzi’s work. Equally characteristic are its language, energy and rhythm, which are inspired by street jargon and youth culture. His background as the second-generation son of immigrants shapes his writing. The content of his novels, plays and columns is characterised by a satirical and critical attitude, and their form by a raw and hilarious writing style. This combination makes El Azzouzi an authentic voice in Flemish literature.

Fikry El Azzouzi was born in Temse in 1978, the son of Moroccan immigrants. His experiences as an ‘outsider’ profoundly shaped his perspective on society and his social engagement as an artist: “I still think that I don’t really belong, but I also see the advantage in that: I don’t really want to belong.” Despite the fact that his voice is heard in the public debate – he won the Ark Prize for Free Speech – he cultivates his position as an outsider: “the satirist’s place is on the side-lines, so that he has the necessary freedom to react appropriately. … You often expose uncomfortable truths with humour or satire.”

These uncomfortable truths are the conflicts of the multicultural society in a globalised world, in which nationalism, identity politics, Islam, terrorism, racism, capitalism and right-wing extremism are the most important dynamics. Fikry El Azzouzi is the first writer in Flanders to have found a language that is both raw and nuanced to express this experience from an ‘immigrant’ perspective. As a writer, he wants to “describe the spirit of the times by telling the stories of young men of foreign origin.” His characters are often figures who have broken loose and who simultaneously live both in a magical and realistic world; and in a Flemish and Moroccan world. Their aspirations and fears, their frustrations and traumas, their confusions and choices, their language and their humour serve as the starting point for El Azzouzi’s writing.

He debuted with the novel Het Schapenfeest [The Feast of the Sheep] (2010) about the eleven-year-old Ayoub who increasingly comes into conflict with his traditional, uneducated parents. He is obliged to go and slaughter a sheep with his father for Eid, but he comes up with all kinds of strategies to avoid this, and develops a bizarre friendship with the talking sheep. This mixture of realism and magic, of a fairy-tale children’s book and harsh social criticism is typical of the mix of styles at which El Azzouzi is aiming. We encounter Ayoub once again as a loitering youth with his friends – who are becoming radicalised – in the novel Drarrie in de nacht [Drarrie in the Night](2014) and as an adult in Alleen zij [She Alone](2016), a cross-cultural love story against the backdrop of an increasingly polarised society. The (semi-autobiographical) trilogy tells the story of Ayoub’s coming of age as a second-generation migrant, with his doubts, both about the traditional world of his parents and about the jihadist and Western liberal alternatives. It is also apparent from the anthology Mogen de wijze jongens winnen, gij weet [May the Smart Boys Win, You Know] (2018), which he compiled from texts by boys in vocational education, that he takes these youths very seriously. In his fourth novel De beloning [The Reward](2019), Fikry El Azzouzi trains his gaze on the figure of the martyr and undermines both the jihadist and the post-modern discourse – right and left-wing – on identity and community.

His plays tackle the same themes. The fluent and witty dialogues in his novels lend themselves to dramatic adaptation. For example, extracts from the novella De handen van Fatma [The Hands of Fatma] (2013), about a first-generation Moroccan woman, found their way into the eponymous play (2014) and he adapted his novel Drarrie in de nacht as a play. Concurrent with his book Malcolm X (2016),about what the possible significance of this black American equal rights activist to today’s immigrant youths mean, he wrote a play of the same title. Its staging in 2016 was an important event in Flemish theatre: a new generation of theatre-makers with a migrant background found expression in a powerful voice.

Malcolm X is part of a trilogy of plays that are written around an iconic figure from the contemporary black liberation struggle. As well as Malcolm X, these are the boxer and activist Mohammed Ali in Rumble in da jungle (2013) and Winnie Mandela, Nelson Mandela’s wife and a resistance fighter against apartheid in South Africa, in Dear Winnie, (2019). Although the plays contain clear allusions to the lives of the three major figures of the struggle for black emancipation, they are not biographies, although they are intended to adjust an image of these freedom fighters that is chiefly prevalent in the white part of the world. They are meant to translate their attitude towards life and life choices into the present day. The texts start from the confrontation of the young performers of colour with the intellectual, moral and social legacy of Mohammed Ali, Malcolm X and Winnie Mandela. The writer has the following to say about Malcolm X: “Malcolm X would firmly play the youth card… Malcolm X would show them the way and motivate them… That’s why we are urgently seeking new Malcolm Xs in this country and this world. So they can inspire the young people.” In Dear Winnie, the personal life stories of nine female performers with African roots are commingled with Winnie Mandela’s battle against oppression and exclusion. They see her as a role model to follow, and defend her from her critics:

Dear Winnie, you put your finger on the wound
You knew exactly where it hurt.
You were not afraid to rub salt into the wound so that white and black
grains of sand from our country felt the pain and screamed out loud.
You were execrated, you were hated,
but this was the only way you could unite us,
ensure that the grains did not slip away
but continued to stick together.
Dear Winnie,
Desperate situations call for desperate measures.
Have we too often looked away,
wrapped a bandage around our past?
We are lost, Winnie
We are still lost.
You lead the way. Show us the way.
Your story is not yet complete.
Our story is not yet complete.

Reizen Jihad [Jihad Travels] (2015) seeks out the controversial parallel between contemporary jihadists and fighters on the Eastern front during the Second World War. If the latter are regarded by some as idealists who were betrayed, why does that description not apply to the former? It is these kinds of provocative social questions that El Azzouzi dares to ask in his writings without supplying unequivocal answers to them. In addition, Reizen Jihad is also a brutal and grotesque indictment of the cynicism of Western capitalism: “In Reizen Jihad everything revolves around sustainable travel. … On 11 September, I primarily saw a wealth of opportunities. And you should never waste the opportunity of a good crisis. That is what they call good entrepreneurship. I started my business on 12 September. The market has no patience.” Pax Europa (2016) is also a strong criticism of Europe and its lack of moral direction. In a talk show about Europe, various guests from a range of backgrounds – from the integrated migrant to the intolerant activist – enter into confrontation about migration, identity, religion, terrorism, norms and values. The media and its compelling role in image formation is also parodied straight away. And yet these are anything but ‘identity pieces’. They are too hilarious and grotesque for that. Grotesque, hilarious and provocative are also adjectives that could be used to describe the short piece Salam (2018), where the patriarch Abraham, his wife Sarah and her son Isaac, his female slave Hagar and her son Ismael, a sheep and a barmaid all discuss Abraham’s sacrifice, which is central to both the Judeo-Christian and the Islamic traditions. A work brimming with family arguments, identity claims and young people’s rebellion against the older generation. More intimist, but no less raw for that, is Troost [Consolation] (2013), a story of confusion, addiction and friendship in the metropolis. Alleen [Alone] (2016), a monologue about a cross-cultural love story, is a dramatised version of an email conversation between the actress Sara de Roo and the writer himself, and focuses on the possibility (or not) of the unbiased encounter.

The strength of El Azzouzi’s works is only truly apparent in their staging. The majority of his plays are created in a specific theatre setting. In many cases, El Azzouzi is intensely involved with the staging of his works. He writes for and with others. It is no coincidence that he works with various collectives (SINCOLLECTIEF, Jr.cE.sA.r). His plays are not written traditionally, with clearly-defined characters, a plot and a denouement. They are usually collective narratives, often in different (European, North-African and African) languages that are characterised by a revue-like build-up of scenes. The performances can most accurately be described as montages in which monologues and dialogues are interspersed with dance, music and song, inspired by rap, hip hop, slam and African traditions. Rhythm and energy are crucial elements of the performers’ physical and verbal expression. The performances are all-encompassing spectacles. They begin with the collective presence of the performers, who form a kind of chorus from which the narrative flows. El Azzouzi is concerned less with the individual psychology of his characters, and more with exposing collective prejudices and simultaneously creating a community beyond these prejudices.

Concealed behind the rawness, the brutal directness, and the sharp critical humour of his writing is the vulnerability of an uncertain new world in which the marginalised youths that he describes will play a central role.

DOWNLOAD TEXT EXCERPT FROM ‘DRARRIE IN THE NIGHT’

CONTACT
fikry.elazzouzi@gmail.com

Written by: Erwin Jans

Translated by: Nadine Malfait

Erwin Jans is currently working as a dramaturg at Toneelhuis in Antwerpen. He  teaches theater and drama at Artesis Hogeschool Antwerpen where he also does research on the history of the dramatic text. He writes extensively on literature, theater and culture. He published Interculturele intoxicaties. Over kunst, cultuur en verschil (Intercultural intoxications. On art, culture and diversity) (2006). He was co-editor of an anthology of Flemish postwar poetry Hotel New Flandres (2008). Together with the philosopher Eric Clemens he wrote an essay on democracy that was also translated in French (2010). Last year he published an anthology of the dramatic work of the Flemish playwright and director Tone Brulin (2017).

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Texts only available in Dutch, unless stated otherwise

Plays:
De gang (2012)
IJdele dagen (2012) - performing arts prize for authors
Troost (2013)
Rumble in da jungle (2013)
De handen van Fatma (2014)
Reizen Jihad (2015) - Ark Prize for Free Expression
De hoeder (2015)
Pax Europa (2016)
Alleen (2016) - with tg STAN
Brekebeen (2016)
Malcolm X (2016)
Salam (2018)
Drarrie in de nacht (2018)
Dear Winnie, (2019)

Novels and novellas:
Het schapenfeest (2010) - debut novel
De handen van Fatma (2013) - novella
Drarrie in de nacht (2014) - novel, translated in different languages
Malcolm X (2016) - novella
Alleen zij (2016) - novel
Mogen de wijze jongens winnen, gij weet (2018) - short story collection
De beloning (2019) - novel

Film:
Fistful of memories (2014) - short film
De figurant (2016) - feature

From 2012 to 2014, El Azzouzi was also a regular weekly columnist for De Morgen. Thereafter, he wrote monthly for both De Morgen and De Standaard.