The May 2021 issue of Words Without Borders features writing from Mauritania. With work from Ahmed Isselmou, Aichetou, Moussa Ould Ebnou, Cheikh Nouh, Mariem Mint Derwich, Mamadou Kalidou Ba, Bios Diallo, and July Blalack.
/PRNewswire/ "People want to read Africa," says University of Utah professor Kenechi Uzor of Iskanchi Press, a newly-launched independent publisher. All.
Barzakh: The Land of In-between
A time traveler finds himself in a harsh new society in this excerpt from writer and critic Moussa Ould Ebnou’s novel.
That night I slept a troubled sleep, and when the time came to dream, my memory and consciousness recalled the beyond-time. I began to cry and scream with all my might, calling for the Master of Time: “Khidr! Khidr! What disaster have you caused to befall me?! Take me from here! You know very well that I am traveling through the beyond-time searching for a better people, and you know that this is the evilest of civilizations. Don’t leave me here!” After much begging and pleading, he finally heeded my cries and appeared, his features obscured by his green aura.
Movement and Stasis: Contemporary Mauritanian Literature
The release of the Hollywood film
The Mauritanian earlier this year made a harrowing tale of torture and injustice at Guantánamo Bay the first Mauritanian story to truly reach the world. When the book the film was based on
Guantánamo Diary by Mohamedou Ould Slahi came out in 2015, there were only three books written by Mauritanian authors available in English.
[1] The number of Mauritanian works which had been translated into other languages or won regional literary awards could be counted on one hand. However, the world literature market’s lack of interest in Mauritania a country simultaneously Arab, West African, Saharan, and Sahelian does not reflect its overall literary vitality.