Albert Memmi

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Albert Memmi: A short, easy-to-understand overview

Albert Memmi (15 December 1920 – 22 May 2020) was a French-Tunisian writer and essayist of Tunisian Jewish origin. He wrote about identity, racism, colonialism, and the choices people make when living between cultures.

Biography in brief
- Born in Tunis, French Tunisia, into a large Tunisian Jewish family. His mother was Berber and his father was of Italian Jewish background.
- Grew up speaking French and Tunisian-Judeo-Arabic.
- During the Nazi occupation of Tunisia, Memmi was imprisoned in a forced labor camp and escaped.
- Studied philosophy at the University of Algiers, but anti-Jewish laws under the Vichy regime forced him to leave. After World War II, he resumed studies at the Sorbonne in Paris.
- Married Marie-Germaine Dubach, a French Catholic, and they had three children.
- Returned to Tunis for a time, then moved to France after Tunisia gained independence in 1956.
- Became a professor at the Sorbonne, earned his doctorate in 1970, and later directed the École pratique des hautes études. He also taught at HEC Paris and the University of Nanterre.
- Died in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, at the age of 99.

Writings and what they’re about
- The Pillar of Salt (1953): Memmi’s first novel, with a preface by Albert Camus. It won the Fénéon Prize in 1954 and explores themes of identity, exile, and feeling caught between cultures.
- The Colonizer and the Colonized (1957): His best-known nonfiction work. It examines how colonizers and the colonized depend on each other and how power shapes relationships. Jean-Paul Sartre wrote the preface.
- Other novels include Agar (Strangers), The Scorpion, and The Desert.
- Racism (originally published later and reissued with updated editions): A key nonfiction work in which Memmi argues that racism is a social construct, not a biological fact. He shows how racism comes from social and political contexts, not from nature or science, and he counters the idea of “racial purity.”
- Other important works cover Dominated Man, Dependence, and Racism, along with writings on Jewish identity and the place of Jews in Arab and Muslim states after independence.
- He contributed to the anthology of Maghrebian literature and wrote about decolonization and its aftermath.

Key ideas in simple terms
- Identity is layered: People can feel Tunisian, French, Jewish, or Arab all at once, and these identities can pull in different directions.
- Racism as a social fact: Memmi argued that racism is created by societies to justify power, not proven by biology. Genetics and biology do not determine superiority.
- Anti-imperialism with nuance: He supported independence movements but warned that new leaders can perpetuate oppression once former colonies gain freedom.
- The experience of exile and belonging: His writing often describes the struggle to belong to more than one culture at once, and how that shapes personal and political views.

Legacy and impact
- Memmi is seen as a major voice in postcolonial thought, helping shape conversations about racism, identity, and decolonization.
- His work influenced later scholars and writers, including discussions on the Jewish-Arab identity, colonialism, and the psychology of oppression.
- He remained a prominent voice on how personal and collective histories intersect with politics and culture until his death in 2020.

In sum
Albert Memmi was a prolific thinker who wrote about what it means to live between cultures. Through novels and powerful nonfiction, he challenged simplistic ideas about race and argued for a deeper understanding of how societies shape identities and power.