Mohamed Ouaamari

https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/3791487.html

Interesting autobiography of a Flemish writer and commentator with Moroccan roots; he tells the story of growing up between two worlds - decaying Antwerp suburbs and the Moroccan Rif - and the prejudices he faces at both ends, though more particularly at the Belgian end. And yet he identifies as Flemish before anything else, within a lasagne-like set of layers of identities, even when many of his fellow Flemings vote for parties that reject him and his people (there's a grim tale of being singled out as a ten-year-old Muslim by his schoolteacher in class after 9/11). He gives a particularly funny-not-funny account of being arrested at a business conference for making a joke on Twitter that, er, went down badly with the police. A really interesting account from a Belgian who like my own children has parents born outside the country, and has faced rather different challenges to our family. I hope it gets translated into French and English, though some of the humour is a bit Dutch-specific. (How can you translate "bakfietsvlamingen"???) Recommended for those who have the language.… (plus d'informations)