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In the intricate weave of North African literature, the name Maya Arriz Tamza—pseudonym of Saoud Bousselmania—stands out as a powerful voice that bridges continents, cultures, and contradictions. Born in 1957 in the Berber region of Algeria, Arriz Tamza is not merely a writer; he is a storyteller in the oldest sense of the word—a weaver of myth and memory, a keeper of cultural fires, and a dramatist whose pen breathes life into the forgotten rhythms of history.
His literary and theatrical work is deeply rooted in his Berber-Algerian identity, a dual heritage that both haunts and inspires. The very pseudonym “Arriz Tamza” is a declaration—Tamza being a mountainous region in Kabylia, symbolizing not just geographic origins but a spiritual connection to the indigenous Amazigh soul of North Africa. In his artistic hands, this identity is neither romanticized nor repressed—it is explored, challenged, and ultimately celebrated through narrative.
A Storyteller on Two Stages: Algeria and France
Though rooted in Algeria, Arriz’s influence extends far beyond its borders. He is the co-founder of the 7 Candles Theater in Maubourget, France, a space dedicated to performance, reflection, and the reclaiming of diasporic memory. The name itself—7 Candles—evokes ritual, illumination, and resistance. It is in such symbolic spaces that Arriz crafts his theater of remembrance, merging the lyrical with the political, the ancestral with the postmodern.
His work in France is not an escape from Algeria but an extension of it—an artistic diaspora that still speaks the language of home, even as it adopts new tongues.
Le Soupir du Maure – When Empires Fall and Memory Sings
Among Maya Arriz Tamza’s most acclaimed works is the play Le Soupir du Maure (The Moor’s Sigh) (2001)—a hauntingly lyrical drama chronicling the fall of the last Moorish kingdom in Europe. Yet, for Arriz, this historical fall is not just about Granada in 1492—it is about every cultural loss, every exile, every silenced voice. In the prefatory note, he writes that it is “the story of the last kingdom to unite the world in a breath of tolerance before it fractured into violence and forgetting.”
This is no ordinary historical play. It is a requiem for al-Andalus, yes—but also a meditation on what it means to lose a homeland, a culture, a language. The Moor’s sigh is not just Boabdil’s—it is the sigh of every dispossessed people. And through this lens, the play becomes startlingly contemporary. As exiles flood Europe’s borders and indigenous tongues fade from maps, Arriz’s work reminds us that the past is not over—it breathes through our present.
Writing Between Languages and Histories
Arriz Tamza’s oeuvre navigates a linguistic and cultural mosaic. Though writing in French, his sensibility is deeply Berber—infused with the oral traditions of the Amazigh people, the layered symbolism of Islamic and African storytelling, and the philosophical undertones of exile literature.
This synthesis of worlds gives his prose and plays a textural richness: metaphor dances with history, silence speaks louder than dialogue, and absence becomes a presence. His characters are often in-between—not just between places, but between ideologies, between languages, between epochs.
Theater as Cultural Resistance
At the heart of Arriz Tamza’s work is a deep belief in the power of performance—not just as entertainment, but as resistance and remembrance. The 7 Candles Theater is more than a troupe—it is a cultural project, a movement that seeks to preserve endangered memories through drama.
In a world that often demands assimilation, Arriz chooses to illuminate difference. His plays are ceremonies of survival, where language becomes a lifeline and storytelling becomes a form of political defiance.
A Voice of the Forgotten, A Memory of the Future
In many ways, Maya Arriz Tamza is a mythmaker of the modern age. His work refuses to forget. It questions official histories, resurrects erased cultures, and writes against oblivion. For readers and theatergoers alike, his stories are not just performances—they are acts of resurrection.
He invites us to listen not only to what is spoken, but to the echoes of what was lost—to hear the sigh of the Moor, the chant of the Berber elder, the footsteps of a people exiled across continents and centuries.
Final Thought: The Fire That Never Goes Out
Maya Arriz Tamza’s artistry embodies the very flame he lights with his theater’s name—the 7 Candles that flicker in the darkness of forgetting. His stories keep alive the memories of a people who refuse to disappear, a language that will not be silenced, and a heritage that continues to breathe through every sigh, every word, every stage.
To read or watch Arriz is to bear witness to the unextinguished fire of the Berber spirit—a fire that endures in the ashes of fallen empires and glows ever brighter in the hearts of those who remember.
Recommended Work:
- Le Soupir du Maure (2001) – A play of exile, memory, and Moorish echoes.
Maya Arriz Tamza reminds us that stories are not just told—they are inherited, lived, and fought for. His work stands as both mirror and map: reflecting a fractured world and guiding us back toward wholeness.
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