TRIBUTE PAGE Mohamed Choukri, who became one of Morocco's most famous writers, was born on July 15, 1935 in Beni Chiker in the Rif mountains of northern Morocco near the city of Nador, during a time of famine. In 1943, at age seven, he and his family moved to Tanger. His poor and dysfunctional family migrated to Tétouan, where at the age of 11, Choukri fled from his home to escape his tyrannical father. Eight of his brothers and sisters died of malnutrition or neglect. Choukri later was employed for several months in Oran, Algeria by a French family, and then he returned to Morocco.At the age of 20, in 1955, Choukri began to teach himself to read and write, helped by teachers dedicated to the eradication of illiteracy and ignorance. Soon he began to read, to write and enjoy books written by Arab and French authors.
In Tangier he became inspired to write candidly about his life in classical Arabic, different from the Moroccan dialect of darja (the vernacular) and the Berber dialect of his birth. Dar al-Aadab a monthly periodical based in Beirut, Lebanon, published Choukri's first short story in 1966, Al Unf ala al-Shati' ("Violence on the Beach"). During the mid-to-late 1960s, he associated with the hippies who were in Tangier at that time, writing stories in cafés or restaurants.
In 1972 Mohamed Choukri met the expatriate writer and composer Paul Bowles, who recognized his talent as a writer. Bowles encouraged his writing and Choukri closely collaborated with Paul Bowles on the translation of For Bread Alone, written in 1972. Bowles arranged to have that work published in English (London: Peter Owen, 1973), and the autobiography sold very well. In 1981 a French version followed—Le Pain nu—and in 1982 the book was published in Arabic as Al Khubz al-Hafi. Choukri's autobiographical work described his difficult early life—with vivid descriptions of experiences as a vagabond, prostitution, petty crime and drug use—breaking all literary rules and religious taboos in the Arab world at that time. For Bread Alone has now been translated into many languages. Tennessee Williams described For Bread Alone as "A true document of human desperation, shattering in its impact." Originally banned in Morocco, this book was permitted to be sold and read in Morocco in 2000.
Other literary works by Mohamed Choukri included more novels, short stories and a play, which further earned him literary fame both in Morocco and in other countries. Some of Choukri's earliest stories were first published in the United States in Harper's Bazaar, Transatlantic and the literary magazine Antaeus, co-founded in 1970 by Paul Bowles and the writer, poet and editor Daniel Halpern. Choukri contributed to various newspapers and magazines in France, Iraq, Lebanon and Syria, in addition to Morocco.
Choukri pursued and eventually became a close friend of the writer Jean Genet, who visited Tangier in the 1970s and 1980s. (Genet is buried in Larache, a fishing port south of Asilah on the Atlantic coast of Morocco, near the ancient Roman ruins of Lixus.) Choukri's friends included the writer and painter Brion Gysin, who lived in Tangier beginning in the early 1950s and who in 1953 opened the 1001 Nights restaurant adjacent to the Menehbi palace on the Marshan. Other associates included William S. Burroughs, Edouard Roditi and Juan Goytisolo. In 1973, when Choukri learned that Tennessee Williams was in Tangier, he determined to befriend him, and did.
In 1992 Choukri wrote Jean Genet et Tennessee Williams à Tanger, with an introduction by Gavin Lambert and a note by William Burroughs. His work Paul Bowles: le Reclus de Tanger was published by in Paris by Quai Voltaire in 1997. However, the friendly and working relationship which Bowles and Choukri had maintained in the beginning dissipated in the last decade of their lives.
Choukri was also a teacher and eventually he was awarded the chair in Arabic literature at Ibn Battuta College in Tangier. Throughout his early years in Tangier, Mohamed Choukri was a familiar face in the cafés, bars and restaurants in the Petit Socco; in his later years he preferred to drink at the bar in the Negresco restaurant, the Café Roxy or Café de la Grand Poste and other haunts.
When Choukri was diagnosed with cancer of the throat, he refused to stop drinking and smoking. After months of suffering, he received medical treatments and surgery at the Military Hospital in Rabat., but he died there on November 15, 2003, at the age of 68. The following day, in Tangier, his funeral service and burial were held at the cemetery on the Marshan. A memorial in Choukri's honor was held in Tangier several weeks after his death, organized by his friends and admirers of his life and achievements.
