Mohammed Khaïr-Eddine

Mohammed Khaïr-Eddine (1941–1995) was born in Tafraout in the rugged Anti-Atlas mountains and worked for the social security administration in Casablanca investigating the living conditions of poor workers following the 1965 Casablanca student riots. In 1966, he co-founded the legendary avant-garde journal Souffles with Abdellatif Laâbi.

Exiled in Paris for thirteen years to avoid arrest, Khaïr-Eddine pioneered 'linguistic guerrilla warfare' (guérilla linguistique) in radical novels like Agadir (1967) and Une odeur de mantèque. Returning to Morocco in 1979, he reconnected with his Amazigh roots in his final masterwork Il était une fois un vieux couple heureux (1993), celebrating the endurance of Berber mountain culture.