Life & Wisdom Quote by Tahar Ben Jelloun

A single sentence that refuses to sit still. "I am a Moroccan writer of French expression" isn’t a neutral bio line; it’s a careful self-positioning inside a linguistic and political minefield. Ben Jelloun names Morocco first, planting his work in a geography shaped by Arab, Amazigh, Islamic, and colonial histories. Then he adds the qualifier that both clarifies and complicates: he writes in French, but it’s framed as "expression", not allegiance. French becomes a tool, not a flag.

That word choice matters. "French expression" suggests a voice using the language as medium, while quietly rejecting the idea that language equals identity. It also preempts a predictable interrogation: Is he a French writer? Is he writing for Paris? Ben Jelloun answers without pleading. He claims authorship over the instrument that once claimed authority over his country.

The subtext is a negotiation with the cultural marketplace. French grants access to global publishing circuits, prizes, translations, and the prestige economy of Francophonie. It also invites suspicion at home: the charge of writing "for the West", of laundering Moroccan experience through a colonial tongue. The sentence functions like a passport that’s also a protest sign: yes, I’m in this language; no, you don’t get to annex me through it.

Context sharpens the edge. Post-independence Morocco wrestled with Arabization, Berber identity, and the lingering dominance of French in education and administration. Ben Jelloun’s line captures the lived paradox of that era: decolonization didn’t erase French; it forced writers to decide what to do with it.