Azouz Begag
Encyclopedia
Lyon
Lyon , is a city in east-central France in the Rhône-Alpes region, situated between Paris and Marseille. Lyon is located at from Paris, from Marseille, from Geneva, from Turin, and from Barcelona. The residents of the city are called Lyonnais....
, Rhône
Rhône (département)
Rhône is a French department located in the central Eastern region of Rhône-Alpes. It is named after the Rhône River.- History :The Rhône department was created on August 12, 1793 when the former département of Rhône-et-Loire was split into two departments: Rhône and Loire.Originally, the eastern...
, France) is a French writer, politician and researcher in economics and sociology
Sociology
Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...
at the CNRS. He was the delegate minister for equal opportunities of France in the government of French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin
Dominique de Villepin
Dominique Marie François René Galouzeau de Villepin is a French politician who served as the Prime Minister of France from 31 May 2005 to 17 May 2007....
(Union for a Popular Movement
Union for a Popular Movement
The Union for a Popular Movement is a centre-right political party in France, and one of the two major contemporary political parties in the country along with the center-left Socialist Party...
, UMP) till 5 April 2007. He resigned to support the moderate centrist candidate François Bayrou
François Bayrou
François Bayrou is a French centrist politician, president of Union for French Democracy since 1998 and was a candidate in the 2002 and 2007 French presidential elections. In the first round, he received 18.6% of the vote, finishing in 3rd place and therefore was eliminated from the race....
, one of the two UMP ministers to do so.
Begag has written approximately 20 literary books for adults and children, as well as songs. Furthermore, he is the scriptwriter of the French movie Camping à la ferme ("Camping at the farm"), where he exposed his vision of "three levels of riches" multiculturalism
Multiculturalism
Multiculturalism is the appreciation, acceptance or promotion of multiple cultures, applied to the demographic make-up of a specific place, usually at the organizational level, e.g...
in today's French society : the advantages of its relatively new multiethnicity due to a new non-European immigration mixed with the basis of its historical and natural multiculturality whether coming from the riches of its several regional cultures and languages or from the successful integration of previous waves of European immigration during its history.
Before becoming minister, Begag was decorated and made Chevalier de l’Ordre national du Mérite
Ordre National du Mérite
The Ordre national du Mérite is an Order of State awarded by the President of the French Republic. It was founded on 3 December 1963 by President Charles de Gaulle...
and knight of the Legion of Honor
Légion d'honneur
The Legion of Honour, or in full the National Order of the Legion of Honour is a French order established by Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul of the Consulat which succeeded to the First Republic, on 19 May 1802...
.
Early and Personal Life
Begag is the son of AlgeriaAlgeria
Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...
n parents who arrived in France in 1949. In his teens, he qualified as an electrician. He grew up in a shanty town
Poverty in France
Poverty in France has fallen by 60% over thirty years. Although it affected 15% of the population in 1970, in 2001 only 6.1% were below the poverty line ....
outside Lyon, "les bas quartiers", before the family progressed to a tower block in the Cité de la Duchère.
Begag is the father of two daughters. He is divorced from his wife.
Career in Research
Begag has a doctorate in Economics from Lyon II University. He has combined the functions of researcher in economy at the CNRS and at the Maison des sciences sociales et humaines of Lyon since 1980 and the one of professor at the École Centrale de LyonÉcole Centrale de Lyon
The École Centrale de Lyon, founded in 1857, is one of the oldest universities in France. It is considered as one of the most prestigious French Grandes écoles of engineering continuously ranking as one of the Top 6 French Engineering research institutions for the post Bachelor study...
. A visiting professor in Spring 2002 at the Winthrop-King Institute for Contemporary French and Francophone Studies at Florida State University
Florida State University
The Florida State University is a space-grant and sea-grant public university located in Tallahassee, Florida, United States. It is a comprehensive doctoral research university with medical programs and significant research activity as determined by the Carnegie Foundation...
, Begag was later made a honorary professor. In addition, he was a visiting professor at Cornell University
Cornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
in New York for one year. Begag's academic career, culminating in his place as a researcher at the CNRS, as well as his political career to date, have also centered around the problems of unequal opportunity for those brought up in industrial suburbs and ghettos.
In his account in 2007 of his two years as minister, The Sheep in the Bathtub, he describes his research work as that of a sociologist.
Literary works
Begag's best known literary work (he has published more than 20 books, among them many novels often inspired by his childhood) is the autobiographical novel Le Gone du ChaâbaLe Gone du Chaâba
Le Gone du Chaâba , translated into English as Shantytown Kid by Naima Wolf, is an autobiographical novel by Azouz Begag about his life as a young Algerian boy growing up in a shantytown next to Lyon, France, called the Chaâba by its inhabitants...
, published in 1986 by Éditions du Seuil
Éditions du Seuil
Éditions du Seuil is a French publishing house created in 1935, currently owned by La Martinière Groupe. It owes its name to this goal "The seuil is the whole excitement of parting and arriving...
. The title itself is a clever play on one of his regional language's words. 'Gone' is a term for 'kid' or 'lad' in the Lyonnais dialect of Arpitan used in his native region and city, while 'Chaâba' is an Arabic word, used in the book as the name of a shantytown in Sétif, Algeria. Both Azouz Begag and the protagonist of the novel grew up in a shanty town
Poverty in France
Poverty in France has fallen by 60% over thirty years. Although it affected 15% of the population in 1970, in 2001 only 6.1% were below the poverty line ....
outside Lyon, almost entirely inhabited by Algerian or Kabyle immigrant workers. The language and culture were predominantly a mix of Algerian Arabic, Kabyle Tamazigh and Arpitan.
The problems of the ghetto-like environments established by and for guest workers in France after WWII, of the individual children of these ghettos who are French Citizens by dint of being born in France and even often from French parents and for whom 'breaking out' is both very difficult and statistically improbable, and Azouz Begag's own success in managing being part of the mainstream of French culture without having to forget any part of his heritage but rather by accumulating all cultural influences, are at the heart of the novel.
Social and political works
His most widely published book is his account in 2007 of his two years as minister. Titled The Sheep in the Bathtub, this is a reference to a quote from Nicolas SarkozyNicolas Sarkozy
Nicolas Sarkozy is the 23rd and current President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra. He assumed the office on 16 May 2007 after defeating the Socialist Party candidate Ségolène Royal 10 days earlier....
warning French Muslims not to slaughter sheep in their bathtubs for Eid al-Adha.
Ministerial career
Azouz Begag was minister during the 2005 civil unrest in France2005 civil unrest in France
The 2005 civil unrest in France of October and November was a series of riots by mostly Muslim North African youths in Paris and other French cities, involving mainly the burning of cars and public buildings at night starting on 27 October 2005 in Clichy-sous-Bois...
. Begag confronted Interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy
Nicolas Sarkozy
Nicolas Sarkozy is the 23rd and current President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra. He assumed the office on 16 May 2007 after defeating the Socialist Party candidate Ségolène Royal 10 days earlier....
(UMP) on the subject of the policies in the suburbs of Paris.
Azouz Begag also publicly opposed Sarkozy in his movie 'Camping à la ferme' (from 2005, coming out shortly after he was named minister).
He was, in October 2005, at the center of a diplomatic incident between France and the United States. Begag, despite being a French citizen, a French minister and holding an A1 diplomatic visa
Visa (document)
A visa is a document showing that a person is authorized to enter the territory for which it was issued, subject to permission of an immigration official at the time of actual entry. The authorization may be a document, but more commonly it is a stamp endorsed in the applicant's passport...
, was intercepted at US immigration in Atlanta
Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...
airport
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport
Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport , known locally as Atlanta Airport, Hartsfield Airport, and Hartsfield–Jackson, is located seven miles south of the central business district of Atlanta, Georgia, United States...
, saw his diplomatic immunity
Diplomatic immunity
Diplomatic immunity is a form of legal immunity and a policy held between governments that ensures that diplomats are given safe passage and are considered not susceptible to lawsuit or prosecution under the host country's laws...
challenged and was heavily questioned in the green room. This was considered as racial profiling
Racial profiling
Racial profiling refers to the use of an individual’s race or ethnicity by law enforcement personnel as a key factor in deciding whether to engage in enforcement...
on the part of the US immigration
U.S. Customs and Border Protection
U.S. Customs and Border Protection is a federal law enforcement agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security charged with regulating and facilitating international trade, collecting import duties, and enforcing U.S. regulations, including trade, customs and immigration. CBP is the...
officers and very strongly criticized in France.
On 16 March 2007, Begag officially announced his support for the UDF
Union for French Democracy
The Union for French Democracy was a French centrist political party. It was founded in 1978 as an electoral alliance to support President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing in order to counterbalance the Gaullist preponderance over the right. This name was chosen due to the title of Giscard d'Estaing's...
candidate François Bayrou
François Bayrou
François Bayrou is a French centrist politician, president of Union for French Democracy since 1998 and was a candidate in the 2002 and 2007 French presidential elections. In the first round, he received 18.6% of the vote, finishing in 3rd place and therefore was eliminated from the race....
. Begag resigned from the French government on 5 April 2007.
He is a MoDem regional councillor in the Centre region. In 2009, he was selected to be the MoDem
Democratic Movement (France)
The Democratic Movement , MoDem) is a centrist, social liberal and pro-European French political party that was founded by centrist politician François Bayrou to succeed his Union for French Democracy and to contest the 2007 legislative election, after his strong showing in the 2007 presidential...
's candidate in the Rhône-Alpes
Rhône-Alpes
Rhône-Alpes is one of the 27 regions of France, located on the eastern border of the country, towards the south. The region was named after the Rhône River and the Alps mountain range. Its capital, Lyon, is the second-largest metropolitan area in France after Paris...
region for the 2010 regional elections
French regional elections, 2010
Regional elections were held in France on 14 and 21 March 2010. At stake were the presidencies of each of France's 26 régions, which, though they do not have legislative autonomy, manage sizable budgets....
.
Works
Books By Azouz Begag:- Le gone du Chaâba, Éditions du Seuil, Collection Virgule, (1986)
- Béni ou le Paradis privé, Éditions du Seuil, Collection Virgule, (1989)
- L'Îlet aux vents, Éditions du Seuil, Collection Virgule, (1992)
- Les Chiens aussi, Éditions du Seuil, Collection Virgule, (1995)
- Zenzela, Éditions du Seuil, (1997)
- Dis Oualla, Éditions Fayard, Collection Libres, (1997)
- Tranches de vie, Kleth Verlag, (1998)
- Le Passeport (2000)
- Le Marteau Pique-cœur, Éditions du Seuil, (2004)
- Le mouton dans la baignoire, Fayard, (2007)
Books for Children:
- Les Voleurs d'écriture, Éditions du Seuil, Collection Petit Point, (1990)
- La Force du berger, La Joie de Lire, (1991)
- Jordi et le rayon perdu, La Joie de Lire, (1992)
- Les Tireurs d'étoiles, Éditions du Seuil, Collection Petits Points, (1993)
- Le Temps des villages, La Joie de Lire, (1993)
- Une semaine de vacances à Cap maudit, Éditions du Seuil, Collection Petits Points, (1993)
- Mona ou le bateau-livre, Chardon Bleu, (1994)
- Quand on est mort, c'est pour toute la vie, Gallimard, (1995)
- Ma maman est devenue une étoile, La Joie de Lire, (1996)
- Le théorème de Mamadou, Ill. Jean Claverie, Éditions du Seuil, (2002)
External links
- Begag's bio page at the Winthrop-King Institute.
- Article on Wikinews