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Death of an Honourable Libyan Literary Giant
and a Highly Principled Patriot
On 15th
November 2007 the Libyan Constitutional Union mourned the death of one
of its founding members who died that morning in London after a short
battle with lung cancer. The following is a
brief history of
the life of Mohamed Algazeri.
Mohamed Hussein Algazeri
Derna 1937 - London 2007
By Mohamed Ben Ghalbon
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He
was born in the Libyan eastern city of Derna
on 2nd June 1937, where he finished his elementary
schooling in the academic year 1950/51. He showed signs of unique
academic abilities from an early age. He graduated first in the
entire eastern province of Cyrenaica (The Kingdom of Libya then
consisted of three provinces, Cyrenaica, Tripolitania and Fezzan).
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Algazeri moved to Cyrenaica’s capital city, Benghazi, in 1955 to
finish his secondary education as secondary schools were not at the
time available in his birth place Derna. After finishing secondary
school he enrolled at the Libyan University in the city to study
English language and Literature at the Faculty of Art.
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He returned home after only a few months to live in Benghazi, the
city he loved beyond description and soon became one of its
prominent figures within a growing circle of young literary
intellectuals in the period between the mid sixties and mid
seventies. This circle of close friends included the writers Sadiq
Al-Naihum and Khalifa Al-Fakhri, as well as his very close friend
(both then at home and later in exile), the Libyan writer, publisher
and newspaper magnate Rashaad Al-Hooni (may Allaah have mercy on
them all). Although Mohamed Algazeri was as gifted and capable as
all of the above, he always shied away from the limelight.
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In the years between graduation and leaving Libya, he worked in
several jobs that began with a job as a translator in the oil
company Esso, and later included working as secretary general of
Benghazi’s chamber of commerce and as an official translator in the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Tripoli.
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He soon began to get involved in activities of the Libyan opposition
in exile with literary contributions in some of the opposition’s
publications. In 1980 he formed with a few Libyan exiles the “Libyan
Patriots Front”. He took the organisation’s journal “Libya Al-Ankaa”,
(Libya the Phoenix) as a platform to attack and expose the military
regime ruling Libya and incite against it.
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We were brought together by the Libyan national struggle, to
contribute to alleviating the horrors inflicted on the homeland by
the regime of the Military Junta, in the middle of the summer of
1981, when we were introduced by a mutual friend. I visited him in
his home in the quiet English town of Andover, Hampshire, to
introduce the idea of the LCU to him and invite him to work together
to establish the movement.
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It did not take him long to grasp the cogency and validity of the
idea in all its aspects and he immediately, without hesitation,
qualifications or conditions welcomed cooperation between us to
materialise it.
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He abandoned his job at Al-Arab newspaper and his home in Andover
and moved to Manchester to live in the house adjacent to my home,
which we took as a temporary base for the LCU. He volunteered to
work full time in the National cause as an announced founding member
of the Libyan Constitutional Union
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The credit goes to Algazeri’s literary talents for presenting the
idea of the LCU in a clear, articulate and attractive fashion in
three booklets issued by the LCU in 1981 on the thirtieth
anniversaries of the declaration of the Libyan Constitution, the UN
resolution pertaining to Libya’s independence and the nation’s
independence from Italian colonialism on 24 December 1951.
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It is worth documenting here that it was
Mohamed Algazeri who undertook the task of translating the book,
“Life and Times of King Idris of Libya”, written by Her Britannic
Majesty’s Resident, Cyrenaica, the late Eric A V de Candole (CBE) in
1989 from English to Arabic [1].
In that delicate task he employed all his talent and deep knowledge
of both the Arabic and English languages to produce a truly
remarkable translation, which merited the admiration of all readers
who were able to fully appreciate quality writing. He translated it
in a masterly fashion giving the impression that the author was
directly talking to readers and not via an interpreter. Such a task
required full command of both languages as well as literary talents
of the highest standards. He undertook the task voluntarily and
received no payment in return. In the introduction of the
translation book, I referred to Algazeri as “the finest Libyan
translator” without mentioning him by name because that was his
wish. At that time he was concerned that appearing politically
active was contrary to his contract with “Al-Majalla” magazine and
might jeopardise the post, which he secured after a long period of
unemployment and financial hardship. He was also careful not to
harm the chances of his two sons who were in their teens, and whom
he had left as young children some ten years earlier. He always
carried their photos in his wallet and was very anxious to see them.
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In fact
Algazeri’s
particular gift of skilfully and honestly conveying the thoughts of
the author by entirely removing the presence of the translator from
between the writer and readers, yet maintaining the high standard of
the literary work in the original language, was responsible for
introducing the prominent
Palestinian
American
literary
theorist and
prolific writer, Edward W. Said, to an Arabic readership. (The late
Edward Said was a Professor of English and Comparative Literature, a
member of the Columbia faculty since 1963 and University Professor
from 1992 until his death in 2003, and author of many books - among
them the highly acclaimed “Orientalism” and “The Other”).
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Algazeri’s former employer at Al-Majalla
magazine, Abdulrahman Al-Rashid, then Editor in chief of the London
Based Arabic Weekly, stated in an obituary of Algazeri published
recently [2]
that when Al-Majalla reached an
agreement with Professor Said to write for them, they were faced
with the problem of translating his work into Arabic. A task, he
revealed, only Algazeri was equal to considering the author’s long
sentences which were saturated with difficult to translate
philosophical and cultural ideas and concepts. Algazeri stepped in
to re-write the entire articles in a masterly literary style that
matched the class of the original work, Al-Rashid added. The
quality of the translation lead Professor Said’s readers to believe,
as he admitted, that he was in fact writing those article himself in
Arabic, and not talking to them via an interpreter. This
internationally famous intellectual and one of the most influential
scholars in his time asked to meet Algazeri personally on a visit to
London to express his gratitude to the man who introduced him to an
Arabic speaking audience.
This one episode demonstrated Algazeri’s hidden artistic literary
talents as a writer in his own right.
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Following the end of his employment with “Al-Majalla” in 2003,
Algazeri went through difficult times which could only be fully
appreciated by those who have experienced similar hardships in their
exile. He dealt with those rough times with grace, pride and
dignity not many can match. It is important to note that Algazeri
belonged to a rare class of people who would disappear when
circumstances deteriorate and feel that they are about to become a
burden on friends. In other words he would keep his distance from
his friends when he needed them the most, and dealt with problems
alone sparing his friends the trouble of his burden. I have no
doubt that had he not been forced by the terminal illness that
befell him, and the assurances by his doctors that his days were
numbered, he would not have contacted his friends to reveal his
whereabouts and inform them that he was “doomed”, as he put it.
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I
visited him at St. Mary’s hospital where he was receiving
chemotherapy for lung cancer that was diagnosed in May 2007. I
found him brave and in high spirits in spite of the clearly
deteriorating health and the knowledge that he was finishing off the
few remaining days of the life which Allaah had assigned him. With
all that we found that his unique, sharp sense of humour never
forsook him. He remained loyal to “his life long companion” the
habit of smoking, and refused to blame it for causing his calamity.
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I
visited him for the last time in the evening of Tuesday 13th
November in his temporary home in London, where he passed away the
following Thursday (15th November 2007). I was
accompanied by my brother Hisham and a mutual friend. Algazeri was
released from hospital earlier that day. We found him in good
spirit and complained only from the side effects of the medication
he was receiving which affected his concentration and prevented him
from writing some of his thoughts, which he wanted to record.
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I knew Mohamed Algazeri throughout our
cooperation, both from close range when he was near us in Manchester
and later (from a distance) when he lived in London. I found him a
remarkable person, aloof in his mentality, thinking and manners and
with unique untraditional ethics found only in very few.
He despised trivialities and kept
himself above petty matters. He had no taste for pointless lengthy
conversations.
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May Allaah, in His generosity and grace, shroud Mohamed Algazeri in
His mercy and abode him in His vast paradise. May He count his
struggle for the national cause, his endurance of the vicious
illness and his suffering of the hardship of exile in his account of
good deeds. May Allaah help his sons Husain and Mrajei, and all his
family and grant them endurance.
(Quran: Verse 156 :
Chapter 1)
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