Driss Chraïbi

Driss Chraïbi was a Moroccan author whose novels, often read as semi-autobiographical, take up colonialism, culture clashes, generational conflict and the treatment of women. Born in El Jadida in 1926 and schooled in Casablanca, he went to Paris in 1945 to study chemistry before turning to literature and journalism. Among his books are Mother Comes of Age, a novel set during the Second World War, and The Butts. He saw himself as an anarchist, and wrote on immigration, patriarchy and the relationship between the West and the Arab world.