Fares
Farès — Laya Éditions Fares, four years old, is seized by an immense tongue of fire, before his mother’s very eyes. Fares is the struggle towards the recovery of this brave and resolute child, whose courage commands the respect of all. This harrowing story is also that of his mother, Farida, who fights against her fear, her heartbreak and against death itself. It is also the testimony of an era, in Algeria, in a country where the value of human life is held in little regard, so scant is the concern of political decision-makers for the well-being of their people. Farida must therefore fight for the survival of her child, seeking his deliverance abroad under extremely dangerous conditions — a costly option, scarcely conceivable for most… A moving testimony, rich in hope and determination.
« Beyond the tearing of the heart and the will of the mind to overcome the irremediable, the testimony of Farida Sellal is an indictment against indifference and inhumanity in the face of a desperate situation ». Le matin (22-23 November 1991)
When the pain lies deep within oneself, and there is no alternative, writing remains the only escape that allows the anguish to be drawn out ». – El Moudjahid (November 1991)
« It is one of those poignant works that send a chill down our spine, when they do not plunge you into a state of anguish, provided you are sensitive to the pain of others ». – La Nouvelle République (8 June 1998).
Emeraude
L’Émeraude — Laya Éditions A magnificent journey through time and space, real as well as virtual, into the world of the descendants of the Tuareg people. As the twists of this thrilling voyage take shape, how many landscapes are crossed, how many faces encountered, how much knowledge absorbed, how many feelings felt, how many emotional storms weathered! A text that partakes of the initiatory tale and of the picaresque novel, in which the elements of a vast epic combine and harmonise, without one being aware of it. In it we discover the fabulous idyll of Dâssin and Moussa; the myth of the immense Antinéa; the odyssey of Tin Hinan, the epic of the Sanhadja, the legend of the Garamantes and the saga of the Tuareg. And the emerald? It is like the soul of the desert and its mirages — this emblematic stone, precious above all others, a symbol of hope, to which the novel owes its breath and its reason for being.
Nomade
Nomad — Laya Éditions These cardinal moments of a « nomadic » life are so many edifying waypoints, across time and space, where the reader would gladly linger longer than the author allows. For they have marked out and structured the unfolding of a destiny embraced in full awareness and with complete knowledge of the cause, guided by the constant care to forbid oneself any act, conduct or word liable to transgress the eminent ethical values, fruit of an affectionate yet uncompromising family upbringing.
The captivating account by which Madame Farida Sellal opens ajar a few of the doors giving onto « her » universe, as she writes in her foreword, is, strictly speaking, an illustration of the attentive respect for principles named honour and dignity, but also the sense of effort, probity, intellectual rigour and generosity. These principles of high morality, anchored in an ancestral culture and resistant to compromise, to overbidding and to deviation, have lit a path studded with obstacles and trials but also with dreams and accomplishments. Mouloud Achour.
« Nomade» by Farida SELLAL – Laya Editions 2017.
« Imzad ». A heritage reborn.
Imzad — Casbah Editions, 2016 There are images that are worth more than the most finely turned speeches. Were we to need another proof to establish the soundness of this premise, we would have only to open the magnificent work that Farida Sellal has just published with Casbah Editions, bearing as its simple title, but in letters of silver, the word « Imzad ». For here is a book that seizes us from the very first image — the one that, illustrating its jacket, depicts the modestly veiled face of a young Tuareg woman — and then leads us through a learned itinerary into a world that the illusory pursuit of modernity came within a hair of burying in final oblivion. This world is one of the facets of Tuareg culture which, having awakened the sensibility of a great lady, was able, thanks to her, to take the paths of rebirth. The great lady is Farida Sellal, whose lens has known how to capture the striking photographic sequences that reveal, through a single-stringed instrument — a masterpiece of women’s craftsmanship whose sound carries far — an immemorial heritage. Relating in words and images her immersion in the world of the imzad, Farida Sellal shows us how she was able to labour for the rescue of this art and, first of all, by what course: strong in an awareness of the threat that weighed upon it and in the conviction that its cultural, historical and identitary weight is of the kind that merits every sacrifice, she succeeded in having it inscribed on the list of the cultural heritage of humanity in December 2013. This « imzad adventure » gave rise to a beautiful book of an editorial quality nothing less than remarkable under our skies. The images — scenes, landscapes and portraits — are a delight for the eye ; the texts, where scholarly information sits alongside extracts from the many poems associated with the imzad (in their original text and their French translation), are documentary treasures.
One senses, as one advances throughout the three hundred and some pages that make up this volume, how deeply the author invested herself in this publication, made not only to take an honourable place in the finest libraries, but also to be an invaluable work of reference.
« Imzad » by Farida SELLAL – Casbah Editions 2016- 340 pages.
« Assouf n’Ténéré ». A beautiful book, an emotion.
Assouf N'Ténéré — Casbah Editions, 2015 It is a veritable hymn to our Sahara that Casbah-Editions has just published as a beautiful book under the signature of Farida Sellal, who created both the photographs and the texts. And never has a beautiful book so deserved this name, such care was taken, in the smallest detail, at every stage of its making.
« Assouf n’Ténéré » is the product of a passion. Assouf is that emotion springing from one knows not where, blending our reverent admiration for this grandeur that towers over us with the sense of our own humility; it is all of this, confusedly felt, that constitutes, perhaps, the enigmatic essence of Assouf.
Assouf is that « unspeakable emotion » whose secret the desert alone holds, and which Farida Sellal has, with great felicity, striven to convey through this fascinating journey that, from one page to the next, from a timeless landscape to the magnificent panorama of a dune brushed by the caress of the wind, leads us into the depths of the great South.
An immense pleasure for the eyes, for the photographer’s lens has known how to seize moments stolen from eternity; but a benefit just as great for the mind, for, guided by the judicious indications sown by the author, it is an entirely new knowledge of the desert and its secrets that is offered in this work of utter splendour.
« Assouf n’Ténéré » by Farida SELLAL – Casbah Editions – 2015 – 270 pages
"Silences" and « SAHARA, royaume des silences »
« The Sahara, that ocean of stone and sand, is an immense legend that will not be dispelled any time soon.»
These deeply felt words are those of Farida Sellal, president of the association Sauver l’imzad; she spoke them during a public meeting in Tamanrasset.
Full of passion, she has just brought out a book, Sahara, royaume des silences, with Casbah éditions — a beautiful book that returns in part to this indelible passion, that of the local music, the imzad, and that of a region, the south of the country. The writer had already published, in 1991, a gripping and moving book, Farès, reissued by Casbah édition, in which she recounts an atrocious, indescribable suffering. The book, as has always been explained since its release, is an indictment against «indifference and inhumanity in the face of a desperate situation ». « When the pain lies at the very depths of oneself, and there is no alternative, writing remains the only escape that allows the anguish to be drawn out », it was further explained upon reading this painful account of a grieving but courageous mother who confronts everything for her son.
The indifference of which the readers and the narrator speak is perceptible not only in the face of more individual problems, but also with regard to the heritage of an entire country — and the imzad is very much a part of it. Farida Sellal took the trouble to set up an association, one of the most active in the south of the country, to reclaim this part of ourselves of which we cannot let go without wounding ourselves. The imzad is that single-stringed instrument of Tuareg music, used exclusively by very elderly women, stocky in build, but whose wisdom commands the respect of many. Few of them remain, and the only ones who hold the tradition are very old. Transmission between generations is scarcely easy, it is maintained. Several initiatives have been taken by Mme Sellal, such as the creation of stamps devoted to the imzad in Tamanrasset, which she would like to develop in collaboration with several institutions. She began her career as a telecommunications engineer, within the postal and telecommunications administration of the south, which would remain her passion throughout the rest of her life.
Publications
Publication of scientific papers in the international journal:
https://www.mendeley.com/authors/7003362007
- The variation of valence and conduction band edges charge densities with lattice constant in GaP and InP – H. Aourag – F. Sellal – B. Khelifa
- Materials Chemistry and Physics– Volume 30, Issue 4, February 1992, Pages 229-234 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0254058492902292
- The high-pressure behavior of AlSb – Aourag H– Sellal F– Abid HMaterials Chemistry and Physics (1993) 33(3-4) 254-259
- https://mendeley.com/catalogue/d8f4feec-8cb6-362d-9f2a-483af77bdd8e/
- Electronic structure of Si as a function of the lattice constant – Aourag
- Sellal – B. Khelifa. Materials Chemistry and Physics (1991) 28(3) 331-335
- https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/66ac52f1-a233-3c13-8071-347e12f44c8b/
Revue de l’INPED: Articles : « La maîtrise des coûts en quatre actes » – Gestion et Entreprise –– January 2001- Issue 13-14
Novels and fine art books: http://www.casbah-editions.com/fr/auteurs/farida-sellal
- Novel titled : FARES–Editions ENAG– 1991.
- Photographic Album Book titled: « SILENCES » – Casbah Edition – 2003
- Photographic Album Book titled: « SAHARA ROYAUME DESSILENCES » – Casbah Edition – 2005 – French-language edition
- Photographic Album Book titled: « SAHARA ROYAUME DESSILENCES » – Casbah Edition – 2005 – Arabic-language edition.
- Photographic Album Book titled: « ASSOUF N’TENERE» – Casbah Edition – 2016
- Photographic Album Book titled: « IMZAD» – Casbah Edition – 2016
- Novel titled : NOMADE– – Casbah Editions – 2017
- Novel titled: L’EMERAUDE– Casbah Editions – 2019