Safia Ketou

Rabhi Zohra, better known under her pseudonym Safia Ketou, (Aïn Sefra), 15 November 1944 – Algiers, 29 January 1989) was an Algerian writer, poet and playwright, one of her country's most eminent writers in the period following Algerian independence from France and the first science fiction author in Algeria.

Biography

Rabhi Zohra was born in 1944, in Aïn Sefra, in the province of Naâma, Algeria. She was a teacher from 1962 to 1969, when she decided to move to the capital, Algiers. There she became a journalist and worked for several major newspapers in the city, including APS (Algerian Press Service), Horizon and Algérie-Actualité.

Young writer

As she began her career as a journalist, Safia met several writers and, already a poet at that time, began to venture into writing plays, short stories and novels, mainly science fiction. Safia was the first Algerian writer to write science fiction stories. Her writing is charged with the feelings of the country after independence in 1962. Her themes range from love, politics, patriotism, science fiction and various social issues; her texts also contain many autobiographical elements.

Safia Ketou was interested in Isabelle Eberhardt and her writings before she began writing, first of all poetry. Safia Ketou is distinguished by a pen full of emotion, reflecting the desire for a better world, lasting peace, and fair justice.

Death

Safia Ketou committed suicide on 29 January 1989 in Algiers by jumping from the bridge on Boulevard Telemly, near APS headquarters. She was buried in the Sidi Boudjemaa cemetery in Ain Sefra alongside Isabelle Eberhardt, the Franco-Swiss writer. She died at the age of 44. Her poetry is strongly marked by the theme of war, the Algerian war, but also misery, injustice, exploitation and racism. However, her writing goes beyond the borders of her country of origin, she nourished the hope that one day the war would end and give way to social justice. She composed for all five continents because she hoped that one day the war would end and brotherhood would be celebrated.