Yamina Méchakra

Yamina Méchakra (1949 in Meskiana – 2013 in Algiers) was an Algerian novelist and psychiatrist.

Early life

Méchakra was born in 1949 in Meskiana in northern Aures. At age nine, she began writing; taking notes in a "log-book" that grew over time. Two events profoundly marked her childhood: her father was tortured by the French during the Algerian Civil War before her eyes, exposed in the street, attached to the barrel of a tank. Little more is known of her life, although Kateb Yacine wrote in the preface to her book that she had a "cruel and troubled life". In Algiers, she met Kateb Yacine before his departure for Rome and Paris. Yamina Méchakra followed Yachine's style in writing, who gave her extended advice and guidance. She needed to rewrite three times to finish her first book, and "La Grotte éclatée" was published in 1979. Yamina Mechakra argued that women was the source of the nation and the founding of an independent state. Referring to the Berber queen known as La Kahina, Kateb Yacine titled his preface of the novel as The Children of Kahina.

While she continued to write during the succeeding years, but did not publish, confiding to a reporter that she lost her manuscripts. In 1997, when she treated a young boy as a psychiatrist, she was inspired writing her second novel Arris, which was published in 1999. and she was buried the same day in the cemetery of Sidi Yahia.

Yamina Mechakra Prize The Yamina Mechakra Literary Prize is an Algerian literary award established in 2018 in tribute to Mechakra. It aims to promote Algerian women's literature and rewards works written by women authors in Arabic, Tamazight (Amazigh), or French. The first edition was held in January 2019. The prize was first announced in September 2018 by the Algerian Ministry of Culture and officially launched during the annual meetings of the “Mediterranean-Africa Meeting of Young Women Writers” (RAMAJE). The first award ceremony took place in January 2019 at the Palais de la culture Moufdi-Zakaria in Algiers. For the first edition, the chairs by language were Rabia Djelti (Arabic), Maïssa Bey (French), and Lynda Koudache (Amazigh). The first ceremony was held at the Moufdi-Zakaria Palace of Culture in Algiers, in the presence of the then Minister of Culture, Azzedine Mihoubi. The known laureates are: Year !! Language !! Laureate !! Work !! Notes