Elaine Mokhtefi’s newly published autobiographical account of her life as an engaged anti-imperialist provides an ideal occasion to reconsider the politics of ‘Third Worldist’ internationalism linking Black Power, European radicals, and anti-colonial militants during [the late sixties].”
—Eugene Brennan, Los Angeles Review of Books
“Mokhtefi (née Klein), a Jewish American from Long Island, has had an exhilarating life … In the nineteen-sixties, she served as a press adviser to the National Liberation Front in postwar Algiers, before going to work with Eldridge Cleaver, who was wanted in the US for his role in a deadly shoot-out with Oakland police. Half a century later, as an eighty-nine-year-old painter living on the Upper West Side, Mokhtefi still seasons her prose with the argot of revolution.”
—New Yorker
“A fascinating insider’s account of the Black Panthers’ exile in Algiers in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Legendary figures take to the stage in the world capital of the national liberation movements: Ahmed Ben Bella, Frantz Fanon, Eldridge Cleaver. Mokhtefi was a key intermediary between the Panthers and the FLN during her own time in Algiers, and a militant anti-imperialist. This is a clear-eyed, first-hand recollection of the way things fall apart.” —Jeremy Harding, author of Border Vigils
“Extraordinary … written with great humility and with love.”
—Ben Ehrenreich, Guardian
Mokhtefi handles some spectacular material in brisk, modest fashion. The inevitable doubts and conflicts that arise are not agonized over…Mokhtefi focuses less on how her political allegiances developed than on telling, in lively, lucid fashion, what happened and who did what … it [seems] possible that this readiness to minimize herself on the page is related to whatever capacity allows a person, over the years, to participate in politics, navigating the compromises involved.
—Lidija Haas, Harper’s
“The story she tells in her book is one of intrigue, political and otherwise. It is also about a revolution trying to create a government equal to its ideals in the face of very powerful enemies. Mokhtefi writes as a believer in the revolution, but does not hesitate to critique some of the twists and turns it took over the years she was part of the government.”
—Ron Jacobs, CounterPunch
“A return to a time when Algiers was Mecca and the Vatican for revolutionaries. Indeed, at the time Amilcar Cabral said: ‘Muslims go on pilgrimage to Mecca, Christians in the Vatican and national liberation movements in Algiers.’”
—Kader Bakou, Le Soir d'Algerie
“The behind-the-scenes work of post-WWII liberation movements comes to the fore in this gripping memoir from Mokhtefi … she makes palpable the turmoil and fervor of her experience there while sharing unbelievable stories previously known only to their participants.”
—Publishers Weekly
“A memoir of international radical activism, from helping Algeria and Africa shake the yoke of colonialism to helping the Black Panthers establish a revolutionary outpost in exile … A firsthand account of a time when so much seemed up for grabs.”
—Kirkus
“Mokhtefi artfully weaves together these various strands of radical struggle, while enriching our understanding of the Third World with personal anecdotes … this story reminds us that the Third World was not merely a destination. It was also a fabric of people woven together, even if the patchwork was sometimes unexpected, and at other times, imperfectly sewn.”
—Muriam Haleh Davis, Public Books
“A beautifully written account full of fascinating anecdotes of a life totally given to revolutionary causes.”
—Percy Zvomuya, New Frame
“Extraordinary.”
—Guardian
05/21/2018
The behind-the-scenes work of post-WWII liberation movements comes to the fore in this gripping memoir from Mokhtefi, an “innocent American” whose 1951 move to Paris after college leads her into an unexpected and awe-inducing life of revolutionary activity in Algeria and beyond. After renting a room in a cheap hotel on the edge of the North African quarter in Paris, Mokhtefi (née Klein) becomes involved in the Algerian immigrant labor struggle and soon an essential fixture in the Algerian war for independence thanks to her skills as a translator. Algeria’s war of liberation from France (1954–1962) changes the course of Mokhtefi’s life, rerouting her in 1960 to a New York City office where the “hands and feet” of the Algerian revolution operate, and eventually to Algiers, which becomes a hub of activity for numerous liberation movements. The arrivals of Eldridge Cleaver and several fellow Black Panthers as the party splits triggers a tumultuous period of clandestine activity and international intrigue that concludes with Mokhtefi’s 1974 deportation from Algeria. Despite her pivotal role aiding various leftist movements, savvy handling of delicate situations, and connections to world-historical persons, Mokhtefi remains humble throughout, even when describing hobnobbing with singer Miriam Makeba during a Pan-African music festival while trying to convince a drunk Nina Simone to perform. Mokhtefi has never been back to Algeria, but she makes palpable the turmoil and fervor of her experience there while sharing unbelievable stories previously known only to their participants. (Aug.)
2018-05-15
Mokhtefi (Paris: An Illustrated History, 2002) offers a memoir of international radical activism, from helping Algeria and Africa shake the yoke of colonialism to helping the Black Panthers establish a revolutionary outpost in exile.The narrative sometimes reads like a memoir of high society, though the glamorous names include Eldridge Cleaver (with whom the author had a close and complicated relationship), Timothy Leary, Frantz Fanon, Jean-Luc Godard, and Simone de Beauvoir. It was an era derided by Tom Wolfe as "radical chic," when revolutionary militancy became a fashion statement and a New York girl who presented herself as innocent as well as idealistic could find herself in the center of it all. "Life was exciting and eventful," writes Mokhtefi. "I was the fly on the window, looking in, beating its wings." As a translator and facilitator whose adventures took her from New York to Paris to Algeria to elsewhere in Africa, the author found herself getting relationship tips from Fanon, who had asked her what she wanted; she replied, "to put my head on someone's shoulder." Not revolutionary enough, he responded and counseled her to "stay upright on your own two feet and keep moving forward to goals of your own." Thus she did, though one senses that the sexual tension with Cleaver might have amounted to something if he hadn't declared her off-limits for everyone, including himself (making her apparently the only female to whom he was attracted that he considered off-limits). Mokhtefi has mixed feelings about the man whose life he credited her with saving and whom she considered a great revolutionary leader early on. He beat his wife, he murdered a man for having a sexual relationship with his wife, and he "had a reputation for throwing fat on the fire," taking dangerous situations and making them more dangerous. Still, "despite the things about him I despised—his killer instinct, his womanizing—I admired the man."A firsthand account of a time when so much seemed up for grabs.
