https://youtu.be/Rb5SUUilMd8
Drawing on research, regional ethnographies, and accounts of cultural and professional experiences, *Manuscript from Algeria* offers a broad perspective on the Maghreb as a whole and, in particular, on Algeria.
“This book, despite the many situations it describes, conveys the joy of discovering humanity in its most diverse forms,”noted Prof. Agustín Courtoisie—writer, philosopher, professor, and cultural journalist—at the start of the presentation, which also featured a talk by Dr. Sonnia Romero Gorski, an ethnologist and the book’s author.
The event, organized by the Department ofInternational Studies at Universidad ORT Uruguay, took place on Tuesday, July 4, in a hybrid format (some participants attended in person, while others joined via HyFlex®).
Start at the end
The expert began by highlighting the conclusion, which includes several interviews that led him to reflect on the book as one that“touches on topics that might interest anyone.”
“It’s a matter of giving them their due credit, of properly recognizing the knowledge these peoples have accumulated,”Courtoisie said.
“The perspective of Sonnia and her colleagues in the Maghreb is also the perspective that builds up and empowers those peoples who belong to other cultures but share certain common concerns, such as the recognition of women,” the philosopher remarked.
The Reason Behind the Manuscript
It took Gorski about two years to compile the materials that make up the book. “That’s why I called it a manuscript. I had notes, clippings, and fragments of academic papers that I had to piece together,” the writer explained.
“These are accounts of situations, thoughts, practices, ways of behaving, and questions that are unique to humans—and it doesn’t matter whether they happened twenty years ago or right now,” Gorski said.
“There is an overemphasis on the present and the past. Not everything is about rushing forward, nor is everything from the past necessarily outdated; these are situations that occurred at a specific time, and it is interesting to analyze them.”
The Chronicles
The *Manuscript from Algeria* contains various chronicles, but at the end of his book’s introduction, Gorski focuses on a few in particular that describe the customs and traditions he experienced during his time in Algiers.
In both the book and the presentation, the author recounts how she had to assist a neighbor during childbirth. “Luckily, the baby was born healthy, and I was able to put into practice what I had been reading, because I had been researching motherhood, early childhood, and home births, and I had the theoretical knowledge,” she said.
He emphasized that this was not a rural setting, but a completely urban one, yet cultural clashes led to unique situations. “The gynecologist who saw my neighbor felt uncomfortable performing a full examination; he sent her back home and didn’t realize she was already having contractions,” Gorski recalled.
Finally, he concludes that the time he spent living there was a very challenging period, but also a very interesting one, because “Algiers in those years was an international hub for the Non-Aligned Movement; as a result, it was a meeting point for national liberation movements from Africa, even from the Canary Islands, as well as Irish, Palestinian, and Latin American groups.”