Book Review: Sand Roses by Hamza Koudri
Hamza Koudri’s “Sand Roses” is a novel about twin sisters, Salima and Fahima who are dancers in a city called Boussada, in Camusean Algeria in the 1930s. Both sisters are an interesting combination of characters; Salima is vicious and wide-eyed, Fahima is stubborn and naive. They both find themselves in a dilemma when the police force declares war on dancers who sleep secretly with their clients to avoid paying taxes (sex workers are taxed in the city). A police officer follows one of the sisters home, so he could try to sleep with her and arrest her, and she kills him. And a dilemma sets in, with both sisters trying to conceal the crime of the death amidst the tight investigation.
But what makes it more interesting is how Salima and Fahima’s story is intertwined in the struggle between the colonial armed forces and the native militants, the “Ouled Brahims” who act like a guerilla force and are a thorn in the flesh of the colonial armed forces. These native militants known as the Ouled Brahims are usually the first suspect when crime is committed, because of this it was quite difficult for the police to unravel the suspect even though in the course of the investigation, the culprit is questioned as one of those in the bar the night the missing officer was last seen.
The lives of both sisters are shown from three dimensions, the past from where their mother Saaida who had towed the same path as them when she was younger. Part of the story going back and forth shows how the mother brings her daughters to Boussaada and guides them into the profession. Even though Koudri’s writing tone has the advantage of ridding the story of undue sentimentality, one gets the creeps from the inherent ugliness in the world of a life where prostitution is the apprenticeship for a better life for the women at the centre of the story. The lives of Fahima and Salima follow a template of the lives lived by many women from their social class; leave the village, go to the city, become a dancer, sleep with men for money, gather enough for one’s dowry and go back home and get married. But also we see the world of Salima and Fahima expanding from the template of the norm; Salima having bigger dreams to move to an even bigger city than Boussaada to become an even bigger dancer, and Fahima falling in love and dreaming of eloping with her lover, before the incident of murder and the ensuing drama which had put a halt on the trajectory of their lives.
Hamza Koudri’s Sand Roses unfolds in layers. First into how the lives of Fahima and her sister Salima become complicated by the murder intrigue. Secondly, how their lives become even further complicated when the Ouled Brahims,finding that one of the sisters was responsible for the murder, now need the help of the girls to kill more police men, because of how easy it was for them to evade investigation. The girls find themselves in a tight situation where if they said yes, they were signing up to become murderers, and if they said no, they would become ungrateful to those with whom their secret is safe.
In Hamza Koudri’s Sand Roses, the contrast between the lives of the crooked dancers who go extra length to make more money and evade tax, and in the inner life of Colonel Dupont, who sent his son out of town for a sexual offense, we are shown the hypocrisy across class, and how offenses by people from different classes are treated.
The presence of the Ouled Brahims in the novel is similar to the presence of the Mau Mau guerillas in Colonial Kenya as seen in Ngugi’s novel. The novel in this sense gives a sense of how violence is a tool for subjugation and a tool of resistance. It presents a tale of double edged villainy of the oppressor and the oppressed, or a three dimensional tale of foolery between the attacker, opponent and the pawn in-between.
Koudri’s Sand Roses is a book for lovers of detective fiction. It is a book for those whose tastes favour what entertains and keeps them on their toes. Don’t come to this story looking for depth of a story of great humanity, but If you care enough about the characters, it will keep you reading until the end.
