ABSTRACT
In Djamila Sahraoui's Yema (2012), the tragic tale of Ouardia and her sons deconstructs the various religious discourses that have led to the current political and social moment in Algeria. In what first appears to be a straightforward religious allegory, Yema revisits the story of Cain and Abel, recasting Ouardia not only as Eve, the mourning mother, but also as God – a vengeful deity who facilitates the destruction of his irredeemable creation, while promising a new, better world in its wake. Sahraoui's take is a radical one, though, in its rejection of accepted religious narratives – both Christian and Muslim – and in the powerful role, she affords her central character. Her God-Eve is not wholly benevolent, and her new world highlights the cyclical tragedy of religious conflict. A tragedy in its truest form, Yema's radical statement is not a challenge to the realities of religious war and an argument for reconciliation but a commentary on the fact that rebuilding modern Algeria must find a way out of religious discourse altogether, rejecting the stories that begin with the first religious war between Cain and Abel and culminate with Ouardia's matriarchal reimagining of justice and vengeance.
