A Tale of Oral Tradition and the Enchantress of Le Kef
It must be said that this oral tradition and culture have been carried for decades by Najet through family reunions at festive gatherings, from circles to assemblies, from happenings to academic meetings.
Her talent as a storyteller has made her an outstanding mediator for the transmission of entire sections of collective memory, as well as for spreading among audiences the foundational values of our identity.
La Presse — At the dawn of this spring, the breeze from the heights of Jebel Eddir brings us, from the northwest, a revitalising, regenerative fragrance in the form of a volume titled “If Le Kef Were Told to Me.” The title, admittedly, is a flatness that contrasts with the relief of a city, a history, and a present of astonishing richness (this will be our first review of the work).
Fortunately, the edition is accompanied by a subtitle that, like a window opening onto the magic of the place, offers a more alluring perspective on the book: “The Enchantress’s Tales.” Who is she? Najet Ghariani (that’s how her name should have appeared on the front cover—second and final review). And once you know who Najet Ghariani is, you cannot resist the temptation to dive straight into the reading.
On the back of the fourth cover page, the author’s biography reads: “She turned to writing very late, after a full professional life as a senior executive in the Administration. Her style and talent have gradually won a wide audience of readers on social networks. Why? Because she draws inspiration from an oral tradition and culture that have not been regarded as assets or as factors in the creation of Le Kef’s identity and added value.”
It must be said again that this oral tradition and culture have been conveyed by Najet for decades through family reunions at festive gatherings, from circles to assemblies, from happenings to academic meetings. Her storytelling talent has crowned her an exceptional mediator for transmitting whole swaths of collective memory and for broadcasting the foundational values of our identity to listeners.
In her narratives, Najet blends reality and fiction in a perfectly unified narrative style that points to a Kef‑based patrimonial fund of prodigious richness, a witness to a past (both distant and recent) stamped with exceptionality and that gives this city and this region of Tunisia a special place (couldn’t the city of Le Kef be considered, for several centuries, the country’s second capital?).
The passage from oral to written form is a challenge in itself—especially when it involves a language shift, in this case to French. Was the feat successful? The reader will decide. One thing is certain: this volume exudes a wool‑like ambience of urban rootedness and a warm, terroir‑filled atmosphere whose marriage recreates, in a single tableau, the particularism of Le Kef… and its magic.
