Evening of entertainment
The evening included the presentation of a humorous criticizing sketch in Algerian dialect entitled "Images of Ramadan". After, the students presented some of the light school passages; the funniest of them is the imitation of principal, assistant principal and professors by a talented student. Students repeated the name of the professor they wanted him to imitate until he agreed. When the role of Hakim arrived, he refused to be imitated. Students repeated his name until he agreed. When the students chanted "Makadri, Makadri", he left the room angrily.
The imitation of Mahfouz Ammar was the most successful of what the student did, describing his first class lesson. The student put glasses without lenses on his eyes, asked for Ammar’s hat, and inserted it into his head. He joined his hands behind his back, taking a contemptuous and proud look, He looked at the students from top to bottom, and then said in French, "You are underdeveloped people, you will stay behind forever". He turned his back on them, turned abruptly towards them, and asked them, "Do you think that you are human beings like Europeans?" He stopped for a moment and then replied, "No, no, no, no". He raises the voice in each syllable in a way that made the audience die of laughter. He took off his glasses, closed his eyes and opened them several times saying, "We are a people who do not work; our output is half an hour a day, rather ten minutes". He climbed on the platform, put the glasses on and said in a serious tone,
"In France, people are surprised when they turn on the tap and the water doesn't flow, if they pick up the phone and they don't find the dial tone, if they see a broken elevator, and if they find a man walking in the middle of the road". He would shut up for a moment, then added,
"In our country, we must be surprised if we turn on the tap and we find running water, if we find the phone works, if we find a building with an elevator working and if we see someone walking in the zebra crossing and not walking in the middle of the road".
He walked a few steps in front of the students and continued slowly and calmly, "The books were supposed to be distributed before entering and we are starting to work today". Suddenly, he lost his self-control. He said while knocking on the table, "But we are backward people, we do not know the value of time, we invented the zero and stayed in it". The students laughed a lot, but Ammar himself laughed to the point of shedding tears.
Abdellah Khammar
An extract taken from the novel: Entry bell to class