Author(s): Elaine Mokhtefi

History | Politics | Africa

Mokhtefi (nee Klein), a Jewish American from Long Island, has had an exhilarating life. In the 1960s, she served as a press adviser to the National Liberation Front in postwar Algiers, before going to work with Eldridge Cleaver, who was wanted in the US for his role in a deadly shoot-out with Oakland police. Half a century later, as an eighty-nine-year-old painter living on the Upper West Side, Mokhtefi still seasons her prose with the argot of revolution.

Review: Provides an ideal occasion to reconsider the politics of 'Third Worldist' internationalism linking Black Power, European radicals, and anti-colonial militants during (the late sixties) -- Eugene Brennan * Los Angeles Review of Books *
Mokhtefi (nee Klein), a Jewish American from Long Island, has had an exhilarating life . In the nineteen-sixties, she served as a press adviser to the National Liberation Front in postwar Algiers, before going to work with Eldridge Cleaver, who was wanted in the U.S. for his role in a deadly shoot-out with Oakland police. Half a century later, as an eighty-nine-year-old painter living on the Upper West Side, Mokhtefi still seasons her prose with the argot of revolution. * New Yorker *
A fascinating insider's account of the Black Panthers' exile in Algiers in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Legendary figures take to the stage in the world capital of the national liberation movements: Ahmed Ben Bella, Frantz Fanon, Eldridge Cleaver. Mokhtefi was a key intermediary between the Panthers and the FLN during her own time in Algiers, and a militant anti-imperialist. This is a clear-eyed, first-hand recollection of the way things fall apart. -- Jeremy Hardy
Extraordinary . written with great humility and with love. -- Ben Ehrenreich * Guardian *
Mokhtefi artfully weaves together these various strands of radical struggle, while enriching our understanding of the Third World with personal anecdotes . this story reminds us that the Third World was not merely a destination. It was also a fabric of people woven together, even if the patchwork was sometimes unexpected, and at other times, imperfectly sewn -- Muriam Haleh Davis * Public Books *
A beautifully written account full of fascinating anecdotes of a life totally given to revolutionary causes -- Percy Zvomuya * New Frame *
Extraordinary * Guardian *

Author Biography: Elaine Mokhtefi was born in New York. After the Second World War, she joined the youth movement for world peace and justice, becoming director of a militant student organization. In 1960, she worked for Algerian independence. When the struggle was won, she made Algeria her home, working as a journalist and translator.