Beachcomber Magazine 07

Mariam Sheik Fareed FATE IN FAR-OFF LANDS LES HASARDS DE L’AILLEURS In her first novel, Mariam Sheik Fareed writes about a medical enigma, the “foreign language syndrome,” using it as a metaphor for blending cultures. Dans son premier roman, Mariam Sheik Fareed s’inspire d’une énigme médicale, le « syndrome de l’accent étranger », pour en faire une métaphore du métissage culturel. BY ANTOINE DE GAUDEMAR PHOTOGRAPHS CLAUDE WEBER This is not an invention by Mariam Sheik Fareed. The “foreign language syndrome,” which gives its title to her first novel, really exists. It’s a very rare disorder that affects victims of a traumatic brain injury or a stroke: for some unknown reason, they start speaking their language with a strong foreign accent. “I was very curious about this medical enigma,” explains Mariam Sheik Fareed, born in England of a Mauritian father and a Breton mother. Her mother tongue is English, but she writes in French, and speaks Creole fluently, plus a little bit of Breton. “In fact, we all speak with a slightly foreign accent. We all come from elsewhere, by chance or otherwise, and we all have to adapt, to be resilient.” A NOVEL WITHIN A NOVEL This strange syndrome is the focal point of the novel, its metaphor. All the characters are rather lost or in the middle of an identity crisis. Alex, a would-be writer, leaves his computer in the Paris metro. Désiré, an undocumented Mauritian sweeper, finds it and reads Alex’s unfinished text. The author doesn’t know what to do with his heroine, Sophie, an art gallery owner, who suffers from this syndrome and from existential anxiety. Désiré is full of ideas, but doesn’t know how to write them down. He therefore lets Alex know that he will return his computer only if he finishes the novel, but that he is willing to help him. He suggests transporting the character of Sophie to Mauritius, so that she can start a new life… And Alex sets to work. Le syndrome de l’accent étranger was initially self-published, before being spotted and republished in Paris by Philippe Rey, himself of Mauritian origin. Built as a story within a story, the book resembles its author. Mariam Sheik Fareed has had several lives, several homeports. London first, where she was born and grew up, and where her father worked, the descendant of an “indentured worker”, who left India in the late 19th century, along with thousands of others to work in the sugar cane fields in Mauritius. Then the Quiberon peninsula, in Brittany, where her mother grew up, the daughter of farmers who became a nurse, and where Mariam Sheik Fareed currently lives. And RoseHill, in Mauritius, where her paternal grandmother lived and where she spent many holidays. “My father went to a public school, in a Harry Potter type atmosphere,” she says with a smile. “My mother was born on the table of the family farm and looked after the animals when she was little. They met by chance in an Indian restaurant in Brittany, called Le Dihan, ‘a break’ in Breton.” NEW DEPARTURES Today, “Dihan” is the name of the eco-lodge that Mariam Sheik Fareed and her husband, a Breton, created from scratch seventeen years ago, near Carnac. Tree houses, wooden chalets, yurts and even a gypsy caravan, built or installed on the 25 hectares of meadows and woods on the old farm that belonged to Mariam’s maternal grandmother. Original and very much in vogue, this project works so well that the couple plan to go and live in Mauritius for a time: “I miss Mauritius,” explains Mariam. “And it’s important that our two daughters, born in France, should know their other country, study there and obtain the nationality.” Mariam does not idealise Mauritius, a small island where you can know where your neighbour comes from just by hearing their name, but she is indulgent: “In spite of all that, we manage to live together. We are a young nation; we need time. The wealth of Mauritius is its 

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