Saudi Poetic Anthropology: Time, Place, and Belonging in Ahmed Abodehman’s La Ceinture/Al-Ḥizām

What is it about?

This article explores a unique novel written by Saudi poet and journalist Ahmed Abodehman. The novel, La Ceinture (The Belt), tells the story of a boy growing up in a traditional Saudi village in the 1950s and 60s—a time when the country was beginning to modernise. Through the lens of this story, the article examines how village life, time, and identity were experienced before modern changes took hold. It also discusses why Abodehman wrote the novel in French rather than Arabic, and how language and exile influenced his sense of belonging. The article sheds light on how literature can preserve disappearing ways of life and help us understand how people remember, resist, or adapt to rapid social changes.

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Photo by hossein kianian on Unsplash

Photo by hossein kianian on Unsplash

Why is it important?

This article offers an original reading of a Saudi novel written in French—a rare choice for a Saudi author—and situates it within the broader history of social change in the Arabian Peninsula. What makes this work timely and unique is its focus on rural Saudi life at the very beginning of modernisation, long before oil wealth transformed the country. It also introduces the idea of “poetic anthropology,” showing how fiction can serve as a powerful tool for documenting lived experience, memory, and identity. In a period when Saudi Arabia is once again redefining itself culturally and socially, revisiting these early voices adds depth to our understanding of what was lost, what changed, and what continues to shape Saudi identities today. The article will interest anyone working on literature, Gulf studies, postcolonial language politics, or the cultural history of modernisation.