Leila Djabali

Leila Djabali (b. 1933) was an Algerian intellectual and poet, who was imprisoned and tortured by the French colonial authorities during the Algerian War of Independence. Her poem, "Pour mon tortionnaire, le Lieutenant D.." (For my torturer, Lieutenant D..., 1957), written while imprisoned at the Barberousse Prison in Algiers, vividly portrays multiple rapes in prison, and ends by describing the gentle everyday lives of the torturer [Gathering Seaweed: African Prison Writing, By Jack Mapanje, Heinemann 2002 [http://books.google.com/books?id=mNNaXZgi0FsC&pg=PA140&dq=djabali+locomotive+belly&sig=ACfU3U1JfMw0Xt_IpUQuE4BK0i5HsG5s0g] ] .

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