Himoud Brahimi

Biography

Himoud Brahimi born in Algiers on March 18, 1918, was a poet, inspired writer, swimmer - he broke the world record for freediving in 1956 at the Paris swimming pool - memorable actor of the Algerian National Theater and best cinema Algerian in the 1970s and 80s, (he notably distinguished himself in the film "Tahya Ya Didou" by Mohamed Zinet and "Taxi El Makhfi" (The Clandestine) by Benamar Bakhti), an essential character in the heated debates from then to the Algiers cinema library. Mohamed Brahimi, baptized "Himoud" by his nanny M'Barka, nicknamed Momo by his French admirers, is a profound and multifaceted character, his career will be dominated by his relationship to the sciences of metaphysics, publishing, among others, The Supreme Identity (1958), a manifesto on theology and philosophy. This Sufi Muslim was interested in Christianity, Judaism and even Hinduism, revealing a philosophy inherent in integral love and knowledge through light: "I learned that the value of man lies not in not in what he can imagine and create for the world of the senses; but to encourage the infiltration of light into what is still unknown in it, to enlarge the knowledge of the infinite that it conveys.” Described as a blessed poet, Momo – it is true – left his mark with these verses and especially with his text “Mienne Casbah”. The love he has for her – and by extrapolation to his entire country. Friendly humanist without limits has always advocated love of one's neighbor, whatever the country and its culture, but proclaiming his city as a "sleeping conscience of a civilization" in the Mediterranean, a reference to the historical and cultural memory of Algeria and an immutable link between the past and the present. He led this fight until his death on June 30, 1997 in Algiers. He will have lived rebellious, loving freedom and dignity.