Mohammed Benzakour

(Morocco, 1972) is a publicist, columnist, writer, and poet. In 2014 he won the 2013 E. du Perron Prize for his novel Yemma, based on the story of his mother, who has a stroke and ends up in care institutions not geared to illiterate Moroccans. Benzakour grew up in a first-generation family of migrant workers in Zwijndrecht, NL, where he became a city councillor while studying sociology and public administration. As of 1998 he has taken part in public debates on issues ranging from the long arm of the Moroccan government to the squandering of leftist ideology by the Dutch Labour Party to the captive polar bear Knut. His columns and opinion pieces for the Volkskrant newspaper and other publications regularly stir things up, and have been collected in Osama's Grot, Allah, Holland en ik (Osama's Cave, Allah, Holland and Me, 2005) and Stinkende heelmeesters (Stinking Surgeons, 2008). His book Abou Jahjah, nieuwlichter of oplichter? (Abou Jahjah: Innovator or swindler?, 2004) describes how the Netherlands and Belgium handled the Muslim activist.