A response to Albert Camus’s ‘The Outsider’

Unnamed ‘Arab man’s’ spirit:

Here is my backstory: I was born March 16th, 1915. I lived 26 years on this earth, and my name was Rachid Bouzar.

I lived a life of societal humiliation, existing in a system of oppression, discrimination and by the end of my short life, I had no doubt in my mind that survival in this violent world meant fighting. I am human, my actions are shaped by my experiences, and my actions are not a result of inherent aggression, but a realization that to live in this society that rejects all form of justice for me and my family means to fight.

On august 17th 1941 I was killed at the hands of an empty man, Meursault. I was a human, not just a body, I lived as much as any man on this earth. If the sun is a reason to end a man’s life, then you have no understanding of justice. I am not just a lifeless body in the sand, nor a man with no name. The sun did not shoot me that day. Nature did not instruct you to end my life Meursault, you decided to. My body tore as your bullet pierced my skin. Once, taking my life. Then three more times, taking my humanity. Yet this court searches for answers on who shot me, so you question the sun over the man who pulled the trigger.

Four times. I stand here fighting for this court room to understand that the answer to my murder will not be found in the sky. I will not stand before you, allowing you to accept that my life can be taken at the hands of this empty man and blamed on the heat. I implore you to see that although being put on this world may have no meaning, taking another a man’s life is never meaningless, and justice must be served. I demand to be more than a man with no name, more than a body on the sand and, even in death, I demand for the world to know my life will not be taken in vain, and certainly not taken because my red-hot blade hurt his eyes. My life was taken because this man put my existence second to comfort. I was a soul capable of knowing

more of life than he will ever understand, he is an empty man. Your violence, hatred and disregard for

another man’s life has silenced me for good and I will never take another breath, I will never love

another or lay under the sun. You do not know me. In your eyes I am nobody, there are no words this man

has used to describe me, but I was someone.