Kiffe Kiffe Tomorrow

Doria’s mother, Yasmina, grew up in rural Morocco and was a traditional wife and mother until her husband’s departure. At the beginning of the novel, she is illiterate, working as a cleaner at a motel and struggling to survive financially. Like her daughter, she has become emotionally withdrawn. However, Yasmina is less resistant than Doria to accepting help. She is also more sociable, making friends in each new situation, even across cultural boundaries. Her network of friends includes Aunt Zohra, whom she met in a sewing class, her coworker Fatouma Konaré, and eventually her literacy teacher, Jacqueline. She is intimidated by the thought of entering a literacy course but does well and comes to enjoy learning. By the end of the novel, she has increased in self-confidence and found a new job as a cafeteria worker at the local primary school.

Doria’s father, whom she sometimes refers to as “the Beard,” is already absent when the novel opens. He has old-fashioned ideas about gender roles and a strong sense of what he is entitled to as a man in a male-dominated society. He cites Islam as support, once ripping a poster of a shirtless boy-band member off Doria’s wall, but is also an alcoholic who sends his young daughter out to buy him beer during Ramadan. He achieves his goal of fathering a son back in Morocco, while Yasmina and Doria build better lives for themselves without him.

Hamoudi is a small-time drug dealer in his late twenties who initially spends much of his time hanging around Doria’s building smoking hash and talking with Doria. Though he completed his baccalaureate and almost reached university, he gave up his academic ambitions after going to prison. Since then he has had a rough life, as shown by his mysterious scar and rotten teeth, though Doria thinks he is good-looking, with an outlaw appeal. He still loves and remembers the poetry of Arthur Rimbaud. Though he presents himself as disillusioned and uninterested in marriage, this does not seem to be the case. He also worries about being a failure, unable to escape a life of petty crime.

 After acquiring a girlfriend, Karina, he cleans himself up and gets a job as a security guard. He faces a setback, breaking up with Karina and getting fired from his job over accusations of theft, but gets his life on track again after becoming involved with Lila, to whom he is engaged at the end of the book. He gets a job in the local market and happily takes on the role of father to Lila’s daughter, Sarah. 

Despite Doria’s crush on him, Hamoudi sees Doria as a child and treats her in ways appropriate to her age, censoring himself when talking to her about his life and occasionally playing the role of a father figure. He is the only one outraged when she is not given the opportunity to repeat her year at school, and at the end of the book, he is supportive of her relationship with Nabil.

Mme Burlaud is Doria’s therapist. Doria knows little about her though she is a central figure in Doria’s life throughout the novel, one of the few people who attends Doria’s funeral in her dream. Doria describes her as smelling like anti-lice shampoo and looking like a bobblehead dog in a car window. However, Doria admits that Mme. Burlaud is insightful and that her observations are usually accurate. Despite an episode in which Mme. Burlaud returns to a session smelling of liquor and crossing her legs high enough to show her garters, she is a steady and positive influence in Doria’s life.

Mme Du is Doria’s and Yasmina’s social worker. Doria refers to her by nicknames such as Mme. Duwhoozit and Mme. DuThingamajig, claiming not to be able to remember what follows the “Du.” As a blonde with a “real” French name and a seemingly happy middle-class life, Mme. Du initially arouses Doria’s resentment, though Mme. Du is warm and eager to be friends with both Doria and Yasmina. It is Mme. Du who signs up Yasmina up for paid job training and literacy courses. She is newly married and later goes on maternity leave, being replaced by a less personable woman whom Doria nicknames Cyborg Service. When Mme. Du returns at the end of the book, she seems genuinely happy to see the changes in Yasmina’s and Doria’s lives and wants to find them money for a real vacation.

Zohra, always called “Aunt Zohra” by Doria, is an Algerian woman who is one of Yasmina’s oldest friends in France. They met years before, in sewing class, and have remained close, despite Zohra’s moving to another suburb. She makes excellent traditional couscous and has three sons: Réda, Hamza, and Youssef. As her husband spends half of each year with a new, younger wife back in North Africa, she is essentially a single parent, like Yasmina. When Youssef gets in trouble with the police and goes to prison, she must cope with the situation alone, only to be blamed by her husband when he returns. Initially, Doria seems to see Zohra as stronger and more independent than Yasmina, but by the end of novel, Yasmina has blossomed while Aunt Zohra struggles.

Youssef is Aunt Zohra’s oldest son. He is a couple of years older than Doria and acted as something of a big brother to her when they were younger and lived in the same neighborhood. He lent her his bike and taught her to ride without training wheels. Doria is shocked when he’s arrested and imprisoned for involvement in drug dealing and car theft. While in jail, he apparently becomes radicalized, suggesting a dramatic change in the young man Doria remembers eating bacon-flavored chips “on the sly” (131).

Nabil, the son of another of Yasmina’s friends, starts helping Doria with her homework and eventually becomes her boyfriend. Nabil generally does well in school and is considered smart. His mother is very proud of him, and protective of him. She brought him cookies in school when Nabil was little and is perceived as wearing the pants in their family. Nabil’s father is less authoritarian and traditional than most in the neighborhood. Nabil’s parents can both read and write, unlike Doria’s, and are more “cultured.” Nabil knows more about history and literature than Doria and she initially perceives him as condescending.

Nabil is interested in politics and social change, and it is after a passionate discussion of voter apathy that he is first inspired to kiss Doria. He returns from a long summer vacation looking more mature and assured but is awkward and dismissive with Doria. Later, when reconnecting with Doria, he claims that his mother had forbidden him to see her, after he flunked his baccalaureate exams. At the end of the novel, Nabil and Doria are dating.

Lila is a young Algerian woman of thirty, recently divorced and living on the Paradise estate with her four-year-old daughter, Sarah. Lila works as a cashier in a supermarket and is an avid consumer of women’s magazines and a believer in true love, despite past experiences. As a young woman, she fell in love with a “native” Frenchman and married him over the objections of both their families. Lila now feels they married more out of rebellion than love. Their relationship fell apart, and her French father-in-law made her feel singled out as a Muslim. Over the course of the book, Lila becomes involved with, and then engaged to, Hamoudi. As a result of the engagement, Lila reconnects with her parents, who have not spoken to her since her first marriage. Lila herself is a warm and loving parent, marking Sarah’s growth on a door and filling her apartment with photos of her daughter.

Jacqueline is Yasmina’s teacher but soon becomes her friend. The two share a love of knitting and spend many hours knitting together. Jacqueline, a grandmotherly woman from Normandy, is eager to learn about Yasmina and Doria’s religion and culture, rather than being put off by them, showing that cross-cultural friendships are indeed possible and that not all “native” French are close-minded or condescending.

Samra, a minor character, is a young woman who initially lives on the tenth floor of Doria’s building. Doria says Samra is “held prisoner” by her father and brothers, who try to control her life and beat her when she comes home late. Samra becomes the talk of the neighborhood when she runs away from home. She has run away to be with her French boyfriend, whom she met while wrapping gifts in a store over Christmas. When her father sees their wedding announcement in the paper, he has a stroke. Samra’s story of escape provides a counterpart to Doria’s own struggles, as well as illustrating how brutally restrictive traditional gender roles can be.