Olivier Weber (born 1958) is a French writer, novelist and reporter at large, known primarily for his coverage of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He has been a war correspondent for twenty-five years, especially in Central Asia, Africa, Middle-East and Iraq.[1] He is an assistant professor at the Institut d'études politiques de Paris, president of the Prize Joseph Kessel and today ambassador of France at large. Weber has won several national and international awards of literature and journalism, in particular for his stories on Afghanistan and for his books on wars.[2] His novels, travels writing books and essays have been translated in a dozen of languages.[3][4]
His style as a writer is sometimes compared to that of Conrad, Chatwin and Cendrars.[10][11][12] He has traveled the world, from the United States to China and from Africa to the East, which became his passion.[13][14] He brought from these trips and stays several stories, surveys and novels, including Dragon Hunters: Opiomistan trip, and The White Death on the world of drug dealers.][15]
The committed writer
Committed writer,[16][17] Olivier Weber has written on a lot of lost causes and indigenous people. He has defended in particular the resistance of South Sudan and has denounced the slavery of Sudanese children.[18]
He participated at the operations of saving the boat people, in the China Sea, with volunteers of the international NGO Doctors of the World (Médecins du Monde). He has also defended the Afghan mujahideen during the war against the Soviet army and then against the pro-communist regime of Najibullah and had traveled several times with the rebels and Commander Massoud. After criticizing the regime of the Taliban, he was expelled from Afghanistan by the militias of Mollah Umar.
His denunciation of human trafficking by the Tamil Tigers of Sri Lanka and disposal of their prisoners, after several trips to the bush,[19] brought him new threats. The plane he was to take from Jaffna to Colombo was deliberately shot down by fighters of the armed movement. Following an expedition with one of the Burmese guerrillas, he met secretly in Rangoon the opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.[20]
After winning the award Joseph-Kessel Prize, he was nominated president of the prize in 2001.
In August 2001, he traveled to Central Asia to launch a humanitarian mission in the Panjshir Valley and bring to Ahmad Shah Massoud proofs of his book The Afghan Hawk. A few days later, 9 September 2001, two days before the attacks on the World Trade Center, the Lion of Panjshir was assassinated by two terrorists of Al-Qaeda. Olivier Weber was to attend his funeral, when the Taliban launched a major offensive. His testimony and his denunciation of the Taliban regime and the rise of Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Central Asia have earned him death threats.[21][22] He has published several books on Central Asia and the Silk Road: The Great Feast of the East, The Afghan Hawk: a journey to the land of the Taliban, Memory Murdered, Road of Drugs, The White Death.[23][24]
The film of his book Cursed for Gold (La Fièvre de l'or),[28][29] a travelogue on human trafficking in the Amazon and other traffickings related to deforestation and the massacre of Native Americans, was the subject of remarkable press and has been described as a witness in the vein of Darwin's Nightmare and Blood Diamond.[30][31][32]
His essay on Joseph Kessel, "Kessel, The Eternal Nomad", highlights the commitment of the reporter and member of the French Academy.[33] He has also written the biographies of Joseph Conrad, Jack London and Ella Maillart. [34]
He is a member of the Albert Londres Award's jury. Author and writer of documentaries, he is also editor of the series "Writers travelers".[35]
The ambassador
Olivier Weber was nominated in 2008 to be ambassador of France at large, in charge of human trafficking and human rights. He has done several dozens of missions for this task in Asia, Africa, Central America, Middle East, and advocates at the tribune of the United Nations mainly on human trafficking, child soldiers, fight against drugs, civil society and human rights.[36][37]
He is a lecturer (maître de conférences) at the Institute of Political Studies of Paris (Institut d'études politiques de Paris or Sciences-Po), where he teaches the guerrilla warfare. He has completed from 1983 to 2011 more than 20 terrain-researches as a war observer in countries like Afghanistan, Iraq, Algeria, Syria, Erytrea, Sudan, Iran, Sri Lanka, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan.[38][39]
He has received several awards and prizes of literature and journalism, among them the prestigious Albert Londres Prize, considered the French Pulitzer prize, for his articles and reports.[40][41] and the Joseph Kessel Prize for his books. He is a selection committee member for literature awards and member of the Société des Explorateurs Français (Society of the French Explorers).
In the eye of the archangel, Life and death of Gerda Taro, (Dans l'oeil de l'archange) (Calmann-Lévy, 2023)
Birth of a European Nation - Reflections on the Ukrainian Question (Naissance d'une nation européenne- Réflexions sur la question ukrainienne)(Aube, 2022)
Massoud, the murdered rebel (Massoud, le rebelle assassiné (Aube, 2021)
In the Kingdom of Light, A travel in Himalaya (Au Royaume de la lumière) (Terre Humaine, 2020).[43]
If I forget you Kurdistan (Si je t'oublie Kurdistan) (Aube, 2020)
The Hinterland (L'Arrière-pays) (Calmann-Lévy, 2020)
Borders (Frontières) (Paulsen, 2016)
Jack London, The Call of the big spleen dreams (Paulsen, 2016)
The Enchantment of the World (L'Enchantement du monde) (Flammarion, 2015)
Massoud's Confession (La Confession de Massoud) (Flammarion, 2013)
The Unpunished, A travel in the banality of evil (Les Impunis) (Robert Laffont, 2013)
The Barbary Corsair (Le Barbaresque) (Flammarion, 2011)
Conrad, the Traveller of concern (Arthaud-Flammarion, 2011)
I will have gold (J'aurai de l'or) (Robert Laffont, 2008)
Is Tibet a lost cause? (Le Tibet est-il une cause perdue?), (Larousse, 2008)
The White Death (La mort blanche) (Albin Michel, 2007)
On the Silk Roads (Sur les routes de la soie) (avec Reza, (Hoëbeke, 2007)
Kessel, the eternal nomad (Kessel, le nomade éternel) (Arthaud, 2006)
The Angels battle (La Bataille des anges) (Albin Michel, 2006)
The Big Feast of the East (Le grand festin de l'Orient) (Robert Laffont, 2004)
Memory murdered (La Mémoire assassinée) (Mille et une nuits, 2004)
I am from nowhere: on the tracks of Ella Maillart (Je suis de nulle part: sur les traces d’Ella Maillart), (Éditions Payot, 2003)
Humanitaires (Le Félin, 2002)
La mémoire assassinée (Mille et Une Nuits, 2001)
Le faucon afghan: un voyage au pays des talibans (Robert Laffont, 2001)
On ne se tue pas pour une femme (Plon, 2000)
Dragon Hunters: a stay in Opiumistan (Chasseurs de dragons: voyage en Opiomie) (Payot), 2000)
The Slave children (Les Enfants esclaves) (Mille et une nuits, 1999)
Lucien Bodard, un aventurier dans le siècle (Plon, 1997)
Road of drugs (La route de la drogue) (Arléa, 1996)
French doctors: L’épopée des hommes et des femmes qui ont inventé la médecine humanitaire (Robert Laffont, 1995)
Voyage au pays de toutes les Russies (Éditions Quai Voltaire, 1992)
Filmography
Olivier Weber is the author, director and screenwriter of several films for television and theater, in particular on travels and on writers.
Documentary: Sudan: The Slave Children, France 2, 1998
Documentary: The Opium of talibans, French channels and theaters, 2001, Special Prize of FIPA
Documentary: Return to Cambodia, France 5, 2002[53],[44][45]
Documentary: On the road of Ganga, Arte, 2003, prize of the Public of FIGRA and Prize of Image of Figra[46]
Documentary: On the road of Nile, France 5, 2007[47]
Documentary: The People of Opium (Le Peuple de l'opium), Canal Plus, 2007[48]
Documentary: Cursed for Gold (La Fièvre de l'Or), Canal Plus and France 2, in French theaters in October 2008[49][50][51]
Documentary: Blood-red Gemstones, (Les Rubis des khmers rouges), France 2, 2011
Ahmad Shah Massoud was an Afghan politician and military commander. He was a powerful guerrilla commander during the resistance against the Soviet occupation between 1979 and 1989. In the 1990s, he led the government's military wing against rival militias; after the Taliban takeover, he was the leading opposition commander against their regime until his assassination in 2001.
Joseph Kessel, also known as "Jef", was a French journalist and novelist. He was a member of the Académie française and Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour.
Pierre Schoendoerffer was a French film director, a screenwriter, a writer, a war reporter, a war cameraman, a renowned First Indochina War veteran, a cinema academician. He was president of the Académie des Beaux-Arts for 2001 and for 2007.
Lucien Bodard was a French reporter and writer on events in Asia.
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