Born in colonial Tunisia, he speaks Arabic as his native language. He was educated in French primary schools, and continued on to the Carnot high school in Tunis, the University of Algiers where he studied philosophy, and finally the Sorbonne in Paris. Albert Memmi found himself at the crossroads of three cultures, and based his work on the difficulty of finding a balance between the East and the West.

Parallel with his literary work, he pursued a career as a teacher; first as a teacher at the Carnot high school in Tunis (1953) and later in France where he remained after Tunisian independence at the Practical School of Higher Studies, at HEC and at the University of Nanterre (1970).

Although he supported the independence movement in Tunisia, he was not able to find a place in the new Muslim state.

He published his well-regarded first novel, "La statue de sel" (translated as "The Pillar of Salt") in 1953 with a preface by Albert Camus. His other novels include "Agar" (translated as "Strangers"), "Le Scorpion" ("The Scorpion"), and "Le Desert" ("The Desert").

His best-known nonfiction work is "The Colonizer and the Colonized", about the interdependent relationship of the two groups. It was published in 1957, a time when many national liberation movements were active. Jean-Paul Sartre wrote the preface. The work is often read in conjunction with Frantz Fanon's "Les damnés de la Terre" ("The Wretched of the Earth") and "Peau noire, masques blancs" ("Black Skin, White Masks") and Aimé Césaire's "Discourse on Colonialism." In October 2006, Memmi's follow-up to this work, titled "Decolonization and the Decolonized," was published. In this book, Memmi suggests that in the wake of global decolonization, the suffering of former colonies cannot be attributed to the former colonizers, but to the corrupt leaders and governments that control these states.

Memmi's related sociological works include "Dominated Man," "Dependence," and "Racism."

Memmi has also written extensively on Judaism, including "Portrait of a Jew," "Liberation of the Jew" and "Jews and Arabs."

He is also known for the "Anthology of Maghrebian literature" (written in collaboration) published in 1965 (vol. 1) and 1969 (vol. 2).