The Sand Filterers

1 The sand filterers Majnoun, the passionate lover of Leila, wandering in the desert, was seen one day filtering sand in his hands. “What are you looking for?” He was asked. “I am looking for Leila.” “How can you expect to find such a pure pearl like Leila in this dust?” “I look for Leila everywhere”, replied Majnoun, “hoping to find her one day, somewhere.” Farid Eddin Attar, as reported by Emile Dermenghem, Spiritual Masters’ Collection. 2 Introduction Whatever judgment passed in the future on Mostefa Ben Boulaid, Bachir Chihani or Adjel Adjoul, a place in the mythical Algerian revolution will be devoted to them. Many controversies will arise concerning the nature of this place. As for me, I only hope to be faithful to their truth. To achieve this, I think time has come to unveil the history of the Aures- Nememcha insurrection and rid it of its slag, reaching deep in its genuine reality which makes it fascinating. The events told here go from November 1st, 1954 to June 1959. They depict rather normal facts, sometimes mean, often grandiose, and men who discover their humanity and whose everyday life in the bush is scrutinized as if by a scanner. As it is known, it is not easy to revive part of contemporary History, particularly the one concerning the Aures Nememcha insurrection of November 1954. I have started gleaning testimonies in 1969, leaving aside those dealing with propaganda or exonerating partiality. I have confronted facts and witnesses, through an unyielding search for truth, bearing in mind that each witness, consciously or not, is victim of his own implication. The lack of documents and archive dealing with the first years of the Algerian insurrection has forced me to make do with oral sources, all the more valuable since they proceed from people still possessing all their mental power. Needless to say, I have retained only objective facts, those recognized by all witnesses. The facts I could not vouch for, I chose to discard, hoping that future researchers will take them up. At the end of this study, it is no wonder to note that those valiant men, with so small means, have succeeded in shaking the powerful France and making its whole Empire sway. 3 Acknowledgements This work has been made possible thanks to the testimonies of Adjel Adjoul, Ammar Benchaiba, aka Ali, Lakhdar Abidi, aka Hadj Lakhdar, Messaoud Belaggoune, Mostefa Boucetta, Bicha Djoudi, aka Bousenna and Amor Mestiri. It has spanned almost thirty years, with cuts, more or less long. 4 Part one: The end of the gestation 5 1 Baptism of fire. On a freezing winter morning of the year 1972, Adjoul and I were driving down the steep slippery road that runs from Arris to Batna. At one point, the car got bewildered by ice and I lost control of it. Gone mad, it took to rambling in all directions. I started shaking like a Parkinsonian while Adjoul displayed a big smile on his face. Ultimately, thanks to luck more than to knowhow, the heavy vehicle stopped against an embankment. I remember having thought: “Did you notice Adjoul’s contempt for death?” In Batna, at his father’s home of Bouakal, a poor suburb, we sat around a plate filled with shelled walnuts and honey. “Si Adjoul, what did Mostefa Ben Boulaid say on his return from the meeting of March 1954, after the MTLD’s scission into Messalists and centralists?” (1) “He was disgusted. Si Bachir Chihani and himself were outraged. Of course, they did not tell us everything and we could not ask.” “But they did tell you about the creation of CRUA, didn’t they?” (2) “Yes. They had to since we were on the verge to reviewing the party’s structures. Those structures were reinforced, in a way different from the MTLD. Militants were grouped in cells of three members only. They were compelled to a strict compartmentalization and their number did not exceed twenty four, all under Si Mostefa Ben Boulaid’s sole authority. The cells got in touch with each other only through him and each cell leader was accountable to him personally.” (1)MTLD: Movement for the triumph of democratic liberties. It is the most important political Party in colonial Algeria. It fights, peacefully at the beginning, for the emancipation of Algeria from France. Its leader, Messali Hadj, is ousted a few months before the insurrection because he refuses to endorse armed struggle against France. The party then splits into two: Messalists or Messali’s supporters and centralists or his opponents. (2)CRUA: comité révolutionnaire pour l’unité et l’action. After the MTLD’s split, a small number of militants set up a new secret committee, aimed at starting the armed struggle against France. 6 “So, Messali was no more the supreme leader?” “No. He still was. To avoid problems, Si Mostefa, at least temporarily, refused to divulge the split of MTLD to the militants. Later, however, around July 1954, he simply advised militants to cease all collaboration with Messalists.” Adjoul dips bits of nuts inside honey and gobbles them noisily, then lights a cigarette. I ask: “Apart from a stricter compartmentalization, were there other differences between MTLD and CRUA?” “Huge differences, indeed! CRUA has chosen armed struggle. Its followers have an approach different from the militants of MTLD who are forced to remain on the reserve and not respond to colonialist provocations. CRUA’s members, on the opposite, are ready to fight the French and stand against the pacifism advocated by Messali Hadj and Centralists; they are for war and prepare for it. On spring of 1954, a poll among 2,400 militants reveals that a majority is in favor of revolution and violence, against political maneuvering.” Militants make an inventory of caves in Ichemoul, Chelia, Sraa, till down to the southern limit of Mchouneche. They try hard to get weapons, as many as possible, either through buying them with their own money, either through borrowing from friends or parents.(3) The arms are dipped in grease, wrapped in straw and buried underground inside jars or rolled up in pieces of rag and hidden in fissures between rocks. Militants use straws to, in their mind, prevent arms detection by enemy devices. In mountains, apprentice guerrillas choose isolated places to go through a succinct military training. They learn arms manipulation, shooting, making up rudimentary bombs. They are taught camouflage rules, how to use a password and to behave toward police if arrested. The instructors are Party chiefs transferred from their home regions by Party HQ to hide in Aures in order to prevent their arrest by French police. The three most known are Benaouda, a refugee from Constantine, at present established in Inoughissen, Lakhdar Bentobbal, another refugee from North Constantine, living now in T’Kout, Rabah Bitat, sent from Algiers to Ichemoul. Another instructor, named Zoubeiri, has been appointed to the regions of Khangat Maache and Oudjana. The instructors are introduced to militants as Party supervisors; four courses of political indoctrination are dispensed to literate as well as to illiterate militants. (3)In Aures, it is exceptional for a Chaoui to lend or sell his weapon which he deems part of the family patrimony. 7 At R’Cif (Constantine), on April 13, 1954, Bachir Chihani attends a meeting regrouping the chiefs of the kisma (4) of the Constantine Départment (5). He is accompanied by five chiefs of the daira (6) of Batna, namely Adjel Adjoul, Abbas Laghrour, Mohamed Cherif Soulimani, Messaoud Belaggoune and Tahar Nouichi. The meeting is attended by around one hundred MTLD delegates, all tendencies mingled. It is chaired by Belgacem Beidaoui, a Messalist contested by Batna’s delegation. The floor majority agrees to grant the 100 delegates power to decide who will stay and who will leave. Beidaoui raises his hand and declares: “There are inside this room several Centralists who have come as onlookers. It is their right!” The atmosphere becomes stormy. The rift between Centralists and Messalists gets exacerbated. The delegates of Batna propose their expulsion, while those of Smendou and El Milia remain neutral. Voting is carried out. The majority says yes for the presence of both Centralists and Messalists. Chihani, Laghrour and Adjoul are activists who are allergic to politicking. They stick to their demands: expulsion of the rival factions and return to the OS (7), the only group that matters for them, because of its paramilitary structures. Meanwhile, new comers have arrived. Among them, stands Mezghenna, one of Messali’s lieutenants. The uproar increases. Chihani gets up. Adjoul and Laghrour shout at Mezghenna: “Don’t come in!” Mezghenna tries to argue, in the midst of booing, shouts, hissing. He declares: “Let me say something. Messali himself …” Laghrour yells at him: “I too want to say something, in the name of God!” Both men have a go to each other, exchange blows. Laghrour grabs a chair, whirls it up in the air. Finally, the two men are expelled. Discussions resume, a motion is voted and forwarded to Party executive committee in Algiers. April 30, 1954: Mostefa Ben Boulaid gathers in his farm of Lambese, a small group of militants. They are: Adjel Adjoul, Tahar Nouichi, Messaoud Belaggoune and Abbas Laghrour. All of them take the oath to enlist in the insurrection. Fifteen days later, join this group Bachir Chihani, then chief of the daira of Batna, Bachir Hadji from the town of El Khroub and Mohamed Khantra from the town of Barika. (4)Kisma: it represents a subdivision of a nahia. (5)Département: French administrative division, endowed with duty of enforcing government policy.

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