MER Article Algerian Insurrection In the past ten years of political crisis, Algerians have been wary of public protest. Terrorized by relentless violence and impoverished by structural adjustment, they have repeatedly given the impression that what they want most is the chance to get on with their lives quietly. Despite the cancell Heba Saleh • 6 min read
Current Analysis The Kabyle Riots Ten days of rioting, beginning in late April, in the Algerian Berber-speaking region of Kabylia have led to the death of scores of demonstrators—all killed by the security forces' gunfire. As ever in Algeria, there are no definitive figures. The military-backed authorities put the death toll at 42, Heba Saleh • 7 min read
MER Article Regimes of (Un)Truth Since 1992, the civil war ravaging Algeria has claimed at least 100,000 lives. Through armed raids, village massacres, terrorist bombings and weekly kidnappings and assassinations, the war has victimized Algerian society as a whole, from the urban elites to the village poor. While the body count continues to rise, Paul Silverstein • 13 min read
MER Article Algeria's Contested Elections Western evaluations of the 1997 legislative elections in Algeria were broadly positive, or at least acquiescent. One European diplomat remarked laconically the day after the poll that the results “don’t cross my pain threshold”; another gave the elections a rating of “six out of ten” as far as their Hugh Roberts • 11 min read
MER Article Rebels and Martyrs A Kenza a yelli / D iseflan neghli / F Lzzayer uzekka / A Kenza a yelli / Ur tru ara (O Kenza my daughter / We have sacrificed our lives / For the Algeria of tomorrow / O Kenza my daughter / Do not cry) —"Kenza," written by Lounès Matoub in 1993 for the daughter of assassinated Kabyle journalist a Paul Silverstein • 6 min read
MER Article Under Western Eyes Hugh Roberts is a senior research fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science and a specialist on Algerian political history. Middle East Report recently asked him to give his view on the continuing violence in Algeria and what, if anything, western governments can do about the si Hugh Roberts • 12 min read
MER Article Diminishing Possibilities in Algeria Selima Ghezali was born in Bouira, Algeria in 1958. After obtaining a degree in literature, she began working as a teacher of French at the Khemis el-Khechna high school, where she was active in the General Union of Algerian Workers. In the 1980s, Ghezali joined the Algerian feminist movement then f Geoff Hartman • 9 min read
MER Article From the Editors (Spring 1997) The last four months in Algeria have left more than 650 civilians dead and significantly more wounded. During the month of Ramadan alone (January 10-February 7, 1997) the latest wave of car bombings and massacres killed more than 350. As many as 60,000 have died in the civil war triggered when the a The Editors • 2 min read
MER Article Berber Associations and Cultural Change in Algeria It was another hot August night. Several hundred villagers, for whom this was the third of four late-night weddings in a row, watched with jaded interest as first women, then men, occupied the dancing space -- a circle carved from a dusty village square, around which women spectators sat on Jane Goodman • 13 min read
MER Article Berbers in France and Algeria When the summer 1995 bombings in France brought the Algerian civil war across the Mediterranean, many began to recognize the permeability of political, social and cultural boundaries between the two countries and the extent to which the 1.5 million post-colonial immigrants and their mostly binational children in France functioned Paul Silverstein • 19 min read
MER Article Gender, Civil Society and Citizenship in Algeria In 1993, I attended a ceremony of trance dancing called “Benga,” organized by the only group still performing in the town of Tebessa where I then lived. [1] The Tidjania group of Tebessa is a residual branch of the larger African Islamic sect that has practiced trance dancing for healing purposes, i Boutheina Cheriet • 13 min read
Ian Lustick, Unsettled States, Disputed Lands Ian Lustick, Unsettled States, Disputed Lands: Britain and Ireland, France and Algeria, Israel and the West Bank-Gaza (Cornell, 1993). Barbara Harlow • 3 min read
