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Title: Algeria: The Kabyle mentality Author: Sail Mohamed Date: 16th February 1951 Language: en Topics: Algeria, Kabylia, national liberation, African anarchism Source: Retrieved on 9th September 2020 from https://tahriricn.wordpress.com/2013/12/04/algeria-the-kabyle-mentality-by-sail-mohamed/ Notes: Originally published in Le Libertaire No. 257, 16 February 1951. The translation is by Tahrir-ICN
On many occasions I have spoken in these columns about the libertarian
and individualistic character of my fellow Berbers from Algeria. But
today, as Ali Baba’s cave overseas cracks and crumbles, I think it
useful to assert, against all professional pessimists and dreamers
wishing for a lucrative position, that an Algeria liberated from the
colonial yoke would be ungovernable in the religious, political and
bourgeois sense. And I challenge all scoundrel pretenders to the crown
to make any meaningful and honest excuse for their unhealthy
aspirations, because I would oppose their claims with tangible and
verifiable information, without however denying that their policy has
had some success in terms of action against the colonialist tyrant.
The native Algerian, especially the Kabyle, must be seen in the context
of his native village and not judged solely on how he acts at protests
against his mortal enemy: colonialism.
For the native Algerian, discipline is a degrading submission if it is
not voluntary. However, the Berber is very sensitive to organization,
mutual aid and comradeship, but as a federalist, he will not accept
order unless it is the expression of the common desires of the
grassroots. When a village delegate is appointed by the Administration,
Algeria considers him an enemy.
Religion, that once made him bend to the whims of the marabout
[religious leader] is in decline, to the point where it is common to see
the representative of Allah held in the same wretched view as the
infidel. Everyone is still talking about God, out of habit, but actually
nobody believes in him anymore. Allah is in decline through the Algerian
worker’s ongoing contact with his brothers in the misery of the
metropolis, and some Algerian comrades are also doing much in this fight
against obscurantism.
As for nationalism, for which I often reprimand AIgerians, do not forget
that this is the bitter fruit of the French occupation. A reconciliation
of peoples will destroy that, as it will destroy religions. And, more
than any other people, Algerians are receptive to internationalism,
either because of their tastes or because the nomadic lifestyle
inevitably opens their eyes. There are Kabyles all around the world,
they like everywhere, and fraternize with everyone and their dreams are
of knowledge, well-being and freedom.
Also, I refuse to believe that nationalist puppets may one day become
ministers or Sultans intending to subjugate these people who have a
rebellious temperament .
Until the arrival of the French, the Kabyles never agreed to pay taxes
to a government, including the Arabs and Turks, whose religion they
embraced only by force of arms . I particularly emphasize the Kabyle,
not because I myself am Kabyle, but because they are actually the
dominant element in any point of view, and because they are capable of
driving the rest of the Algerian people into revolt against all forms of
authoritarian centralism.
The funniest thing is that the band of forty thieves and charlatan
politicians present us with a type of overseas nationalism in the form
of an Arab union with an Islamic emblem and political, military and
spiritual leaders in the image of the countries of the Levant. I admit
that the Arab god of our disasters has done things since the Jewish-Arab
war to reveal to us that the chiefs of Islamic unity are nothing but
vulgar and sold themselves to the Americans, the English, and the Jews
themselves, their supposed enemies. A coup of traitorous dervishes, but
beneficial for the people who begin to see clearly.
Just think, a nice Algerian government, in which they would be caids
(officials), more arrogant than the roumis (colonial) government, for
the simple reason that an upstart is always harsher and more unforgiving
than one who has already “arrived”! There is no avoiding it, Algerians
want neither plague nor cholera, nor a government by roumi or that of a
caid. Moreover, the majority of Kabyle workers know that a Muslim
government, both religious and political, cannot take but a feudal
character, so will therefore be primitive. All Muslim governments so far
are proof of this.
Algerians will seek their own self-governance based on the village or
Douar [tent village] without MPs or ministers who get fat at their
expense, because the Algerian people freed from one yoke will not want
to have another, and their federalist and libertarian temperament is the
surest guarantee against that. It is in the mass of manual workers that
a robust intelligence and nobleness of mind is found, while the horde of
“intellectuals” is, in the vast majority, devoid of any generous
sentiment.
As for Stalinists, they do not represent a strong force, their members
are recruited solely among the fools or wretches. The native has little
enthusiasm to be labelled, whether as a liar or a super-fascist .
For the collaborators, police officers, judges, caids and other slave
drivers who live the high life on Algerian cheese, their fate is
preordained: the rope/noose, although they are barely worth it.
For all these reasons, should my countrymen be considered authentic
revolutionaries bordering on anarchy? No, because whilst they have a
temperament which is undoubtedly federalist and libertarian, they lack
education and culture, and our propaganda, which is indispensable to the
rebellious spirits.