Author Archives: Charles Michael Brush

Final film project

Baya: An Algerian Original

untitled

“Untitled”

One of Algeria’s best examples of creativity is an artist named Baya Mahieddine. Her art was something like an North African take on the work of artists like Picasso and Matisse. But she not only was influenced and for a time worked with Picasso, she also influenced him. In trying to create sometimes child-like designs Picasso found a muse.

Born in 1931 in the Algerian town of Bordj El-Kiffan, Baya was a very unique artist. Being orphaned at an early age, she was raised by her Grand Mother. Having never attended formal school, she was introduced to art at a young age while working in the house of Marguerite Benhoura, a French artist. Baya would later say that Marguerite was like an “adoptive parent”.

This provided her a disadvantage, as in her time lower class women were not often welcomed as artists, but entering into an upper-class world she was enabled the chance.

The French artist took note of Baya’s natural talent in sculpture and introduced her to painting. By age 16 she was having her first art exhibit in Paris which was arranged by her adoptive mother. Around this time she also met Picasso.

She was commonly referred to as a surrealist and embraced by many of the movement like Andre Breton, but really Baya created her own regional form. This misinterpretation is due to Westerners viewing her work through their respective lenses.

the dancer with the red dress

“The Dancer in the Red Dress”

Her art often features child-like depictions of women, children, animals, flowers and musical instruments shown through odd, rhythmic shapes inspired by her youth. Her work was not bound by any rigid shapes or forms. Her pieces often dealt with the idea and depiction of the mother.

She was often embraced by Western art circles; she was courted by the Surrealists but also branded a naive artist. Her work does play almost like naive art, but she had had formal training which goes against such a categorization as that.

She was even invited to move to France at one point, yet Baya always asserted her Algerian heritage was the most important aspect of her work.

She was so committed to Algeria and its cause for independence that she stopped creating for a time during the revolution.

Her work exhibits very beautiful compositions that don’t bother too much Western perspective, or try at all to look realistic. The people in her pieces are often drawn in very wavy shapes and forms. Her work exhibits much repetition which is an aspect of Muslim art. Some mind find her work reminiscent of work by Matisse, Picasso, or perhaps even Gauguin, but she created a world all her own. She depicted the world she was familiar with, she dealt with very personal themes like mothers and children. Baya was a true iconoclast.

It is great to know that she is so highly regarded in Algeria; her work has even been printed on stamps there. It is just so disappointing that she is barely known in the Western art world.

Sources:

http://djamelmoktefi.blogspot.com/2007/09/baya.html

http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/18413/baya-mahieddine_a-profile-from-the-archives

FLN- Terrorists or Freedom Fighters

zohra drif

Zohra Drif

 

casbah

Modern Picture of Algiers Casbah

 

There were many small cells and groups who began to organize in the early 50s to try and force the French out, eventually they all came together to form one cohesive group.

After nearly a century of French control, Algerians were more than tired of the colonial presence. The socialist political party FLN (Front de Liberation Nationale in French) or the National Liberation Front was formed to try to offer the Muslim population of Algeria hope for future independence from the French who had killed thousands of innocents, and continued to occupy land which was not theirs.

In November of 1954 there was an armed rebellion by Muslim forces. There were some skirmishes between French troops and the FLN, but it failed to gain international attention.  The FLN wanted their voices to be heard, and wanted the world to take notice of their struggle. Media attention would gain traction for their trajectory toward freedom.

In 1956 the FLN decided to begin to direct their efforts towards the capital city of Algiers to gain international attention, and also to combat the thousands of troops being sent to Algeria by the French government in 1956.

By May, around 250,000 troops had been deployed and there were frequent raids in the Casbah of Algiers. The FLN didn’t want to negotiate, and by the next month the French Prime Minister Guy Mollet increased the military presence to 400,000.

The FLN began ordering random killings of French officials,  The french bombed the casbah back in retaliation. Many Muslim residents sought to get revenge and planned to move into the French Quarter in a mob and inflict violence. The French had caught wind of the idea, and it was sure going to be a bloody exchange if followed through.

Yacef Saadi, the military leader of the Algiers FLN, sent his lieutenants to tell the mob to turn around to minimize civilian deaths. The FLN swore they would avenge the people of the Casbah.

The FLN began bombing French police stations and administrative institutions, as well as popular hang outs of French civilians. An infamous incident of such was on September 30th of 1956. A young woman Zohra Drif planted a bomb in “Milk Bar Cafe” killing three and critically wounding many others.

Because there were curfews and blockades around the Casbah, they used Drif to plant the bomb, as she had a lighter complexion and could pass for French when the curfew was in affect.

In 1957 the FLN sought to argue on their behalf to the United Nations that they were a legitimate political party and not a terrorist group who had the support of the Algerian Muslim population.

They planned a strike among shop owners and workers, yet after only eight days the French broke them down with force.

The FLN carried on with random killings. Soon Jacques Massu was appointed as leader of the French forces. He was a fierce military leader, and after the blunder of the French’s war with Vietnam, they wanted to avoid such an outcome in Algeria.

Massu was not opposed to extreme tactics against his FLN enemies. He was able to justify such treatment, as there had been much violence and brutality to French women and children, and their attacks were often at times when the military personnel were unaware and unable to fight back.

They eventually captured Ben M’Hidi, the FLN’s leader, it was a big media gesture. He eventually died in prison. The formal explanation was that he killed himself in his cell, but it is more likely he was tortured to the point of death.

The French would win the Battle of Algiers, but would go on to lose the war. There were around 1,000,000 casualties over the course of the struggle. And while both sides were suffering heavy losses, the Algerians could sustain it theoretically, yet the French could no longer politically justify such a heavy loss of life for a war not concerning their domestic country.

Charles De Gaulle, leader of France, decided to pull out. So the FLN succeeded in driving the French out.

The interesting thing about the FLN, is that they used very controversial means to achieve their freedom. Bombings of public buildings with much loss of innocent life is hard for me to justify. I know their cause was an important one to them, but it is morally disgusting to me. Yet, the French killed many innocents as well, and over time committed genocide. So, I suppose the rebels were merely firing back in accordance with what the French had done and were doing. If viewed through a Machiavellian lens, the end justified the means. A downtrodden people who had been oppressed and recognized as less than people had gained back the territory that was naturally theirs.

Zohra Drif, whom I mentioned earlier, would serve later in the Algerian government. While she and her counterparts may have used terroristic and dirty methods, they had something they wanted to accomplish, and many among the Muslim population saw the FLN as heroes beating the oppressors out of their homeland.

 

Sources:

http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/algeria.htm

 

http://www.princeton.edu/~achaney/tmve/wiki100k/docs/Algerian_War.html

Background and thoughts Algeria’s colonization by France and colonization in the US

french algeria

What do Algeria, the United States, Canada, Haiti, South Africa, Brazil and almost any country you can think of have in common? All of these nations were at one point places of colonial rule by foreign powers. More specifically, Algeria and the United States were both controlled at one time by European countries. And in fact, both were colonized by the French at certain points, though, the United States would later be unanimously controlled by Great Britain.

As in colonization of any area, the country of power who comes in and encroaches upon a land in some way. Imperialism is no coincidence, and is a vicious, unfair vehicle for the controlling nation to extract some kind of resource tactical or material out of occupying a land.

In the case of Algeria, the French sought out to establish a tactical foothold, as well as a colony for entrepreneurs to exploit. Here in America, when the French were here, they established fur trading posts in Detroit and established a major port in New Orleans. In New England there was much timber trade by the British. And in the South Tobacco was a big cash crop for Great Britain.

In Both America and Algeria, the economies were propped up by the use of slavery. Although the difference here, is that the French enslaved the Algerians, while the British transplanted people from East Africa and brought them to an unfamiliar land. Both are gross travesties. And, even after their abolitions, created major dividing lines, between whites and native, darker skinned people. The outsiders, as in all imperialist situations, were seen as the people in the right, in charge, to be looked up to. After all, they inflicted violence upon the natives if they didn’t.

In the first half of the 1800s there were many pirate attacks on European shifts along the Mediterranean. Much of North Africa offered safe havens for these pirates.

The land which now constitutes Algeria was a part of the Ottoman Empire in the 1830s. The United States were also controlled by other countries before the English established the thirteen colonies, such as, the French, the Spanish and the Dutch.

In France, Napoleon had been out of power for some time, the Bourbon Restoration was going on. It was a time of conservatism and in general, the nation needed to prove it was strong again.

France’s ruler of the time, Charles X, used a petty disagreement between a French consul and an Ottoman leader, as a springboard to invade Algeria. And so they did. In what was supposed to be a civilized overtaking, women were raped, goods were stolen, people were arrested for arbitrary reasons, and people were killed for no good reason.

The French installed many of their own rulers. Over their occupation, the French changed power multiple times. For a brief period, Algeria was actually considered part of the nation of France. They moved in many citizens, some who were entrepreneurs looking to buy land, and some who were peasants and sought to live cheaper and start anew in Algeria.

Much like America, beyond perhaps a few figurehead local leaders, Algerians had no representation, and were being mistreated by French authorities. AND much like in America, as when the British controlled and when the United States won its independence, genocide occurred. Many Berbers in Algeria were killed in order to deal with insurrection or unwillingness to move out of land, much like the United States killed off many Indians.

Abd al Qadir emerged as a fighter of the people, and sought to create an independent Algerian state. He fought a Guerilla war, much like we fought in some of the mountains and valleys of New England, and the Indians fought against our forces.

He established a government in the areas not yet occupied by the French.  It provided military resources, collected taxes and had a focus on education. But in 1836, after a defeat to French forces, they allowed him to have territory they referred to as the Moslem State. Yet, three years later, they attacked and overtook territory that was supposed to belong to al Qadir’s state.

Fighting ensued back and forth until 1843. At this time the French had one third of its whole army stationed in Algeria.

Algeria would not gain independence from France until 1962. The United States can at least say that we’ve had a few centuries of independence. This enabled us to figure out what works and doesn’t work, it allowed us to fight for human rights for different minority groups (something that is still going on), and it enabled us time and infrastructure to take advantage of multiple periods of progress, development and modernization.

While Algeria is now independent, they still are not as stable as the United States. For a country to have only been independent for less than a hundred years, they have not had ample time to work out domestic issues and develop all of its potential socially and economically. They are still beholden to some foreign influence, and are considered a developing nation. Perhaps, had the French not been so ruthless in their control of Algeria, or never invaded, who knows how different things could have been.

Though it is important to note that there was never a nationalist move to make Algeria a nation of its own until French control. While the French killed many people and acted in no part in the interests of the Algerian people, in a way, their colonization, helped the Algerians come together and helped solidify their cultural identity.

sources:

http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/algeria.htm

http://www.cairn.info/zen.php?ID_ARTICLE=CEA_195_0805

http://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/essays/algeria-colonization-and-independence

Ancient Numidia- An Ancient People of Algeria

numidia

 

In what is now Algeria, an empire began around 200 BC, stretching all the way to the River Mulucha. In the early years it was mostly just a slew of different nomadic tribes and bands. The Eastern part was known as Massylii and the Western side was Masaesyli. It was not a cohesive, unified civilization until the Second Punic War (218-206 BC) that Massylii king Massinissa deafeated Syphax of the Masaesyli region.

During this time, the Romans fought the Carthagians largely over control of a Iberian coastal city. This meant that since the Massylii were allies to the Romans, and the Masaesyli had ties with Carthage (Syphax was married to the daughter of a Carthagian commander named Hasdrubal), that Massylii were able to conquer their Western neighbors.

Massinissa and his men contributed greatly to the Roman victory lending their expert horsemanship and clever cavalry tactics. Syphax would be exiled to Tibur, where he would die.

Massinissa ruled the Numidians for nearly fifty years with the support of the Roman Empire behind him. He wanted Numidian pastoral people to become peasant farmers, and help make Numidia a agrarian society. Also during this time, he overtook a great amount of further Carthagian territory, and was one of the most powerful men in North Africa. He died in 148 BC, and at this time his empire extended all the way from Mauretania through former Carthagian territory Cyrenaica, an eastern coastal region of what is modern day Libya.

After his death, Numidia saw a number of different leaders, causing a divide among the civilization, which prompted Rome to split Numidia into two parts; West and East.

Later they would have wars with Rome, over their de facto hegemony of the place. Julius Caesar around 40 BC formed a new province known as Africa Nova out of some of the Numidians’ land, and Augustus united Africa Nova and Africa Vetus (old Africa), which was the area surrounding Carthage. A separate province of Numida would be created formally by emperor Septimius Severus. Rome’s Third Legion army took up permanent base at Lambessa. Increased security by the Romans, the Numidians economy flourished through two centuries.

By the third century Christianity spread very wildly, and Numidia became a center of a sect of the religion called Donatism. It was a religion which was fairly sizable. It’s inception grew out of the emperor Diocletian who persecuted and killed Christians throughout his reign. Donatists refused to accept sacrament from or recognize  any priest, or person who had renounced Christianity during this fearful time.

The Catholics felt that someone could be absolved of such a sin through years of Penance, but the Donatists felt that anyone who had renounced the religion after having been baptized should not be allowed to hold any kind of post or have authority within the church. They also had problems with Emperor Constantine, and he presented a death penalty to all who “disturbed the peace of the kingdom”. They did not recognize Constantine as the holy figure he saw himself as.

Numidia, and Donatism would both wain in the centuries to come with attack from Vandals, the Arab Conquest and the gradual decline of Christianity in North Africa.

 

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/422426/Numidia

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/169009/Donatist

Come Visit Algeria

When thinking of a place to go and visit one might think of Italy, Greece or maybe one of the many islands of the Caribbean. But why not reconsider a place that is cheaper, more off the beaten path of a Westerner, and also has a very similar appeal? Originally established as Algeria’s main port and trading post, Algiers has beautifully clear beaches to visit. beach

The north of Algeria is located in the Mediterranean Sea between Tunisia and Morocco. The capital city of Algeria-Algeria is something truly wondrous to behold and any tourist considering a locale like Venice might want to reconsider. Located along a bay of the sea it is quite Africa’s counterpart to that famous Italian city.

Algiers is located in this Mediterranean part of the country. Boasting a population of almost three million, it is Algeria’s biggest city as well as its capital.

The winters are mild and rainy  (sometimes as much as 1000 mm or rain falls) while the summers are somewhat arid but humid toward the end. So if you are visiting anywhere from the Northern United States, any month of the year would be suitable for a visit to Algeria.

We recommend you visit in July or right before, as it is nice and warm (averaging in the 70s Farenheit). Afterward it can be rather humid.

While in town, you can visit Algiers’ oldest mosque, its Grand Mosque, which some say dates back to the 1000’s or even one of its many vineyards. Like much of Europe the exchange of dry and moist air makes Algiers ideal for growing wine and citrus fruit.  You can go wine tasting, feast on local produce  and then afterward catch a nice tan on the beach.

While you are there you must check out the Casbah. It is an urban area built hundreds of feet above sea level salvaged by ruins of an ancient empire. This is the oldest part of the ancient city, and contains many beautiful old mosques and churches of antiquity.

casbah algiers

The “Bab El Oued”  area of the city is also a popular destination. It extends out from the Casbah to near the gate of the river. There are the famous three clocks here and many shops.

Some of the more modern buildings are built right along the sea. Here visitors can enjoy a casino, town hall and the Governor’s Palace.

So this summer travel to somewhere different. Somewhere interesting. Somewhere your friends will not have already visited. Visit somewhere Mediterranean.

 

Food Shortages in West Africa due to Ebola

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-29028768

food

This post by the esteemed BBC or British Broadcasting Corporation, discusses food shortages which are expected to worsen due to the Ebola outbreak in the West African countries of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. The United Nations organization, FAO- Food and Agriculture Organization claims food harvests are at serious risk. Rice and corn production are projected to be down this coming harvest.

Already quarantine zones and restrictions on travel have slowed the sale of food. And therefore prices have gone way up as people panic buy and shortages begin to happen.

In the article someone from the FAO, states that already, many were spending up to 80% of their incomes on food. But his wording could have been better. He says “affected areas”, rather than name specific regions or countries.

My scruples are with certain wording, such as the one I mentioned, though I do think the tone is urgent as should be the case. I would have liked, however, an organization’s projections which is located in Africa, rather than have a Western unit looking at it and saying there’s a problem. I’m sure there is quite a shortage for food, and I respect BBC as a source, and you could not get any more credible than the UN, but I wish there were African sources.

Not once in the article, did they have interview segments with any residents of Africa, or any African governments or institutions. I take the expert’s view seriously, but wish there would have been that much more of a participatory role for those actually involved.

-Mike Brush