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From International Socialist Review, Vol.28 No.5, Spetember-October 1967, pp.63-64.
Mark up: Einde O’Callaghan for ETOL.
Ahmed Ben Bella
by Robert Merle
Walker and Co., 1967, 160pp., $5.00.
Ahmed Ben Bella is a pseudo-autobiography put together by Robert Merle on the basis of 30 hours of taped interviews with Ben Bella. Since it was published after Ben Bella’s downfall and confinement, it is impossible to say how close it is to what Ben Bella would have written himself. However, the narrative throughout is in the first person.
This book has certain value as a panoramic view of the Algerian revolution and through its insights into the effects of colonialism on Ben Bella specifically and the Algerian people generally.
One episode of the independence struggle of particular interest to Americans is the role of the CIA in the struggle against the French. Ben Bella points out the political sophistication of the CIA in providing arms to the Algerian nationalist movement. He states that the CIA provided arms to the FLN in hopes of “reaping rewards after Independence,” and to strengthen the hand of right wing and traditionalist elements in the independence movement to the detriment of the socialist wing. At the same time the CIA never provided enough arms to make a difference in the struggle.
Ahmed Ben Bella’s discussion of the effects of colonialism on the individual is interesting. The frustrations of being a “foreigner” in one’s country of birth, cut off from the traditions of one’s people are movingly presented.
He points out the plight of the majority of Algerian intellectuals, more at home in French than Arabic. “When the colonial learns a foreign language,” states Ben Bella, “he more or less adopts the mental attitudes which that language interprets.” Even those like himself who consciously maintained their links to the Arabic of the masses, feel a conflict between “thinking in French,” and “feeling in Arabic.”
Ben Bella discusses at some length the need to maintain French as a link to the technical knowledge of the West while at the same time expanding and redeveloping the roots of the Algerian people in the Arabic language.
Among the other points of interest are Ben Bella’s favorable reaction to Cuba and his description of the mechanics of the first wave of nationalization of French owned land.
The major shortcoming of the book is that, according to Robert Merle, Ben Bella refused to discuss any internal disagreements since he was hoping for reconciliation. We therefore get no insight into the reasons for Boumedienne’s coup.
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Last updated on 19 June 2009