Ferhat Abbas

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Ferhat Abbas (1899-1985) was the first president of the provisional government of the Algerian Republic. His political career reflected the failure of the middle-class moderate elements to dominate Alge rian nationalism.

Ferhat Abbas was born on Oct. 24, 1899, at Taher in the department of Constantine, Algeria, into a pro-French family of provincial administrators and landowners. In 1924, while a student of pharmacy at the University of Algiers, he helped to found the Association of Moslem Students, over which he presided for 5 years. He graduated in 1932, opened a pharmacy in Sétif, and served on municipal and provincial councils in eastern Algeria.

Until World War II Abbas accepted the validity of the colonial system and became a major spokesman for political reforms and the assimilation of Algerians and the French. In 1936 he even wrote, "I will not die for the Algerian fatherland, because this fatherland does not exist," a point of view which he later jettisoned. Although he joined the French army medical corps in 1939, in February 1943 he drew up the Manifesto of the Algerian People, which marked a rupture with the assimilationist dream and called for the internal autonomy of Algeria. After spending time in jail, in March 1944 he founded the Friends of the Manifesto, but following riots and massacres in Sétif on May 8, 1945, he was again interned.

In 1946 Abbas was released and served as a member of the French Constituent Assembly in Paris. The same year he founded a new party, the Democratic Union of the Algerian Manifesto. In 1947 he became a member of the Algerian Assembly.

By 1954 Abbas, who had married a Frenchwoman and championed dialogue with France, finally realized that the Algerian condition could not be changed through legal means. French colons in Algeria refused to fulfill the promises that Paris had made to Algerian nationalists and attempted to repress the nationalist movement. Nonetheless, the insurrection of November 1954, which ignited the 8-year Algerian revolt, surprised Abbas and other moderates. In May 1955 he secretly joined the National Liberation Front and openly rallied to its ranks on April 22, 1956, by meeting in Cairo with the chiefs of the rebellion. On Aug. 20, 1956, he became a member of the National Council of the Algerian Revolution.

After the French arrested Ahmed Ben Bella, the revolutionary leader, in October 1956, Abbas assumed a more important role in the struggle for independence, and on Sept. 18, 1958, he was named president of the first provisional Algerian government. He lost this post in 1961 and took no part in the negotiations at évian, which led to Algerian independence in July 1962.

In the subsequent civil war between Ben Bella's forces and the provisional government, Abbas supported Ben Bella and became president of the first Algerian Constituent Assembly. His political experience and profound knowledge of middle-class Algerian personalities made him a convenient ally for the more radical victors. But he criticized the new constitution and the regime for its "fascist structures," and on Aug. 14, 1963, he resigned as president of the Assembly.

In July 1964, when an insurrection broke out, Abbas was put under house arrest. Freed in June 1965, on the eve of the coup which replaced Ben Bella with Col. Houari Boumediene, Abbas retired from public life to Sétif. He died in 1985.

Further Reading

There is no biography of Ferhat Abbas in English. Several general books deal with his activities: Edward Behr, The Algerian Problem (1961); Joan Gillespie, Algeria, Rebellion and Revolution (1961); and William B. Quandt, Revolution and Political Leadership: Algeria, 1954-1968 (1969).

1899 - 1985

Leading Algerian nationalist and statesman.

Ferhat Abbas was born in Taher to a family identified with French colonial rule. His father was a member of the Legion of Honor and served as a Qaʾid or caid (administrator under the French). In 1909, Abbas entered the lycée at Philippeville (now Skikda) in Algeria. Following three years in the French army medical service, he enrolled in the pharmacy school at the University of Algiers.

Abbas's political career evolved from an earnest assimilationist to a reluctant revolutionary. In his first book, Le jeune Algérien: De la colonie vers la province (1931), he criticized the failure of French colonialism to live up to its assimilationist ideals. Along with Dr. Mohammed Saleh Bendjelloul, Abbas led the Fédération des Elus indigènes (founded in 1927), which continued to espouse the moderate reforms called for by the Jeunes Algériens (Young Algerians). Abbas embraced the ill-fated Blum-Viollette Plan, which would have granted full French citizenship to 20,000 to 30,000 assimilated Algerians. The failure of the Blum-Viollette Plan split the moderates as Bendjelloul founded the Rassemblement Franco-Musulman Algérien (Assembly of French-Muslim Algerians), while Abbas organized the Union Populaire Algérien (Algerian People's Union, UPA), a party that began to affirm a separate Algerian identity while calling for full citizenship for all Muslims. This marked the redefinition of Abbas's position that he had presented in the federation's newspaper, Entente, where he wrote that he was unable to locate a historical Algerian nation and therefore tied Algeria's future to France.

Abbas volunteered at the beginning of World War II, but he was alienated by the Nazi occupation of France, Vichy government administration, and then by Free French general Henri Giraud's disinterest in reform while concurrently exhorting Muslims to enlist (though not on an equal basis) and sacrifice their lives. Abbas reacted by presenting the "Manifeste du peuple algérien" (Manifesto of the Algerian People) in February 1943, followed by a more explicit supplement called the "Projet de réformes faisant suite au Manifeste" (Project of Reforms Made Following the Manifesto) in May. These documents called for an autonomous Algerian state that was still closely associated with France.

Charles de Gaulle's ordinance of 7 March 1944 went beyond the provisions of the Blum-Viollette Plan, but it no longer corresponded to the aspirations of the nationalist elite. In March 1944, Abbas organized the Association des Amis du Manifeste et de la Liberté (Friends of the Manifesto and of Liberty, AML), which briefly unified the Muslim nationalist movements under the leadership of Messali al-Hadj. Under Messalist pressures, the AML took a more radical position, calling for an Algerian government that reduced the attachment with France.

The deportation of Messali in April 1945 contributed to the bloody uprising at Setif and Guelma in May. Abbas was placed under house arrest. After being freed, he founded the Union Démocratique du Manifeste Algérien (Democratic Union of the Algerian Manifesto, UDMA) in 1946. The UDMA sought a sovereign Algerian state responsible for internal affairs while being a member of the French union. Abbas was also elected to the Second French Constituent Assembly. He served as a member of the Muslim College of the Algerian Assembly from 1947 to 1955.

During the first eighteen months of the Algerian War of Independence (1954 - 1962), Abbas attempted to act as an intermediary between the Front de Libération Nationale (National Liberation Front, FLN) and the French, but in April 1956 he joined the FLN with other moderates and declared that it was the only representative force for the liberation of the country.

Appreciating his international prestige, on 19 September 1958 the FLN appointed Abbas president of the Gouvernement Provisoire de la République Algérienne (Provisional Government of the Algerian Republic, GPRA). In January 1961, he participated in a continental conference to establish an African Charter. Abbas signed an agreement with King Hassan II of Morocco in July 1961 to settle border disputes after the end of the war of independence. In August, he was replaced by the more radical Ben Youssef Ben Khedda as president of the GPRA. The ouster of Abbas and the moderates signaled an important change in the FLN.

In fall 1962, Abbas was elected president of Algeria's National Constituent Assembly. He envisioned a democratic parliamentary form of government, which permitted political pluralism. His liberal democratic ideals were anachronistic compared to the revolutionary objectives of the younger elite (e.g., Premier Ahmed Ben Bella), which were based on those of Egypt's President Gamal Abdel Nasser. The construction of a constitution that ignored the Constituent Assembly and the growing authoritarianism of Ben Bella led to Abbas's resignation in August 1963. He was subsequently removed from the FLN. This was a symbolic repudiation of a revolutionary heritage that had aimed at liberal reform and close ties with France.

Abbas's opposition to Ben Bella led to his arrest in 1964. After Houari Boumédienne took over the government in June 1965, Abbas was released, but he refused to serve the military government. In March 1976, he joined Ben Khedda, Hocine Lahouel, and Mohamed Kheireddine in signing a manifesto entitled "New Appeal to the Algerian People." This courageous act condemned the lack of democratic institutions in Algeria, opposed the growing hostility between Algeria and Morocco over the decolonization of western Sahara and called for Maghrib (North African) unity. Abbas was again placed under house arrest.

Ferhat Abbas's contributions to the creation of the Algerian state were publicly acknowledged in the "enhanced" National Center of 1986, which was published about two weeks after his death. Besides Le jeune Algérien (1931), Abbas was the author of several important works: Guerre de Révolution d'Algérie: La nuit coloniale (1962) and Autopsie d'une guerre: L'aurore (1980) reflect upon the war years. In L'indépendance confisquée, 1962 - 1978 (1984), Abbas expressed his disillusionment with postcolonial Algeria, but he also dedicated the book to the emerging new generation. In some ways, his call for youth to restore the true meaning of the revolution has been heard since the October 1988 riots.

Bibliography

Naylor, Phillip C., and Heggoy, Alf A. The Historical Dictionary of Algeria, 2d edition. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1994.

— PHILLIP C. NAYLOR

Ferhat Abbas
2nd President of the GPRA
In office September 25, 1962 – September 15, 1963
Preceded by	Abderrahmane Farès
Succeeded by	Benyoucef Benkhedda
Personal details
Born	24 October 1899(1899-10-24) Bouafroune, Jijel Province, Algeria.
Died	23 December 1985(1985-12-23) (aged 86)
Political party	FLN
Religion	Sunni Islam

Ferhat Abbas (24 October 1899–23 December 1985) Kabyle: Ferḥat Σabbas, was an Algerian political leader and briefly acted in a provisional capacity as the yet-to-become independent country's President from 1958 to 1961.

Contents 1 Background 2 Involvement with FLN 3 After independence 4 Writings 5 References 6 Further reading

Background

Son of a caid, Said Ben Ahmed Abbas and Maga bint Ali. Born in the village of Bouafroune (now in Jijel Province), he was formerly an "integrationist" not opposed to the French annexation but advocating an Algeria where Algerians would have the same rights as Frenchmen. He became disillusioned with France when his hopes were not realized, and turned to nationalism, issuing the Manifesto of the Algerian People in 1943, and forming the nationalist party Union Démocratique du Manifeste Algérien in 1946.

Involvement with FLN

Not long after the Algerian War of Independence against French rule began November 1954, he joined the Front de Libération Nationale (FLN), in September 1955. His political standing in Algeria and reputation as a moderate nationalist, acceptable to the West, helped him become president of the provisional Algerian nationalist government-in-exile, the GPRA, from 1958 until 1961. He lost his place to Benyoucef Ben Khedda, which may have been a reason for his decision to join Ahmed Ben Bella's and Houari Boumédiène's Tlemcen Group in opposition to the GPRA, which was subsequently dismantled.

Due to Pakistan's support to the cause of Algerian struggle for independence and self determination, Ferhat Abbas was given a Pakistani diplomatic passport for his foreign travels.^[1][2][3]

After independence

Algeria became independent July 5, 1962. From September 25, 1962 to September 15, 1963, Ferhat Abbas was president of the constitutional assembly, but this institution was rapidly sidelined by Ben Bella, who had gained the presidency. Abbas resigned in protest at the FLN's decision to establish a one-party state under Ben Bella He was then placed under house arrest from 1964 until 1965.

In 1976–79, he was again placed under house arrest, after signing a statement opposing the country's powerful military-backed President, Col. Houari Boumédiènne. Still, he received official recognition in the form of a state decoration, the Medal of Resistance, on October 30, 1984 [1]. He died just over a year later.

Writings

Articles written in his youth are collected in Le Jeune Algérien (1931). His ideas on democracy and views on history were set out in a series of essays including La nuit coloniale (1962), Autopsie d'une guerre (1980) and L'indépendance confisquée (1984).

References

1. ^ ipripak.org/factfiles/ff81.pdf
2. ^ http://www.mushahidhussain.com/articles/article3_promoting.htm
3. ^ www.foreignaffairscommittee.org/includes/content_files/Pak-%20Africa%20Relations.pdf

• Meisami, Julie Scott and Starkey, Paul (Eds). (1998). Encyclopedia of Arabic Literature. London: Routledge (ISBN 0-415-18571-8)
• Ferhat Abbas, Une utopie algérienne, p. 18 et 19.

Further reading

Aussaresses, General Paul, The Battle of the Casbah: Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism in Algeria, 1955-1957. New York: Enigma Books, 2010. 978-1-929631-30-8.

Political offices
Preceded by	Head of the Provisional Government of the Algerian Republic 1958-1961	Succeeded by Benyoucef Ben Khedda
Preceded by Abdur Rahman Farès	Provisional President of Algeria 1962–1963	Succeeded by Ahmed Ben Bella

v d e Presidents of Algeria (List) Farès Abbas Ben Bella Boumediene† Bitat* Bendjedid Boudiaf Kafi Zéroual Bouteflika *interim †military

Persondata
Name	Abbas, Ferhat
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	October 24, 1899
Place of birth	Taher,Jijel,Algeria.
Date of death	December 23, 1985
Place of death

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