Mountain life in Algeria

by Edgar Barclay

The French first dominated this part of the country by marching a column to Souk-es-Sebt, in 1854. The Aïth Ménguellath finding themselves threatened, tendered submission; three years later, in conjunction with other tribes, they rose in arms. They were then attacked by General Macmahon, who carried their villages by storm, and consigned them as a prey to the flames.

The tribe of the Beni Yahïa was in former days the nucleus of a Kabyle state known to Spanish writers as Cuco, which was also the name of their chief town. It corresponds with the confederation of the Zouáoua. The outlet of the country was by the roadstead of Azefoun, where commerce was transacted with the Marseillese. Marmol, who wrote A.D. 1573, gives an account of the country which answers to its present condition; and he speaks of the warlike inhabitants, who recognised no master, and paid tribute to none. They were rich in corn, in flocks, and horses, and though constantly fighting, they had free markets on neutral ground, where hostile tribes could do business without fear.

History does not deign to speak much about the Kabyles. These mountaineers appear to have remained generally untouched by the political movements that distracted North Africa. A little book by A. Berbrugger, ‘Les Epoques Militaires de la Grande Kabylie,’ published 1857, enters into details of their history, though the author has difficulty to find continuous firm ground for his statements. What he makes evident is, the unchanging character of the people, their troublesome and dangerous qualities as neighbours, and the pertinacity with which they were always ready to fight for their independence.

Ebn Khaldoun, himself a Berber, and the historian of the race, wrote towards the end of the fourteenth century. He speaks of the confederation of the Zouáoua, and gives the names of tribes, many of which still exist. It is to the Zouáoua that the word Zouave owes its origin. The Kabyles were then less exclusively confined to the mountains, and many led a nomadic life in the adjoining plains. They were dressed in striped garments, one end of which thrown over the shoulder, floated behind, they also had heavy burnouses, black, and of a tawny brown colour, and went generally bareheaded, only shaving from time to time.

One day, in the Aïth Ménguellath, I met an old man with a burnous striped all over with thin dark lines of blue, and further ornamented with chess-board patterns; this I bought off his back, as it was the only thing of the sort I had seen in the country. As the ends of the burnous are commonly flung over the shoulder, I conclude that the striped garments mentioned by Ibn Khaldoun were of this nature; though possibly he refers to striped cloths such as are still worn by the women.

Throughout the long dominion of the Romans, the Berbers were continually breaking the peace, and were rather hemmed in, and overawed, than assimilated to the higher civilisation surrounding them.

In those times they were known under the name of the Quinquegentians, or five tribes, and various proofs can be brought to show that they were of a very refractory character. For instance a Roman inscription preserved at Aumale, runs to this effect: ‘To Q. Gargilius, victim of the attacks of the Bavars, on account of the love he bore the citizens, and his single-minded affection for his country, and besides, on account of his courage and vigilance in taking and killing the rebel Faraxen with his partisans, the municipal body of Auzia, at its own cost, has raised and dedicated this monument, 24 March 221 of the province.’ Or 261 A.D.

The word Faraxen is supposed to apply to the leader of the Beni Fraousen, one of the present principal tribes.

The war of Firmus, an account of which is given by Gibbon, took place in these regions. An outline of the revolt in a few words, is this: The Roman governor of Africa, Count Romanus, instead of protecting the colonists against the inroads of the tribes, sought only by unjust oppressive measures to benefit his own pocket, and having powerful friends at court, he was able to hide his iniquitous proceedings from the Emperor. At this time Nubal was chief of the Zouáoua. He had many sons, some natural, some legitimate. Zammer, a natural son and friend of the governor, was killed in a dispute by a legitimate son, Firmus. He, in order to avoid threatened punishment, revolted, and the rising became formidable on account of the disordered state of the province. This was about A.D. 370. To quell the rebellion, Count Theodosius was sent over to Africa, he landed at the modern Gigelli, and proceeded to Setif, and shortly advanced with an army to Tribusuptus, the present Bordj Tiklat, some twenty miles from Bougie, where Roman ruins exist in abundance. From this point he proceeded to attack the Quinquegentians. The names of the tribes mentioned are the Tindenses, Massinissenses, Isaflenses, Jubaleni, and Jesaleni. The Massinissenses are still to be recognised under the name of the Imsissen; Massen Issa, meaning the sons of Aïssa; the Isaflenses are the Iflissen; the Jubaleni appear to be the mountaineers of the Jurjura, for the Romans were checked in their attack on them, on account of the difficult nature of the country.[2]

The war, after continuing for some time, was brought to a close by the Kabyle chief Firmus destroying himself, to avoid being given up by Igmazen, the chief of the Isaflenses, to the victorious Romans. The principal interest of the story of the war is, that it shows the possibility of tracing certain tribes up to this remote period; it proves also to what an extent they were independent, and on what turbulent terms they lived with their neighbours; a state of things which continued till they were conquered by the French.