Ahmed Ben Bella

Ahmed Ben Bella (أحمد بن بلّة Aḥmad bin Billah; 25 December 1916 – 11 April 2012) was an Algerian politician, soldier and socialist revolutionary who served as the head of government of Algeria from 27 September 1962 to 15 September 1963 and then the first president of Algeria from 15 September 1963 to 19 June 1965.

Ben Bella played an important role during the Algerian war of independence against France, leading the FLN, organizing the shipment of foreign weapons and coordinating political strategy from Cairo.

Despite not being present in Algeria, French authorities tried to assassinate him multiple times.

Ahmed Ben Bella was born on 25 December 1916 in the commune of Maghnia.

His father was a farmer and small-time trader.

He had four brothers and two sisters.

His oldest brother died from wounds received in the First World War, during which he fought for France.

Ben Bella first volunteered for service in the French Army in 1936.

The Army was one of the few avenues of advancement for Algerians under colonial rule and voluntary enlistment was common.

Posted to Marseille, he played center midfield for Olympique de Marseille in 1939–1940.

Another brother died from illness and a third disappeared in France in 1940, during the mayhem of the Nazi victory.

Ben Bella began his studies in Maghnia, where he went to the French school, and continued them in the city of Tlemcen, where he first became aware of racial discrimination.

Disturbed by the animus against Muslims expressed by his European teacher, he began chafing against imperialism and colonialism and criticized the domination of French cultural influence over Algeria.

During this period, he joined the nationalist movement.

His only appearance for the club was in a game against FC Antibes in the Coupe de France on 29 April 1940 in Cannes, during which he scored a goal.

Club officials offered him a professional spot on the team, but he rejected the offer.

He also played for IRB Maghnia.

Ben Bella enlisted again in 1940, believing that the French Army offered the best opportunity for non-discriminatory treatment of Algerians.

Fighting for France during the Second World War, he was decorated twice, receiving the Croix de Guerre after manning an anti-aircraft post during the Nazi invasion in 1940.

He was demobilised after the fall of France, but joined a Free French regiment of Moroccan tirailleurs (infantry) with whom he saw service throughout the Italian campaign.

In Italy, he was decorated for bravery demonstrated at the Battle of Monte Cassino, during which he dragged a wounded commissioned officer to safety, assuming control of his battalion.

For this, he was promoted to the rank of warrant officer and received the Médaille militaire, the highest decoration of the Free French forces, directly from Charles de Gaulle.

On 8 May 1945, while France was celebrating Germany's surrender, widespread protests erupted in the Algerian town of Sétif.

The war had intensified colonial repression of the Algerians, prompting a backlash that led to the deaths of more than 100 Europeans and around 1,500 Algerians, according to official reports.

Anti-colonial insurgents, however, put the number of Algerian deaths at around 10,000.

The fallout from the Sétif uprising shocked Ben Bella and his Algerian companions, as they realized that France would not recognize their claim to equal treatment despite their wartime service.

After the Sétif and Guelma massacre in 1945, Ben Bella returned to Algeria, becoming politically active in the opposition movement against the French regime.

French authorities sent assailants with the intention of assassinating him on his farm.

The attempt against his life failed, but the farm was confiscated and he went into hiding.

After the nationalist parties had achieved great success in local elections in 1947, by this was followed by the fixing of the Algerian Assembly elections in 1948 by French officials, agreed to and justified by the Socialist Governor-General Marcel-Edmond Naegelen, Ben Bella became convinced that achieving democratic independence through peaceful means was illusory.

Together with Messali Hadj and his party, he helped to found the Organisation Spéciale (OS), a paramilitary organization whose strategic aim was to take up arms against the French colonial regime as quickly as possible.

This group became the immediate predecessor of the National Liberation Front.

He was in charge of organizing the wilayas (regional military sections of the FLN) and supplying weapons to insurgents and getting financial support from friendly Arab countries.

Once Algeria gained independence in 1962, Ben Bella's Oujda Group seized power from Benyoucef Benkhedda's provisional government after a short crisis, and Ben Bella became prime minister of Algeria with Ferhat Abbas as acting president.

Ben Bella succeeded Ferhat Abbas on 15 September 1963 after rapidly sidelining him, and was elected president after winning an election with 99.6 per cent of the votes.

Ben Bella pursued Arab socialist and Pan-Arabist policies and came to describe himself as a Nasserist.

He nationalized several industries and established good relations with other anti-Zionist Arab states and left-wing states such as Gamal Abdel Nasser's Egypt and Fidel Castro's Cuba.

He encountered political conflict during his presidency, and was faced with border clashes in the Sand War with Morocco in 1963 and a failed rebellion by the Socialist Forces Front against his regime in 1963–1964.

He was ousted from power and put under house arrest after a coup d'état by his Minister of Defense Houari Boumédiéne in 1965.

He was freed from house arrest in 1980 and died in 2012.