Beni Farah – The History
Little is known about Beni Farah
or precisely little of documented history.
The local legend tells us about a
village being built and destroyed seven times. In fact it\'s not a
proper destructio n but it seems, according to legends again, that
seve re droughts have stricken the village and left its population with no water to drink
or work the land with. So at each time the
local tribes leave the village; and the severe weather and time play the usual
role of destroying uninhabite d houses and farmlands. Once
snow and rainfall are back and fountains are again pouring water the
farme rs and shepherds begin to resettle again and revive the village.
This pattern can be seen in recent history. Since the 1970s Beni Farah is
sufferin g from a continuous drought. The rainfall is scarce
an d the snow cannot be seen but rarely in Beni Farah streets and
peaks . Only modern technology , especially water pumps and canalizati on,
has prevented the total abandon again of the village by its inhabitant s.
There are archaeolog ical evidences
showing that Beni Farah existed (likely intermitte ntly) since old times. Large
crafted stones can be seen
in the area of Ain al-Gat south of the village. Along the footpath linking Thaklih n\'Kasha to
al-Kaa n\'Foulka similar
stones are found as well as at the west of Liana, Thiwririne and Thizi Amahashmag gen. This kind of stones is typical
of the middle ages and older and have no resemblanc e to the kind of material used to erect
the existing
houses. At Ikhef n\'Souf there were some Latin inscriptio ns on a bolder which indicate that the village
is indeed an old settlement .
The hill known as
al-Maqba rth nah
at\'Talb a, overlookin g the present village center, contains remains
o f pottery and earth ware. According to the locals this is where the village was
standing before the last massive immigratio n out of the village and its demise.
The
majes tic Thishoobar (Towers) overseeing most of the inhabited and
farme d areas of Beni Farah is
compos ed of huge rocks and seems to be a fort in ancient times. Its
easte rn part still contains remains of fortificat ions used seemingly to
alert the population of eminent threats. Remains of what can be
consid ered either a wall or stairs descending from the top of
Thisho obar down to the relatively flat area westward are still
pre sent.
Historian Emile Masqueray reported( 1)
that Beni Farah was under the authority of Biskra\'s bey during the Ottoman period.
Every year Farhis paid to Biskra 30 duros (aound US$1100 of today\'s money)(2) but when the Turkish nouba or mahalla
(column) travels to them they add 70 nattas to the annual payment.
After the French conquered Aures,
the only tie they establishe d and kept with the village was the regular visits
of the pitiless collectors of taxes and fines. In 1906 the colonial
administ ration built a two classrooms school but very few children attended it.
Parents were always suspicious towards the colonial intentions .
During the Algerian
revoluti on (1954-1962 ) Beni Farah was part of Zone 3 of Wilaya 1 (Aures).
After the independen ce in 1962
Beni Farah was part of the Aures wilaya (district) and daira (county) of Biskra
until 1974.
From 1974 to 1983 it was attached to the daira of Ain Touta, wilaya of
Batna after the promotion of Biskra to the status of wilaya. After the
administ rative reorganiza tion of 1983 Beni Farah was again reattached to the
wilaya of Biskra as part of the newly created daira of El Kantara.
War of Liberation
(1954 – 1962)
The rugged nature of
Beni Farah and the legendary tenacity of its Berber people were obvious reasons for the
active presence in the area of the National Liberation Army (ALN) during the
Algerian war of independen ce (1954-1962 ). Beni Farah was part of the Zone 3 of
the Wilaya 1 (Aures). At the night of 1st November 1954 the group (foudj) of
moudjahi deen of Beni Farah was under the command of Mohamed Benboulaid , brother
of the legendary commander Mustapha Benboulaid .
For the
villa ge the war started when, one night of November 1954, the
moudj ahidine cut the phone lines linking it with Biskra, surrounded the
small group of Goumia (Algerian auxiliarie s of the French Army) based
at what is now the primary school then headed towards the Gaid home.
The Gaid, an outsider by the name of Taher Ouamen designated by the
colon ial administra tion, living in Tizi n\'Djamort h (presently the home
of Mohamed Kajjouj) was dragged out from his bed and asked to renounce
his involvemen t with the French. When he refused, the moudjahidi ne
execute d him and nobody dared to become a Gaid again. Meantime the
moudj ahidine surroundin g the goumia acted very cautiously and avoided
s torming the building as the surrounded soldiers were locals. The
goumi a were demoralise d when children and teenagers started throwing
showers of stones at them, jeering and rememberin g them that they have
side d against their own people and country. The moudjahide en lifted the
siege after a while. Eventually all the goumia resigned afterwards and
stopp ed their cooperatio n with the French authoritie s.
Until 1959
Beni Farah served as a link between the mountains of Ahmar Kheddou and
Metli li and a base for resting FLN/ALN personel transiting between the
Tell and the Sahara. It was a constant target of French \"combing\ "
operatio ns that eventually lead to many skirmishes around the village
a nd a major battle in Orchmadhas s. This military engagement in the
north ern mountainou s part of Beni Farah in the 17th September 1956
invo lved hundreds of ALN fighters and thousands of French troupes. It
is believed that this battle is the second largest engagement between
t he ALN and the French army during the whole war of independen ce (The
bigg est battle being Djebel Djorf, Aures). But since the outcome was
not apparently in favour of the ALN, despite the heroic stand of the
Moudj ahideen against a far superior French force, the official Algerian
history tended to ignore this battle until 1991 when mediatised
commemora tion festivitie s were organised. Mohamed Cherif Abbas, head of
the Organisati on Nationale des Moudjahidi ne (ONM) and a no stranger to
the area during the war, was among the personalit ies celebratin g this
even t.
The French army
wanted to destroy the moudjahidi nes in the area at all costs. In 10 July 1957,
which was the day of Eid al Adha, thousands of French military personnel swarmed
into Beni Farah from east and south and encircled it. They ordered everyone to assemble in the
village square (Zaadhoudh ) and kept them for 48 hours
while house searches and tracking of militants and fighters carried out. At the
end the French shot 19 civilians suspected of helping the FLN and took 35
prisoner s (all civilians) .
In April 1959 Beni
Farah was again the theatre of another large scale combing operation that
achieved nothing but more civilian casualties and property destructio n.
In 15 June 1959 the
French army establishe d a permanent base in Beni Farah at Al Markaz. The
barracks also hosted the personnel of the infamous Sections Administra tives
Spéciali sées (SAS) administra tion. Ambushes and punitive expedition s became
daily events here.
One of the most
successf ul operations of the ALN in the village is the ambush of Gueddili
in 17 August 1959 where a French armed
convoy coming from Djemoura was ambushed by the ALN fighters at around 23:00 in a narrow pass
between Gueddili and th\'Ment Achih. The engagement was brief but decisive and the
convoy was completely decimated. The French casualties were estimated at 50
between dead and injured.
In the morning (18
August 1959) the French stormed the village and killed 12 civilians and burned
numerous houses. Some prisoners were also executed. Meantime the moudjahidi nes
managed to plant a mine that blew up a French military truck full of soldiers.
It\'s reported that the French immediatel y executed 9 prisoners as a retributio n.
It\'s also during this hot
month that the French leaked the plan of the projected destructio n of the village and
the removal of its inhabitant s elsewhere as they have done to Maafa before (Most
of Maafa population were refugees in Beni Farah at that time). Fortunatel y this
plan could not go on as the village was too large and its houses scattered in so many
valleys and hills.
In November 1959, the
moudjahi dines ambushed a French military engineerin g unit travelling on the road
towards El Kantara. It\'s been reported that the enemy casualties were 18 dead
soldiers .
In 25 September 1960,
13 moudjahidi nes classhed with French units in Laabar mountain from 14:00 to
19:00 and shot down a helicopter . They managed to withdraw elsewhere under the
cover of darkness without any serious casualties .
In 11 January 1960 an attempt of an ALN sniper to kill a French commander,
Captain Ribadaut or Ribadot, who has just finished addressing the rounded up villagers (la rafle)
i n the main square of Zaadhoudh and heading towards his HQ in Al
Markaz , ended up wounding the commander in the leg. Unsurprisi ngly the
Frenc h took severe retaliator y measures including shelling the village
c afe by a tank, indiscrimi nate air attacks and killing of domestic
animals (donkeys and mules).
Some of the French armed units that have seen action in the Beni Farah are:
- The 47th Infantry Battalion who
built the Al Markaz in 1959.
- The 2eme Régiment Etranger de Parachutis tes (REP) of the
French Légion Etrangere when it was camping around El-Kantara . Its tactics of high mobility on feet
in rugged terrains were problemati c to the
Algerian moudjahide en particular ly when the 2eme REP elements occupied water
sources for long and consecutiv e periods of time.
- Units of the
«Tira illeurs Sénégalais » before being demobilize d in
December 1958.
On the names Beni Farah and Ain Zaatout
Beni Farah is officially called Ain Zaatout; a name of
a debated origin and seldom used by Farhis and their neighbours
who use either the Arabic name \"Beni Farah\" or \"Ah Frah\" in Shawi dialect. There
is a strong believe that the name Ain Zaatout was originated by the colonial
French administra tion at the first half of the 20th century. Colonel Niox,
author of \"La geographie militaire VI: Algerie et Tunisie\" in 1890, mentions the village
by the name Beni Farah (although with a somewhat erroneous
spelling ) and not Ain Zaatout. The Encarta encyclopae dia and the NASA Goddard
Space Flight Center show the village by
the name \"Beni Ferah\" as is the case in old French maps of Algeria. The antiquaria n bookseller Sotheran\' s
(based at York, England) has in 2004 put for sale on its web site (www.sothe rans.co.uk)
the \"A personal photograph album recording a family trip to Algeria\"
containin g photograph s of Beni Farah (spelled Beni Ferah in the
origi nal English captions of photos) taken between February 1923 to
1924. The linguistic and ethnologis t Andre Basset (1895-1956 ) used the
name \"Ait Frah\", the Kabyle translati on of Ah Frah, in his writings about the village. In the
document \"Un exemple de l\'extensi on des services des P.T.T. La région du Sud
Constant inois.\" No 59 published on 20 March 1949 by the PTT (French Post and
Telecomm unications service), the name Ain Zaatout has been used.
Note: In
November 2005 I had the opportunit y to quickly go through the birth registrati on
archives of the municipali ty and noticed that the first use of Ain Zaatout dates
to 1900.
Whereas the word Beni Farah names the village after its inhabitant s, the name Ain Zaatout refers to a
spring (Ain in Arabic) of some \"Zaatout\ ". Zaatout or Zaadhodh, as
is
pronounc ed locally, is the main public place in the village and there is a
nearby spring called Thafoughal t hence the name \"Ain Zaatout\" in Arabic.
Some Farhi elders say that zaatout itself is the name of a bird that used to
live in considerab le numbers around the place by this name. As far as one can
tell neither the contempora ry Shawi nor the Kabyle dialects use this word
although some sources translate it to pigeon wood which is in accordance with
the elders\' saying.
http://www .geocities. com/beni_fa rah/history .html