Pioneer of contemporary Algerian nationalism, the life of Messali el hadj is intertwined with the construction of Algerian political organizations that he will never cease to animate: North African Star in 1926, Algerian People's Party in 1937, Algerian National Movement in 1954.
His real name, Ahmed Messali, was born on May 16, 1898 in Tlemcen. Son of a shoemaker, from a family of artisans and farmers, Messali el hadj enjoyed a free childhood, surrounded by the affection of his family. A follower of the religious brotherhood of the Derkaouas, his education was based entirely on respect for the traditions and principles of Islam.
The North African Star was officially born in June 1926, a date generally considered to be the starting point of the movement for the unity and independence of North Africa. Messali was just 28 years old when he was elected secretary general of the E.N.A. Its rise began, the anti-imperialist congress in Brussels in 1927 was to underline it. There, he delivered a resounding speech in front of those who would soon be called the leaders of the Third World (Nehru, Mr. Hatta, Ho-Chi-Minh, etc.), in which, for the first time, the independence of Algeria was mentioned.
In November 1929, the North African Star, which had around three thousand members mainly in France, was dissolved on the eve of the centenary celebrations of French colonization. In 1930, in the midst of crossing the organizational and political desert, the E.N.A. mandates Messali to launch an appeal to the League of Nations.
This memoir, which includes figures and statistics demonstrating the failure of French colonization, will be widely distributed by EL OUMA, the newspaper of the Etoile which has just been reborn. In 1933, the E.N.A. renamed glorious Star, restarts its activities.
The program that Messali then defined for the new organization was democratic and socialist in inspiration, of which agrarian reform, North African unity, respect for Islam and the fight for national independence were the main guiding principles.
Through this program, Messali definitively asserted himself as a political leader. The French police, who are beginning to take a close interest in its activities, note in one of their reports: “In fact, the E.N.A. merges with the personality of Messali el Hadj."
From then on, his personal journey is closely linked to the nationalist organizations which will continue to animate. In February 1934, he joined the anti-fascist demonstrations organized by the French proletariat following the riots of February 6. On November 1 of the same year, he was arrested for antimilitarist propaganda and taken to the health prison on November 6.
Sentenced to 6 months of imprisonment and a fine of 2,000 francs with two other leaders of L'Etoile, he was refused the regime of political prisoner. La Glorieuse Etoile was dissolved and immediately reconstituted under the name of Union Nationale des Musulmans Nord-Africain, of which Messali was elected president in February 1935. In May 1935, he appeared again and successively before the courts of Amiens and Paris.
In August 1935, he led a campaign in favor of Ethiopia which had just been attacked by Italy, and intervened with the League of Nations in Geneva. Convicted again, he went into exile for six months in Switzerland where he met the Emir Chekib Arslan.
On July 14, 1936, on the occasion of the Parisian parade, he participated in this demonstration at the head of several thousand North Africans, with the following slogans: “Liberate North Africa, Liberate Syria, the Arab World!”
“On August 2, 1936, he returns to Algiers where he speaks at the municipal stadium in front of 20,000 people. He bends down, picks up a handful of earth and exclaims: “This earth is we will not sell it to anyone! “his name is now known throughout Algeria.
For three months, Messali, assistant to Hocine Lahouel, traveled throughout Algeria, winning acclaim for the Etoile program. In Paris the government of Léon Blum, worried about the development of the Messalist movement, declared the dissolution of the Etoile on January 25, 1937.
Back in France, Messali with A. Fillali, another leader, founded in Nanterre, on March 11, 1937, the Algerian People's Party. He was elected president of the new organization and returned to Algeria to take over its management. The acronyms vary but the ideology remains: the independence of Algeria.
On August 2, 1937, Messali Hadj was arrested in Algiers along with a certain number of other leaders of the P.P.A. He and his comrades undertook a hunger strike, the first of its kind in the Algerian nationalist movement, to obtain the political regime.
After appearing before the criminal court of Algiers, then before the court of appeal, he was sentenced to two years in prison for "reconstitution of a dissolved league, provocation of the natives to disorder, demonstration against French sovereignty" judgment of January 14, 1938.
In October 1938, while he was still in prison, he was elected general councilor of Algiers, by an overwhelming majority. The election is canceled by the Algiers prefecture. Messali was released on August 27, 1939. On September 26, the P.P.A. is dissolved by decree, while the El Ouma newspapers and the Algerian Parliament are banned.
On November 4, 1939 he was arrested again and detained in the military prison of Algiers, with several leaders of the P.P.A. On March 17, 1941, he was sentenced by Vichy to sixteen years of forced labor, twenty years of prohibition of residence, to civic degradation and the confiscation of all his property.
On April 26, 1943, five months after the landing of the forces of the allied armies in North Africa, Messali Hadj was required to reside in Boghari with the promise of being free, to move around within two months. On December 10, 1943, he was deported to Ain-Salah in southern Algeria in a camp militarily monitored day and night.
On January 4, 1944, he was suddenly transferred to Reibell (Chelalla). He was heard by the Muslim Reforms Commission and reaffirmed his objective of independence for Algeria. During 1944, Messali joined the P.P.A. clandestine to the Friends of the Manifesto and Liberty, an association formed by F. Abbas in March 1944.
In the A.M.L, the supporters of Messali won the majority with the slogan “Independence and Sovereign Constituent for Algeria”, at the time when the riots in Sétif and Guelma broke out, savagely repressed (45,000 dead).
In November 1946 he was elected president of the Movement for the Triumph of Democratic Liberties M.T.L.D which succeeded the P.P.A. In 1951, he went to the pilgrimage to Mecca, met Emir Abdelkrim, and spoke with various leaders of the Arab world about preparations for a possible insurrection.
On May 14, 1952, a decree from the general government informed Messali that the three departments of Algeria and the Southern Territories were forbidden to him. He was directly transferred to Boufarik, then to Villacoublay by plane without returning to his home and taken back to Niort. From his forced residence in Niort, Messali Hadj tries to resolve the serious conflict that arose in the M.T.L.D.