Houari Boumédiène ( ar, ;
ALA-LC
ALA-LC (American Library AssociationLibrary of Congress) is a set of standards for romanization, the representation of text in other writing systems using the Latin script.
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The system is used to represent bibliographic information by ...
: ''Hawwārī Būmadyan''; born Mohammed Ben Brahim Boukherouba; 23 August 1932 – 27 December 1978) was an
Algerian politician
A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking ...
and
army colonel
Colonel (abbreviated as Col., Col or COL) is a senior military officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations.
In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, a colonel was typically in charge of ...
who served as Chairman of the
Revolutionary Council of
Algeria
)
, image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg
, map_caption =
, image_map2 =
, capital = Algiers
, coordinates =
, largest_city = capital
, relig ...
from 19 June 1965 until 12 December 1976 and thereafter as the
second President of Algeria
The president of the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria is the head of state and chief executive of Algeria, as well as the commander-in-chief of the Algerian People's National Armed Forces.
History of the office
The Tripoli Program, whi ...
until his death in 1978.
Born in
Guelma, he was educated at the Islamic Institute in Constantine. He joined the
National Liberation Front in 1955 and adopted the
nom de guerre Houari Boumediene. He received the rank of colonel and in 1960 became the commander of the military wing of the FLN.
President
Ahmed Ben Bella
Ahmed Ben Bella ( ar, أحمد بن بلّة '; 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 ...
appointed him Minister of Defense in 1961. He did not agree with Ben Bella's reforms, and later overthrew him in a
bloodless coup
A nonviolent revolution is a revolution conducted primarily by unarmed civilians using tactics of civil resistance, including various forms of nonviolent protest, to bring about the departure of governments seen as entrenched and authoritari ...
in June 1965. He abolished the constitution and the parliament, and he himself was the leader of the 27-member
Revolutionary Council, the new institution that governed the state. The members of the council were mostly from the army. Initially he did not have much influence, but after a group of military officers tried to overthrow him in 1967, he consolidated his power. The oil industry was nationalized in 1971. From the 1970s, a gradual restoration of parliamentarism and civil institutions in Algeria was initiated. This process ended with the adoption of the
new constitution in 1976. The position of
president
President most commonly refers to:
*President (corporate title)
* President (education), a leader of a college or university
* President (government title)
President may also refer to:
Automobiles
* Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...
was reinstated, and Boumediene took over.
Since 1978, Boumediene appeared less and less in public. He died on December 27, 1978, after an unsuccessful treatment for a rare disease,
Waldenström's macroglobulinemia. He was succeeded as president by
Chadli Bendjedid
Chadli Bendjedid ( ar, الشاذلي بن جديد; ALA-LC: ''ash-Shādhilī bin Jadīd''; 14 April 1929 – 6 October 2012) was the third President of Algeria and an Algerian Nationalist. His presidential term of office ran from 9 February 19 ...
, as a compromise solution between left- and right-oriented military officers.
Early life and War of Independence
Not much is known about Boumédiène's early life. His place of birth variously appear as
Guelma, the village of Clauzel near Guelma, or
Héliopolis, and his date of birth as 16 August 1925, 23 August 1927, or in most sources as 1932.
His father said in a 1965 interview that his date of birth was 23 August 1932.
His birth name was Mohammed Ben Brahim Boukherouba, and his father was a penniless wheat-farmer and a strict Muslim who did not speak French.
According to the ''
Encyclopaedia of Islam'', his family is Arabic speaking of
Berber origins. He was educated at a Quranic school in Guelma until he was 14, then an Arabic secondary school in
Constantine
Constantine most often refers to:
* Constantine the Great, Roman emperor from 306 to 337, also known as Constantine I
*Constantine, Algeria, a city in Algeria
Constantine may also refer to:
People
* Constantine (name), a masculine given name ...
.
[
In 1952, when France was conscripting Algerians to fight in the ]Indochina War
The First Indochina War (generally known as the Indochina War in France, and as the Anti-French Resistance War in Vietnam) began in French Indochina from 19 December 1946 to 20 July 1954 between France and Việt Minh (Democratic Republic of Vi ...
, Boumédiène went to Cairo
Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the Capital city, capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, List of ...
, where he studied at the Al-Azhar University. It was there he first met Ahmed Ben Bella
Ahmed Ben Bella ( ar, أحمد بن بلّة '; 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 ...
.[ He joined the National Liberation Front (FLN) in the ]Algerian War of Independence
The Algerian War, also known as the Algerian Revolution or the Algerian War of Independence,( ar, الثورة الجزائرية '; '' ber, Tagrawla Tadzayrit''; french: Guerre d'Algérie or ') and sometimes in Algeria as the War of 1 November ...
in 1955, adopting ''Houari Boumédiène'' as his nom-de-guerre
A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name ( orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individu ...
(from Sidi Boumediène, the name of the patron saint of the city of Tlemcen
Tlemcen (; ar, تلمسان, translit=Tilimsān) is the second-largest city in northwestern Algeria after Oran, and capital of the Tlemcen Province. The city has developed leather, carpet, and textile industries, which it exports through the p ...
in western Algeria, where he served as an officer during the war, and Sidi El Houari, the patron saint of nearby Oran). He reached the rank of colonel
Colonel (abbreviated as Col., Col or COL) is a senior military officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations.
In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, a colonel was typically in charge o ...
, then the highest rank in the FLN forces, and from 1960 he was chief of staff of the ALN, the FLN's military wing.
He was married to Anissa al-Mansali.
After independence
In 1961, after its vote of self-determination, Algeria declared independence and the French announced it was independent. Boumédiène and Ahmed Ben Bella overthrew the provisional government
A provisional government, also called an interim government, an emergency government, or a transitional government, is an emergency governmental authority set up to manage a political transition generally in the cases of a newly formed state or ...
of Benyoucef Benkhedda
Benyoucef Benkhedda ( ar, بن يوسف بن خدة; February 23, 1920 – February 4, 2003) was an Algerian politician. He headed the third GPRA exile government of the National Liberation Front (FLN), acting as a leader during the Algerian W ...
with support from the ALN in 1962. Boumédiène headed a powerful military faction within the government and was made defence minister by the Algerian president Ahmed Ben Bella
Ahmed Ben Bella ( ar, أحمد بن بلّة '; 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 ...
, whose ascent to power he had assisted as chief of staff. Boumédiène was also appointed as Vice President of Algeria in September 1963. He grew increasingly distrustful of Ben Bella's erratic style of government and ideological puritanism, and in June 1965, Boumédiène seized power in a bloodless coup.
The country's constitution and political institutions were abolished, and he ruled through a Revolutionary Council of his own mostly military supporters. Many of them had been his companions during the war years, when he was based around the Moroccan border town of Oujda, which caused analysts to speak of the " Oujda Group". One prominent member of this circle was Boumédiène's long-time foreign minister, Abdelaziz Bouteflika
Abdelaziz Bouteflika (; ar, عبد العزيز بوتفليقة, ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Būtaflīqa ; 2 March 1937 – 17 September 2021) was an Algerian politician and diplomat who served as President of Algeria from 1999 to his resignation in 2019 ...
, who served as Algeria's president from 1999 until 2019.
Initially, he was seen as potentially a weak leader, with no significant power base except inside the army, and it was not known to what extent he commanded the officer corps. He remained Algeria's undisputed leader until his death in 1978. No significant internal challenges emerged from inside the government after the 1967 coup attempt.
Domestic policy
Economically, Boumédiène turned away from Ben Bella's focus on rural Algeria and experiments in socialist cooperative businesses (''l' autogestion''). Instead, he opted for a more systematic and planned programme of state-driven industrialization. Algeria had virtually no advanced production at the time, but in 1971 Boumédiène nationalized the Algerian oil industry, increasing government revenue tremendously (and sparking intense protest from the French government). He then put the soaring oil and gas resources—enhanced by the oil price shock of 1973—into building heavy industry, hoping to make Algeria the Maghreb
The Maghreb (; ar, الْمَغْرِب, al-Maghrib, lit=the west), also known as the Arab Maghreb ( ar, المغرب العربي) and Northwest Africa, is the western part of North Africa and the Arab world. The region includes Algeria, ...
's industrial centre. His years in power were in fact marked by a reliable and consistent economic growth, but after his death, in the 1980s, the drop in oil prices and increasingly evident inefficiency of the country's state-run industries, prompted a change in policy towards gradual economical liberalization
Liberalization or liberalisation (British English) is a broad term that refers to the practice of making laws, systems, or opinions less severe, usually in the sense of eliminating certain government regulations or restrictions. The term is used m ...
. Boumédiène imposed Arab socialism as the state ideology and declared Islam the state religion. He was a strong supporter of Arabization and was more assertive than Ben Bella in Arabizing Algeria, especially between 1970 and 1977, and declared 1971 the year of Arabization.
In the 1970s, along with the expansion of state industry and oil nationalization, Boumédiène declared a series of socialist revolutions, and strengthened the leftist aspect of his administration. A side-effect of this was the rapprochement with the hitherto suppressed remnants of the Algerian Communist Party
The Algerian Communist Party (french: Parti Communiste Algérien; ar, الحزب الشيوعي الجزائري) was a communist party in Algeria. The PCA emerged in 1920 as an extension of the French Communist Party (PCF) and eventually beca ...
(the PAGS), whose members were now co-opted into the government, where it gained some limited intellectual influence, although without formal legalization of their party. Algeria formally remained a single-party state under the FLN.
Political stability reigned, however, as attempts at challenging the state were generally nipped in the bud. As chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council, Boumédiène and his associates ruled by decree. During the 1970s, constitutional rule was gradually reinstated and civilian political institutions were restored and reorganized. Efforts were made to revive activity within the FLN, and state institutions were reestablished systematically, starting with local assemblies and moving up through regional assemblies to the national level, with the election of a parliament. The process culminated with the adoption of a constitution (1976) that laid down Algeria's political structure. This was preceded by a period of relatively open debate on the merits of the government-backed proposal, although the constitution itself was then adopted in a state-controlled referendum with no major changes. The constitution reintroduced the office of president, which Boumédiène entered after a single-candidate referendum in 1978.
At the time of his death, later that year, the political and constitutional order in Algeria was virtually entirely of FLN design. This structure remained largely unchanged until the late 1980s, when political pluralism was introduced and the FLN lost its role as dominant single party. (Many basic aspects of this system and the Boumédiène-era constitution are still in place.) However, throughout Boumédiène's era, the military remained the dominant force in the country's politics, and military influence permeated civilian institutions such as the FLN, parliament and government, undercutting the constitutionalization of the country's politics. Intense financial or political rivalries between military and political factions persisted, and was kept in check and prevented from destabilizing the government mainly by Boumédiène's overwhelming personal dominance of both the civilian and military sphere.
Algeria experienced significant economic and social development under his government. Between 1962 and 1982, the Algerian population increased from 10 to 20 million people and, massively rural before independence, 45% of the population was urbanized. Annual per capita income, which did not exceed 2,000 francs in 1962, exceeds 11,000 francs twenty years later, while the enrolment rate varies from 75 to 95% depending on the region, far from the 10% of French Algeria. However, it maintains a one-party system and the priority given to industrial development makes it neglect agriculture.
Foreign policy
Boumédiène pursued a policy of non-alignment, maintaining good relations with both the communist bloc and the capitalist nations, and promoting third-world cooperation. In the United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...
, he called for a unity built on equal status for western and ex-colonial nations, and brought about by a socialist
Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...
-style change in political and trade relations. He sought to build a powerful third world bloc through the Non-Aligned Movement
The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) is a forum of 120 countries that are not formally aligned with or against any major power bloc. After the United Nations, it is the largest grouping of states worldwide.
The movement originated in the aftermath o ...
, in which he became a prominent figure. He unconditionally supported freedom fighters, justice and equality seekers. He offered logistic assistance to anti-colonial movements and other militant groups across Africa and the Arab world, including the PLO, ANC
The African National Congress (ANC) is a social-democratic political party in South Africa. A liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid, it has governed the country since 1994, when the first post-apartheid election install ...
, SWAPO and other nations.
Algeria remained strongly opposed to Israel. Algeria fought Israel in the Six-Day War in 1967 and Yom Kippur War
The Yom Kippur War, also known as the Ramadan War, the October War, the 1973 Arab–Israeli War, or the Fourth Arab–Israeli War, was an armed conflict fought from October 6 to 25, 1973 between Israel and a coalition of Arab states led by E ...
in 1973. In response to the US support for Israel in the Six-Day War
The Six-Day War (, ; ar, النكسة, , or ) or June War, also known as the 1967 Arab–Israeli War or Third Arab–Israeli War, was fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab states (primarily Egypt, Syria, and Jordan) from 5 to 10 Ju ...
, Algeria severed diplomatic ties with USA and participated in the 1973 oil embargo
The 1973 oil crisis or first oil crisis began in October 1973 when the members of the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC), led by Saudi Arabia, proclaimed an oil embargo. The embargo was targeted at nations that had supp ...
after the US supported Israel in the Yom Kippur War. In response to Egypt's normalization of ties with Israel, Algeria along with other Arab countries condemned Anwar Sadat
Muhammad Anwar el-Sadat, (25 December 1918 – 6 October 1981) was an Egyptian politician and military officer who served as the third president of Egypt, from 15 October 1970 until his assassination by fundamentalist army officers on 6 ...
and severed ties with Egypt in 1977.
Algeria bought the majority of arms from the Soviet Union.
A significant regional event was his 1975 pledge of support for Western Sahara
Western Sahara ( '; ; ) is a disputed territory on the northwest coast and in the Maghreb region of North and West Africa. About 20% of the territory is controlled by the self-proclaimed Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), while the ...
n self-determination, admitting Sahrawi refugees and the Polisario Front
The Polisario Front, Frente Polisario, Frelisario or simply Polisario, from the Spanish abbreviation of (Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguia el-Hamra and Río de Oro), (in ar, rtl=yes, الجبهة الشعبية لتحرير الس� ...
national liberation movement
A liberation movement is an organization or political movement leading a rebellion, or a non-violent social movement, against a colonial power or national government, often seeking independence based on a nationalist identity and an anti-imperial ...
to Algerian territory, after Morocco
Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria t ...
and Mauritania claimed control over the territory. This ended the possibility of mending relations with Morocco, already sour after the 1963 Sand War
The Sand War or the Sands War () was a border conflict between Algeria and Morocco in October 1963. It resulted largely from the Moroccan government's claim to portions of Algeria's Tindouf and Béchar provinces. The Sand War led to heighten ...
, although there had been a modest thaw in relations during his first time in power. The heightened Moroccan-Algerian rivalry and the still unsolved Western Sahara question became a defining feature of Algerian foreign policy ever since and remains so today.
File:Houari Boumediene.jpg, Boumédiène in 1972
File:1975 Algiers Agreement.jpg, The 1975 Algiers Agreement
The 1975 Algiers Agreement (commonly known as the Algiers Accord, sometimes as the Algiers Declaration) was an agreement between Iran and Iraq to settle any disputes and conflicts concerning their common border (such as the Shatt al-Arab, known ...
was signed by (left to right) the Shah of Iran
This is a list of monarchs of Persia (or monarchs of the Iranic peoples, in present-day Iran), which are known by the royal title Shah or Shahanshah. This list starts from the establishment of the Medes around 671 BCE until the deposition of th ...
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Boumédiène, and the Iraq
Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and K ...
i vice-president Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein ( ; ar, صدام حسين, Ṣaddām Ḥusayn; 28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003. A leading member of the revolutio ...
File:Gaddafi-Boumedienne-Assad-1977-Tripolis.jpg, alt=, Libyan Leader Muammar Gaddafi, Boumediene and Syrian President Hafez al-Assad in Tripoli, 1977
Death
In 1978, his appearances became increasingly rare. After lingering in a coma for 39 days, he died in Algiers of a rare blood disease, Waldenström's macroglobulinemia, following unsuccessful treatment in Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...
. Rumors about his being assassinated or poisoned have surfaced occasionally in Algerian politics, especially after two other participants of the 1975 Algiers Agreement events, The Shah and his Minister of Court Asadollah Alam
Asadollah Alam ( fa, اسدالله علم; 24 July 1919 – 14 April 1978) was an Iranian politician who was prime minister during the Shah's regime from 1962 to 1964. He was also minister of Royal Court, president of Pahlavi University and g ...
, also died of the same rare disease. The death of Boumédiène left a power vacuum in Algeria which could not easily be filled; a series of military conclaves eventually agreed to sidestep the competing left- and right-wing contenders, and designate the highest-ranking military officer, Colonel Chadli Bendjedid
Chadli Bendjedid ( ar, الشاذلي بن جديد; ALA-LC: ''ash-Shādhilī bin Jadīd''; 14 April 1929 – 6 October 2012) was the third President of Algeria and an Algerian Nationalist. His presidential term of office ran from 9 February 19 ...
, as a compromise selection."New Leader"
''Time
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...
'', February 12, 1979
See also
*Houari Boumediene Airport
Houari Boumediene International Airport ( ar, مطار هواري بومدين الدولي, Maṭār Hawwārī Būmadyan al-Duwaliyy) , also known as Algiers Airport or Algiers International Airport, is the main international airport serving A ...
, an airport near Algiers named after him.
* Houari Boumédienne District, a district
A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municipa ...
in his native Guelma Province
Guelma Province ( ar, ولاية قالمة) is a province (''wilaya'') in eastern Algeria. Its namesake is its seat and most populous municipality: Guelma.
History
Its civilians suffered heavy casualties during the 1945 Sétif massacre by the Fr ...
named after him.
*El Mouradia Palace El Mouradia Palace ( ar, قصر المرادية, french: palais d'El Mouradia) is the office and residence of the President of Algeria. It is located in the neighborhood of El Mouradia on the hills overlooking Algiers. "El Mouradia" is also widel ...
Explanatory notes
Citations
General bibliography
* Balta, Paul, and Claudine Roulleau, ''La Stratégie de Boumédiène'', Simbad, 1978
* Francos, Ania, and Jean-Pierre Séréni, ''Un Algérien nommé Boumédiène'', Stock, coll. Les Grands Leaders, 1976
* Minces, Juliette, ''L'Algérie de Boumediène'', Presses de la Cité, 1978
External links
*
Le règne de Houari Boumediène
''El Watan'', 27 décembre 2008
*
Video clip of a speech by Houari Boumédiène
{{DEFAULTSORT:Boumediene, Houari
1932 births
1978 deaths
Algerian nationalists
Algerian military personnel
Algerian Muslims
Algerian revolutionaries
Vice presidents of Algeria
Deaths from blood cancer
Members of the National Liberation Front (Algeria)
National Liberation Front (Algeria) politicians
People from Guelma Province
People from Guelma
Presidents of Algeria
Defense ministers of Algeria
Secretaries-General of the Non-Aligned Movement
Leaders who took power by coup
Articles containing video clips
Directors of intelligence agencies