“The State is an ostrich”
Posted: 23 October, 2009 Filed under: Africa, Algeria, Arabs, Berriane, Bouteflika, Diar ech-Chems, Francophonie, history, Hogra, idealism, Imazighen, Islamism, Kabyle, lumpenproletariat, Maghreb, Muslim Brotherhood, Muslims, nationalism, politics, Recently in Algeria, reform, Third World, tribalism 3 Comments »
Gulagh seg Tizi Ouzou
Armi d Akdadu
Ur hekim-en ddeggi aken ellan.
Anerez wala aneknu
Axir da3wessu Anda
tsqwiden chifan.
Del gherva tura deg qeru
Guglagh r ne nfu
Waa laquba gger ilfan.¹
– Si Mohand
El Watan ran an article on the “culture of rioting,” that has become common place in Algeria. Its emphasis is primarily urban: over the last ten years, riots have taken place in all the major areas, especially the medium and small sized ones, almost always involving young men broken into factions or pushing back against the police or gendarmes. El Watan lists the riots over “bread, football, gas, and electricity” caused by “social injustice, corruption, hogra, nepotism, cronyism, non-management [not mismanagement, "la non-gestion"] and non-governance,” pointing to “inter-neighborhood violence in Bab el-Oued, inter-communal clashes in Berriane and Illizi and tribal conflicts in Djefla, Laghouat and Bejaia.” Venturing to explain this violence it quotes anotherAlgerian social scientist who connects it to “the failure of State patronage,” a lack of fair distribution of the benefits of clienteleism, and “the political crisis, which refuses the institutionalization of social conflict, the autonomous expression of claims and the political representation of society” forcing those excluded from and faceless within the system to violence.
A decade of national reconciliation has produced a society where young men riot by night and by day plot escape routs out of Algeria, via suicide or sea; where callus leadership, best described as geriatric and indifferent, guards its own position before that of the youth at large whose aimlessness and despair is attributed not to the failures of the leadership class but to their lack of patriotism and nationalist fervor for a State that meet their every request with a shrug and every demand with a baton. This was Algeria in 1989, and it is Algeria in 2009. Full of fortitude is the Algerian who can bring himself to utter a word like “progress.”
Algerian Islamists in the Era of Reconciliation
Posted: 12 October, 2009 Filed under: Africa, Algeria, Arabs, Bouteflika, Islamism, Maghreb, Muslim Brotherhood, Muslims, politics, reform, religion, Third World 8 Comments »
Recently, the Economist ran two articles on Arab politics, one focusing on the Muslim Brotherhood and the other focusing on Arab oppositions in general. In both cases, the Maghreb is poorly addressed, referenced only in passing in the first one (while curiously leaving out the two Maghrebine that have active branches of the Brotherhood, Algeria and Mauritania) and somewhat more extensively in the second, though still inadequately.
The first article focuses on the Egyptian and Jordanian Brotherhoods. The Egyptians are “determined to crush,” the Brotherhood, and its large membership is divided along generational and ideological lines. In Jordan’s case, moderate Brothers have been allowed to sit in parliament, though the government has dealt them several serious blows following the invasion of Iraq, and has seen changes in leadership, specifically the rise of a Palestinian chief. In Syria, the party has allied with the government, praising its patronage of Hamas (the Palestinian Brotherhood) and resistance against Israel. “Such shifts of convenience have sometimes damaged the Brotherhood’s reputation. But its decline in some countries is owing instead to a failure to fulfil its promises to bring about change.” It describes the North African Brotherhoods (mentioning only Tunisia and Libya) as “banned and persecuted.” This ignores, as said above, the Algerian Brotherhood — the Movement for a Society of Peace (aka HAMAS, or MSP), and the breakaway parties en-Nahdah and el-Islah — as well as the Mauritanian one, Tawassoul. In both of these cases, the party operates openly, in Algeria serving as the third leg of the tripartite governing alliance, and in Mauritania as an active part of the opposition, though it has recently changed its positing in part (more on that later).
If the notion of a Brotherhood engaged in peaceful collaboration with a secular government for progressive aims sounds too good to be true, it is. The Algerian case is an alternative scenario borne of Algeria’s troubled recent history, but the motives behind it — the preservation of the elite and breaking the popular will to rebel — remain the same. Here, the intention is to address the Brotherhood in the context of Algeria’s decade of “peace and national reconciliation“. The Mauritanian branch will be addressed in a later post. Read the rest of this entry »
Women in Algerian politics: some numbers
Posted: 8 October, 2009 Filed under: Africa, Algeria, Arabs, Hanoune, Imazighen, Maghreb, Third World, women and politics 3 Comments »Speaking of North African women in politics, here are some tables and spreadsheets on women in Algerian politics, focusing primarily at the national level, looking at the two houses of parliament — the National People’s Assembly (APN, lower house) and the Council of the Nation (the upper house/senate).
These are still works in progress and no where close to being finished, but should become more interesting with the addition of historical data for the APN, and one would suppose the Council of the Nation, though it is relatively young and female participation there is rather especially low (hardly four senators are women). Also interesting will be more information about female representatives’ home constituencies (who their voters were, what turnout was like, etc.), and, of course, data on female participation in municipal and lower level elections. None of this is to place excessive emphasis on elections that, in most of the country, have strikingly low turn out and a body that has close to no real power.
Some critical work has been done on women’s participation in Algerian politics and society (especially in English by Lazreg), and it will be interesting to see in what ways Algerian women compare and contrast to their Moroccan counterparts. Louisa Hanoune’s second place finish in last April’s election and the promotion of Fatma-Zohra Ardjoun to the rank of General made headlines last summer have been held up as examples of women’s progress in Algeria. But on the ground much work remains needs to be done, and the numbers of women participating in politics might suggest that these two women are exceptions rather than exemplars of the rule. Still, in the comparative perspective, Algeria lags behind other Arab and African countries in women’s membership in parliament, even though women act as heads of multiple parties.
New ARB artys on Tunisia and Morocco
Posted: 8 October, 2009 Filed under: Africa, Morocco, reform, Tunisia 1 Comment »The most recent edition of the Arab Reform Bulletin features pieces on the Tunisian elections, slated for 25 October and women’s participation in Moroccan politics. Both articles are informative and provide valuable perspectives on the region’s politics, especially given the paucity of publishing on Tunisia as of late (though if you search the MPR archives, you can find some brief and useful postings by Alle). Read! Contemplate! Discuss!
False capture of AQIM forces in Mauritania
Posted: 5 October, 2009 Filed under: Africa, AQIM, Arabs, Mauritania, Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, Recently in Mauritania, terrorism, Third World 6 Comments »The men the Mauritanian security forces captured on the norther border with Mali were not connected to AQIM, as the Mauritanians claimed, according to the Malian government. Taqadoumy writes:
The truck belongs to the merchant Mauritania Sidi Mohamed Ould Taleb, from Timbuktu. He was carrying children from the there, through Mauritania to Gao. The three miners still held in custody with the other, are Nave, Hachem and Abdessalam. Their uncle, Mmamtou Ould Henu, half-brother in the maternal line of the owner, was driving; Ely Ould Nejmou is also traveling as an apprentice mechanic. When the [truck's] failure became clear, the four people used their satellite phone to inform the father who was waiting in Mali. This comes as reinforcements, and two other relatives, and Najem Mowleu Ould Oumar Ould Mody, who is both deaf and mute, nicknamed Lebkem, aged 15. When the group reached the victims and is working around the truck, the patrol operates the Mauritanian army and the inquiry.
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