Inside the Battle of Algiers: Memoir of a Woman Freedom Fighter

by Zohra Drif, Lakhdar Brahimi (Foreword), Andrew G. Farrand (Translator)

This gripping insider’s account chronicles how and why a young woman in 1950s Algiers joined the armed wing of Algeria’s national liberation movement to combat her country’s French occupiers. When the movement’s leaders turned to Drif and her female colleagues to conduct attacks in retaliation for French aggression against the local population, they leapt at the chance. Their actions were later portrayed in Gillo Pontecorvo’s famed film The Battle of Algiers. When first published in French in 2013, this intimate memoir was met with great acclaim and no small amount of controversy. It is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand not only the anti-colonial struggles of the 20th century and their relevance today, but also the specific challenges that women often confronted (and overcame) in those movements.

Genres: Algeria, History, Nonfiction, Memoir, Africa, Feminism, Biography

320 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2017

Reviews

[Dea · Rating 5 out of 5]

I could’ve read a thousand more pages of Zohra Drif’s story

[Kristi · Rating 4 out of 5]

A powerful memoir, straight forward, gripping. Drif's story raises so many issues of gender, torture, the morality of colonial resistance, the immorality of colonial domination, the preservation and perpetuation of national narratives, and so much more. She brings to life the stories and personalities of some of the most important and elusive figures of the resistance movement in Algeria. She also brings to life beautiful details about the people and life within the Casbah as well as their incredible struggles to live through the daily humiliations of occupation and the cruelty of the French war against Algerian independence.

[Sharon Huether · Rating 4 out of 5]

Zahra a native of Algeria lived on the wrong side of town. She and her friends learned about guns and explosives.
Zahra dressed in her finest when she left a bomb at the Milk Cafe. Being a feminist she would be less suspect.
Algeria wanted their freedom form France. Zahra was right in the middle; served as a courier. It is the story of her journey and eight year struggle; during the Battle of Algeria and her testimony to the youth.
I won this Free book from Goodreads First-Reads.

[Ishika · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing. My fave book of the year so far

[Alyssa Presley · Rating 5 out of 5]

everyone should read this

[SZ · Rating 5 out of 5]

How do I even begin to explain how important reading this testimony was to me. I can only hope to attend a talk by people who know her let alone by her, genuinely a hero, my personal hero on this planet.

If you like dystopian novels about uprisings and revolutions, like fiction with resistance movements, high stakes, high emotions and the humanity and human struggle for freedom that bleeds throughout this entire book, read this. This is not even a work of fiction but its real events like many other real resistance struggles inspire all the books and movies that have those themes. There is nothing like the original and you can’t outdo the doer. And reading Zohra go from her household, to boarding school, to university to the FLN, you not only get the historical inside perspective of the political and military war for independence but also the feelings of dread, despair and misery that the French occupation and fleeing from the ambushes night after night brings. You read the perspective Zohra forms, the affirmation that there is a necessity for violence, politically and militarily when you are under an occupation that will only take and take if you stand and do not fight back. But it reaffirms that the cost is always great, you will sacrifice your own people, yourself, others caught in the fray, whether they be settlers who actively passively or whateverly hate Algerians, everything comes at great cost when you are fighting for your right to be human, yourself most of all. It is the oppressor who unlike the oppressed, has many paths open to them, yet they take only the one that bears them great costs because they hope for the great gain of subduing, humiliating and controlling a people. Power has always been the shiniest object to the human magpie.

But alongside all that pain you feel the constant love and bravery, an act done by women, men, children, old, young, vulnerable, strong, all Algerian. Looking out for one another, always. Even when they’re scared, even when they all have so much to fear and part of them doesn’t want to bear the burden of helping. The pure love you can feel for la Casbah and the community there is palpable. The human moments the crew all had together, the moments of laughter and small joys, the wise advice given by Yemmas and sheiks. Reading this, I felt like I knew these people, I’ve seen them in my family, in other families, in the faces and conversations of so many other Algerians.

Reading the events of catastrophe that struck Zohra, El Kho, Djamila, Hassiba, Ali and co, my heart squeezed in terrible dread, it was painful to endure. And I’m just a reader with so visceral a reaction. I think about the pain of living it.

The way Zohra ends this abruptly soon after her arrest, with no time skip to to her prison transfer or release, nothing is embellished or added to make it seem melodramatic or more story like. The testimony of events themselves are more than enough, they overflow with humanity and struggle, the full scope of emotions felt desperately by Zohra, by her fellow moujahidine, chouhada, fidayine and by the reader reading it.

I, alongside the other youths of Algeria and anyone who comes from countries with history of anti-colonial resistance, will try so very hard to never forget the history of our struggle, of the human struggle against oppression. Recollection is so important if we are to prevent the things from repeating, as they sadly so often do.

Tw in this story for: torture, death, violence, abuse, the French.

[Manel]

إنها قصة مؤثرة لقد أبدعت

[Emma Finnamore · Rating 5 out of 5]

required reading!

This is the autobiography of one of the "moudjahidine" of the Algerian revolution. I started reading this in a blablacar en route to Berlin, a six hour journey that passed by in a moment because it was so engrossing, I felt totally immersed in Zohra's world. The style of writing explains the political situation in French-occupied Algeria with a kind clarity for those completely unfamiliar (such as myself), as well as giving detailed riveting personal accounts of the activism and inner life of the National Liberation Front.

She was so young in this book (it ends when she was about 22 or 23 with her arrest), and her bravery and courage will stay with me for a long time. I enjoyed especially the contextualization the book gives, and her love for others, so you can really tell her activism and her decision to fight for liberation come from a love of the Algerian people. She describes herself through her family history, her experiences at a French school through the relationship with her best friends and the systemic racism they struggle against together, and the resistance of the FLN through the intimate solidarity with the brothers and sisters in the ranks and the community support of the people of the Casbah, especially the women.

There are lots of moments of humor and cleverness, where the FLN outsmarts the French paratroopers in amusing ways, or just in friendship between the brothers and sisters. You can hear the laughter when Zohra is tasked with getting a book for Si Mohamed and thinks really hard about what to get him in the library, finally going for a book on constitutional law and electoral systems because he'll need it when they found the new independent state, and he's like "?? could you have found something a bit more serious?" then seeing he needed something fun to take his mind off these things she gave him the book she got for herself, something from Dostoyevsky. For light reading :)

I am grateful for these history lessons, I definitely will read more about this in the future. I also now want to rewatch the Battle of Algiers to see it from a new perspective. Her scenes are given little screen time, but this book gives everything such depth and makes every moment meaningful. It is important to read such things now, when things are really dire, for unending hope.

🔈 https://static.infomaniak.ch/infomani... external stream link

[Valectrice · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an insider account of the early days of the fight for Algerian independence from a woman who joined the FLN in Algiers and was a key participant in the it efforts to drive the French from Algeria, including planting the bomb at the Milk Bar in 1956. Drif knew the leaders of the Algiers branch of the FLN intimately and saw firsthand the efforts and organization oration required to run an effective independence movement. Even now over 50 years after the events associated with the brutal war, Drif remains unrepentant and fiercely proud of her efforts to drive out the French. I realize that many may find her willingness to take the war to French civilians disturbing and reject her argument that the FLN and their armed wing the ALN were compelled to adopt these methods by the brutal tactics employed by the French military and their civilian counterparts among the French in Algeria. As we see on a daily basis these days, war and armed conflict (Ukraine and Israel) leaves both sides stained with the blood of innocents, regardless of the justness of their respective causes and the difference in degree of the violence they inflict on others. Drif and her translator effectively being the reader into the heart of the FLN leadership in the mid 1950s. It is a gripping tale about a key conflict in the post-war fight against colonialism and one that is unlikely to be familiar to many Americans.

[Maria do Socorro Baptista · Rating 5 out of 5]

Uma narrativa muito pesada, mas que nos ensina muito sobre uma guerra da qual pouco ouvimos falar aqui no Brasil: a luta pela Independência da Argélia, dominada e colonizada pela França por mais de um século. O que mais me chamou atenção neste livro foi a ativa participação das mulheres, mostrando-me como temos, muitas vezes, visões muito distorcidas sobre nações com culturas muito diferentes das nossas. Gostei imensamente de ler este livro, foi realmente um imenso aprendizado, tirando-me claramente de minha zona de conforto, e me levando para uma realidade dura e cruel das relações coloniais. Embora o Brasil também seja uma ex-colônia, nossa independência foi tão sui generis que muitas vezes nos esquecemos das violências existentes entre colonizados e colonizadores, das fortes relações assimétricas de poder entre tais pessoas.

[Nadine · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book gives an inside account of what it was like to be a member of the revolutionary movement fighting against well over a century of French settler colonialism in Algeria. Zohra is an upper class Algerian who found herself being one of very few Algerians in her school due to her class status. There, she meets Samia. Together they seek out FLN and join the armed struggle against the French military apparatus. I learned a lot about the cruelty of the French in Algeria, and also the resistance to it. Most notable to me is the solidarity amongst Algerians in the Casbah & the FLN fighters, and the many ways they supported each other throughout the revolution despite various divide and conquer tactics employed by the French government. Highly recommend.

[Kira · Rating 5 out of 5]

Zohra Drif, an Algerian freedom fighter, shares her story in this book, from the beginnings of her education to her arrest along with one of the leaders of the FLN. Drif's memoir is a compelling read, although perhaps not for the faint of heart- there are numerous accounts of torture, including some very graphic details, all of which are essential to the narrative.

Perhaps obviously, this book is written from an Algerian perspective, with a focus on events that occurred within Algiers itself. It's a very useful text for analyzing the situation on the ground as preserved in memory, but may be best supplemented with additional overviews of the relationship between Algeria and France, especially for those audiences that have relatively little preexisting background information.

[Brandon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an incredible memoir of an absolutely devastating period of time. Drif's intimate knowledge and personal experience with the events and people involved in the liberation of Algeria make this account incredibly fascinating, and her connections between the episodes in the revolution and their longstanding legacy are especially illuminating. It is challenging and inspiring - the adrenaline, hopelessness, and optimism is visceral. I only wish the following memoir was already published - the story of Algerian liberation is so massive that even this eloquent remembrance captures only some of the whole story.

[Ines · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can’t even begin to explain how much this book galvanized my view of collective liberation from colonization. Zohra Drif immerses you completely in her lived experience under the brutal French occupation of Algeria with a fierce devotion that is unparalleled from archetypical historical texts. She takes your hand and sweeps you back in time to Algiers and the Casbah, encouraging you to feel her rage and her willingness to resist for a homeland that she wanted to free at all costs. You don’t truly understand the Algerian War of Independence as a non-Algerian until you read about it from the perspective of a bombiste herself.

[Emilie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am speechless. What a great and meticulous account of the fight for Algerian Independence written by none other than Zohra Drif. I actually am struggling to find the words to explain.

We are so lucky to have this account of such an important period of history in the first person. It is important to note and remember while reading that France has not yet apologised for the violence, war crimes and crimes against humanity it committed in Algeria.

This book should literally be both a mandatory decolonial and feminist text.

[Zach Knoll · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having lived in Morocco I found the parts about the old medina, role of women as the rear guard, and ‘intel’ in the hammam as particularly interesting. The level of detail so long after the events fully blew me away, but the book is very compelling and is a great look inside the process of radicalization from the perspective of a terrorist.

[Amani · Rating 5 out of 5]

صديقي وصّاني على هالكتاب بعد ماعبّرت عن إني ما أعرف شي عن المغرب العربي واستعرته منه.. كانت صدفة مهمة إني استوعبت إن من جد الجزائر وفلسطين نفس القضية ونفس تفاصيل المعاناة ويمكن حتى نفس التحرير

+ سيرة زهرة ظريف تنافس سيرة مالكوم اكس من ناحية نضال واللي يميزها إنها من عدسة نسوية بعد.

[Michael]

This book is an incredible inside account of the life of Zohra Drif. Although it took her 60 years to write it, the details and enjoyment of the descriptions make it feel like she is talking about a very recent past. It is wonderful when a book makes the (mostly 1954-1957) recent past come alive!

[Dom Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best book I've read for a class. Engaging narrative, charting the dramatic and heartbreaking Battle of Algiers. Raises interesting questions surrounding collective punishment and civilian casualties in insurgency operations.

[Ramzey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great fucking Book!

[S Reeb · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Isabel Veyssi · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.8

[shaima · Rating 5 out of 5]

what an absolute goat

[Fiona Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

this girl is crazy