Ferhat Abbas

Infobox President | name=Ferhat Abbas


order=1st President of Algeria
term_start=September 20, 1962
term_end=September 15, 1963
predecessor=Abdur Rahman Farès
successor=Ahmed Ben Bella
birth_date=birth date|1899|10|24|df=y
birth_place=Taher,Jijel,Algeria.
death_date=death date and age|1985|12|23|1899|10|24|df=y
death_place=
spouse=
party=FLN

Ferhat Abbas (24 October, 1899–23 December, 1985) (algerian: Ferḥat Ɛebbas, Arabic: فرحات عباس) was an Algerian political leader and briefly acted in a provisional capacity as the yet-to-become independent country's President from 1958 to 1961.

Background

Son of a caid, Said Ben Ahmed Abbas and Maga bint Ali. Born in a village south of Taher in the department of Jijel, he was formerly an "integrationist" not opposed to the French annexation but advocating an Algeria where Algerians would have the same rights as Frenchmen. He became disillusioned with France when his hopes were not realized, and turned to nationalism, issuing the "Manifesto of the Algerian People" in 1943, and forming the nationalist party Union Démocratique du Manifeste Algérien in 1946.

Involvement with FLN

Not long after the Algerian War of Independence against French rule began November 1954, he joined the Front de Libération Nationale (FLN), in September 1955. His political standing in Algeria and reputation as a moderate nationalist, acceptable to the West, helped him become president of the provisional Algerian nationalist government-in-exile, the GPRA, from 1958 until 1961. He lost his place to Benyoucef Ben Khedda, which may have been a reason for his decision to join Ahmed Ben Bella's and Houari Boumédiène's Tlemcen Group in opposition to the GPRA, which was subsequently dismantled.

After independence

Algeria became independent July 5, 1962. From September 25, 1962 to September 15, 1963, Ferhat Abbas was president of the constitutional assembly, but this institution was rapidly sidelined by Ben Bella, who had gained the presidency. Abbas resigned in protest at the FLN's decision to establish a one-party state under Ben Bella He was then placed under house arrest from 1964 until 1965.

In 1976–79, he was again placed under house arrest, after signing a statement opposing the country's powerful military-backed President, Col. Houari Boumédiènne. Still, he received official recognition in the form of a state decoration, the "Medal of Resistance", on October 30, 1984 [http://membres.lycos.fr/tahercom/resume.html] . He died just over a year later.

Writings

Articles written in his youth are collected in "Le Jeune Algérien" (1931). His ideas on democracy and views on history were set out in a series of essays including "La nuit coloniale" (1962), "Autopsie d'une guerre" (1980) and "L'indépendance confisquée" (1984).

References

* Meisami, Julie Scott and Starkey, Paul (Eds). (1998). "Encyclopedia of Arabic Literature". London: Routledge (ISBN 0-415-18571-8)
* Ferhat Abbas, "Une utopie algérienne", p.18 et 19.