Mohammed Harbi, Algerian Historian and Exile, Dies at 92

Mohammed Harbi, a maverick historian of Algeria who served in the revolutionary government before spending decades in exile, died on Jan. 1 in Paris. He was 92. His death in a hospital was confirmed by his son, Emir. Mr. Harbi denounced widespread torture after independence and was imprisoned after the army seized power in 1965.

While detained and later in exile he assembled documents and published works including The Origins of the F.L.N. (1975) and The F.L.N.: Mirage and Reality (1980), arguing that the movement that led Algeria to independence was a collection of militaristic, warring factions rather than a conventional political party.

Born on June 16, 1933, in El Harrouch, Mr. Harbi came from a prosperous rural family, joined nationalist movements as a youth and studied history at the Sorbonne. He was an adviser to Krim Belkacem and to Algeria’s first president, Ahmed Ben Bella, and was sent as the F.L.N.’s ambassador to Guinea.

After Ben Bella’s overthrow he refused offers from the new ruler, Houari Boumédiène, was jailed in small cells including the Villa Bengana, placed under house arrest in 1969, fled across the frontier to Tunisia two years later and reached France in 1973; his books were banned in Algeria until the early 1990s and he did not return home until 1991.

Key Topics

World, Mohammed Harbi, Fln, Algeria, Ahmed Ben Bella, Krim Belkacem