Djamal Amrani

Algerian poet Djamal Amrani was born in 1935 in Sour El Gozlane. Central to his life and
work were his involvement in the Algerian liberation movement, and his arrest and torture
by the French Army for participating in a 1956 student strike. Amrani was imprisoned for
two years for his revolutionary activities, and then expelled to France. From this ordeal came
his moving autobiographical narrative Le Témoin (The Witness), published in 1960 by Les
Éditions de Minuit. He was a career diplomat and journalist before he decided to devote
himself to writing and to his radio broadcasts, which drew a wide audience with such shows
as “Uninterrupted Poetry.” He received the Pablo Neruda medal in 2004 for his body of work,
published between 1964 and 2003. His books include Soleil de notre nuit (Sun of Our Night,
1964), L’été de ta peau (The Summer of Your Skin, 1982), and La nuit du dedans (The Night
Within, 2003). He died in Algiers in 2005.

Marilyn Hacker

Marilyn Hacker (born November 27, 1942) is an American poet, translator and critic. She is
Professor of English emerita at the City College of New York. Her books of poetry include
Presentation Piece (1974), which won the National Book Award, Love, Death, and the
Changing of the Seasons (1986), and Going Back to the River (1990). In 2003, Hacker won
the Willis Barnstone Translation Prize. In 2009, she subsequently won the PEN Award for
Poetry in Translation for King of a Hundred Horsemen by Marie Étienne, which also
garnered the first Robert Fagles Translation Prize from the National Poetry Series. In 2010,
she received the PEN/Voelcker Award for Poetry.[3] She was shortlisted for the 2013 PEN
Award for Poetry in Translation[4] for her translation of Tales of a Severed Head by Rachida
Madani.
Pour Ali la Pointe

Ali Ammar ( 14 May 1930 – 8 October 1957), better known by his nickname Ali la Pointe, was
an Algerian revolutionary fighter and guerrilla leader of the National Liberation Front who
fought for Algerian independence against the French colonial regime, during the Battle of
Algiers. lived a life of petty crime and was serving a two-year prison sentence when war
broke out in Algeria in 1954. Recruited in the notorious Barberousse prison by FLN
militants, he became one of the FLN’s most trusted and loyal lieutenants in Algiers. On 28
December 1956, he was suspected of killing the Mayor of Boufarik, Amédée Froger.

In 1957 French paratroopers led by Colonel Yves Godard systematically isolated and
eliminated the FLN leadership in Algiers. Godard’s counter-terrorism methods included
interrogation with torture. In June, la Pointe led teams in setting explosives in street lights
near public transportation stops and bombing a dance club that killed 17.

Saadi Yacef ordered the leadership to hide in separate addresses within the Casbah. After
Yacef’s capture, la Pointe and three companions, Hassiba Ben Bouali, Mahmoud “Hamid”
Bouhamidi and ‘Petit Omar’, held out in hiding until 8 October. Tracked down by paras
acting on a tip-off from an informer, Ali La Pointe was given the chance to surrender but
refused, whereupon he, his companions, and the house in which he was hiding were bombed
by French paratroopers. In all, 20 Algerians were killed in the blast.

Biography

Ali Ammar was born on 14 May 1930 in Miliana, Algeria to a poor family. The family’s
financial situation did not allow him to attend school. His nickname “La Pointe” comes from
the Point district in Miliana. While being imprisoned for the first time at the age of thirteen,
he learned masonry. In 1945, he became known in Algeria for playing tchi-tchi, a type of
gambling game scam, then as a pimp and acquired a sort of prestige. He was convicted for
theft of military effects in 1943, rape in 1950, international assault and violence to an officer in
1952, and attempted homicide in 1953 and 1954.
In 1954, when the Algerian War broke out, he escaped from the Barberousse prison (Prison
de Barberousse) where he was serving a two-year sentence for attempted murder. FLN,
Front de libération nationale (National Liberation Front), militants explained to him that
Algiers was a victim of colonialism and recruited him to their cause. He later escaped again
after being transferred to a prison in Damiette. He returned to Algeria and made contact a
few months later with Yacef Saadi.

The Battle of Algiers

The Battle of Algiers reconstructs the events that occurred in the capital city of French
Algeria between November 1954 and December 1957, during the Algerian War of
Independence. The narrative begins with the organization of revolutionary cells in the
Casbah. Because of partisan warfare between Muslims and Pied-Noir, in which both sides
commit acts of increasing violence, France sends French Army paratroopers to the city to
fight against and capture members of the National Liberation Front (FLN). The paratroopers
are depicted as neutralizing the whole of the FLN leadership through either assassination or
capture. The film ends with a coda depicting nationalist demonstrations and riots,
suggesting that although France won the Battle of Algiers, it lost the Algerian War.

The tactics of the FLN guerrilla insurgency and the French counter insurgency, and the
uglier incidents of the war are depicted. Both colonizer and colonized commit atrocities
against civilians. The FLN commandeer the Casbah via summary execution of Algerian
criminals and suspected French collaborators; they commit terrorism, including actions like
the real-life Milk Bar Café bombing, to harass Europeans. The security forces resort to
killings and indiscriminate violence against the opposition. French par troops are depicted as
routinely using torture, intimidation, and murder.

Pontecorvo and Solinas created several protagonists in their screenplay who are based on
historical war figures. The story begins and ends from the perspective of Ali la Pointe
(Brahim Haggiag), a petty criminal who is politically radicalized while in prison. He is
recruited by FLN commander El-hadi Jafar, played by Saadi Yacef, who was a veteran FLN
commander.

Lieutenant-Colonel Mathieu, the paratroop commander, is the principal French character.

Other characters are the boy Petit Omar, a street urchin who is an FLN messenger; Larbi Ben
M’hidi, a top FLN leader who provides the political rationale for the insurgency; and Djamila,
Zohra, and Hassiba, three FLN women urban guerrillas who carry out a terrorist attack. The
Battle of Algiers also features thousands of Algerian extras. Pontecorvo intended to have
them portray the “Casbah-as-chorus”, communicating with chanting, wailing, and physical
effect.

Beneath A Pile Of Rubble

The poet eulogizes the revolutionary fighter and guerilla leader of Algeria’s National
Liberation Front, Ali la Pointe.

In the first stanza the poet talks about the sufferings he and the people faced by the French
army. Every day they look out for hope and that one day they will be freed from the French
army. A man who died proudly for his country was buried under a pile of rubble. They
wanted to ruin or tear their life’s apart. A fighter who all forgot, Ali La Pointe who with out
any hesitations fought for his country and died at the sight of their guns.

In the second stanza, the poet is referring to a meeting that Ali la pointe along with his
companions had attended with the French officials in order to negotiate the freedom of
Algeria. The poet through the phrase I quote “their blood gorged breath” signifies the horror
of brutality that was being carried out by the French tyrants. In the next couple of lines, the
poet is bringing up the cause for Ali la point to engage with a meeting with the French as he
is there as a voice for all those natives of Algeria who experienced the most darkest hours of
slavery during the French invasion. Then the poet brilliantly puts the horrific cruelties
committed by the invaders in the wake of colonialism as the line reads – “ His face- mirror of
cruelties” so this line suggests that pointe’s face reflects or mirrors the cruelties of the
invaders. As already said he represented the entire Algerian population who had been
suffering under colonialism and his collective voice Demanding or negotiating for freedom
sharpens their urge for freedom and their hope. Here he is again....this lines can be
interpreted in various dimensions. One meaning that can be deduced is that the French
captured the Algerian fighters including our hero Pointe directly from the sight of the rest of
the population which accorded to the shattering of hopes in regard to freedom. The phrase
“wrinkles around our eyes” signifies the period of invasion and the resultant physical, mental
as well as psychological degradation of the natives of Algeria. Further the poet says that the
sole reason behind engaging in a meeting with the French officials was that they were well
aware of the fact that death was stronger than hunger and pointe along with his supporters
wanted to gain freedom at any cost for the sake of the lives of the natives of Algeria. Towards
the end of the second Stanza the poet once again glorifies the sacrifice made Ali la pointe. In
the concluding stanza, the poet also brings up another reason other than colonial invasion
that contributed to the misery faced by the people of Algeria. Since the Algerian society was
class based certain problems also were induced into the society which is described through
the initial lines of the third stanza I quote “yesterday strapped down...incest misery” these
problems also include incest. As generation passed by and when each generation engaged in
a mission to devour their past and when their joy tells the stories of present freedom what
remains in the vanguard is the one and only one name and that is Ali la pointe and his name
is always whispered in silence and through out their life. In the concluding lines of this
poem, Djamal is declaring the greatest reason behind their enjoyment of freedom today and
That is the “Child of the Casbah”. Overpowering and leaving behind the winter of
colonialism, the spring of freedom has destroyed or dismantled the barricades and chains
that deprived the natives of Algeria the freedom of movement into the forbidden garden. And
the forbidden garden signifies the freedom that had been rejected to the Algerians for almost
a hundred and thirty two years.