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At the origin of the outbreak of the armed struggle, history will record that among the 21 + 1 initiators of the revolutionary movement, more than two thirds came from Greater Constantine and among them six were from the city of Bridges. Rabah Bitat, Benabdelmalek Ramdane, Slimène Mellah, Mohamed Mechati, Youcef Zighoud and Saïd Bouali all grew up in Constantine families.
Almost all coming from modest families, only Ramdane Benabdelmalek, the youngest among them, had managed to get through secondary school. All the others had been forced by the force of the colonial yoke or by family necessity to leave school early to help their loved ones. Zighoud Youcef, for his part, was able to acquire the precepts of Islam in the Koranic school in his village in Smendou, alongside teaching in the French school where he managed to obtain the primary school certificate. All members of the Algerian People’s Party, some were able to join the Special Organization (OS) or the Movement for the Triumph of Democratic Liberties (MTLD).
These social trajectories partly explain the proximity of these activists to rural and popular environments, the human and logistical breeding ground of the Revolution, and many of them enjoyed real social roots. Zighoud Youcef, for example, will maintain very strong links with the countryside and artisans, which will favor the creation of a local network essential to the transition to armed action.
Although most of them had contested at a crucial moment of the outbreak of the armed struggle the method of designating responsibilities within the revolutionary organization, in particular the representativeness of the zones, the fact remains that all of them engaged in the armed struggle; some, like a simple djounoud of the ALN, even perished there almost at dawn on the 1ster-November, like Saïd Bouali and Slimane Mellah. Abdelmalek Ramdane also died too early, and was even the first among the group of 21 to fall on the field of honor, on November 4, 1954 near Mostaganem. Zighoud Youcef, the architect of the legendary attack on North Constantine, died less than two years later.
Only Rabah Bitat and Mohamed Mechati will survive and see the goal of independence achieved. The two men even occupied positions of responsibility within the power of the young Republic. Rabah Bitat, who was president of the Popular Assembly from 1977 to 1990, was interim president upon the death of Houari Boumediene between December 1978 and February 1979. He died in 2000 in Paris. The highest official position held by Mohamed Mechati was ambassador or vice-president of the Algerian League for Human Rights.
The man was known for his opposition to deposed president Abdelaziz Bouteflika. He bowed out in 2014 in Geneva. In one of his statements, the late Mohamed Mechati explained that the strong representation of the Grand Constantinois was due to the fact that the mission of bringing together the group of 21 at Clos Salembier, in the villa of Derriche Elias, was devolved to the late Mohamed Boudiaf, who was then responsible for the North Constantinois within the Special Organization, which had pushed him to surround himself with people in whom he trusted above all.
Zighoud Youcef, the architect of the “North Constantine offensive”
Among the members of the group of 21 from the current eastern capital, Zighoud Youcef helped breathe life into the Revolution at a time when the colonial forces were increasing their ferocity against anyone suspected of waging war against them. The offensive of August 20, 1955 in North Constantine, among other armed actions by Algerian militants, was thus a “real detonator” of the armed struggle. It was organized and led by Zighoud Youcef.
It thus had the merit of having marked a decisive turning point for the future. Beyond its military aspect, the operation led by Zighoud Youcef and his group had an impact which will now make people talk about the national cause and will influence the combat strategy but also the decisions of the French government, although the implementation of the decision to launch the armed struggle on 1er November 1954, had already put the colonial system to the test.
Firstly, the diversification of the actions of the young fighters had put the police and then the French army in a defensive posture, then the participation of the underprivileged social classes in a sort of rudimentary, almost improvised logistics reinforced the idea that the path of fighting for liberation was the only way to get rid of the colonial yoke. Several attacks were then organized by the revolutionaries across the four corners of the country, with the help of the population, particularly in the Aurès and upper Kabylia. Attacks which targeted army barracks and police stations. Several dozen operations will trigger a chain reaction which forces the French side to respond violently.
However, the Revolution will experience a qualitative boost after the North Constantine offensive. This attack led by Zighoud Youcef was a true demonstration of force by elements of the National Liberation Army. Zighoud Youcef, then responsible for wilaya II, had succeeded in shaking the army, which was also forced to recall several contingents of released soldiers. Zighoud Youcef had, eight months earlier, on January 18, 1955, participated alongside Didouche Mourad in another no less important offensive.
The battle of Oued Boukerkar, during which his companion Didouche Mourad died on the field of honor. Aged 34 at the time, Zighoud Youcef was charged by the National Council of the Revolution with leading Wilaya II, which allowed him to prepare and lead the offensive in North Constantine which, unfortunately, caused hundreds of deaths. The operation then marked a stage that historians on both sides describe as capital in the course of events. The repression of the French army then led to crimes against humanity. A repression which will make the rural population more committed to the fight, now accepted as the only way to free themselves.
Zighoud Youcef will then be hunted down and will in turn fall in 1956, one month and five days after the holding of the Soummam Congress, which definitively put in place the organic and political structures of the revolution of 1er-November.
Beyond the dates and names, what is striking today, when reading these trajectories, is the way in which the same places, Smendou, the forests of Constantinois, the popular neighborhoods of the city of Ponts, reappear as centers of a history which has never really stopped speaking to the living.
Commemorations, graves, plaques, names of avenues and educational establishments, all these signs materialize a memorial and political claim. Narrating Bitat, Mechati, Zighoud, Mellah, Bouali and Benabdelmalek is to question the way in which the war of independence shaped Algeria today, but above all continues to fuel a long and profound work of memory.