Parmi les Ouled Sid Cheikh en lutte, un poète

Among the struggling Ouled Sid Cheikh, a poet

Colonial occupation

Witness, actor and spokesperson of his time, he was also an occasional oral poet deeply engaged alongside his people for better and for worse in their fight against the invasion of the French colonizers. Oral poets, there were some in the 19th century, after the French occupation and the uprising of 1870, in all regions of Algeria. Among the best known, we cite: Menouar Belfodel, Mohamed Ben Messaib, Lakhdar Benkhelouf who stood out for the quality of their words.
Knowing how to communicate in a coded language was important to deceive enemies who were always on the lookout. At a time when there was nothing to ensure the transmission of information from one region to others, the poet was best placed to fulfill this role, especially since he had a passion for travel and He had good speaking skills that could attract attentive listening in open-air market places.
A struggle for nourishing land “The luckiest among the Egyptians is the one who has land to work,” said an old author of ancient Egypt: Cherquaoui. He was right: the land that produces something to live on. The Oued Sidi Cheikh are fighting so that the settlers do not take over the large green spaces of the West: Oran, Relizane, Tiaret.
The film “Bouamama” reconstructed the events of this 19th century occupation.
The settlers, for their part, asked for as much land as possible in the plains. They came from all countries and became landowners.
This explains the resistance opposed to the invaders who had transgressed a compromise recognizing to Ouled Sidi Cheikh the conservation of rangelands, and to the invaders the cessation of colonization, immediately after a peace agreement. But the colonizers are deceptive and this is true everywhere in the world. The colonized in Africa learned to be wary.
On April 22, 1881, the Ouled Sidi Cheikh led by Bouamama revolted against their offensive. A film was made on Ouled Sidi Cheikh and Bouamama, by Boualem Bessaïeh, former minister who died in 2016. Mohamed Belkheïr, voice of the peasant population who rose up, he harangued the crowds to say in verse what was the enemies have committed and what his fellow citizens must do to get out of it: not to give up, to fight the invaders, to express loud and clear the feeling which must animate the Ouled Sidi Cheikh. We have an image of the war atmosphere that reigned at this time: “At high speed, the riders in groups followed one another under the cover of repeated salvos, clouds of baroud; vapors intoxicated me and my horse pranced, an illuminated dancer.” (Comments by Mohamed Belkheir). But the war is long, the rifles of the tribes are heard without respite.
The invaders are, however, better armed. And the richest among the population were quick to rally to the colonizers under the order of Colonel Négrier. So the revolt is running out of steam.
Which explains these verses of despair/ elusive destiny/ The country calls, vain echoes/ Like the child torn from its mother/ Of all the tribes no one answers. From now on, it is defeat, the oral poet takes the path of forced exile.
In 1884, he was sent to the Calvi fortress. The man of the steppes, jealous of the freedom of all, he is anguished. Calvi is in Corsica surrounded by sea. He is in prison and he has plenty of time to compose poems like this: O generous master! find us a sultan. Right and just, and who governs. For the triumph of Islam over the infidel. And recognized by the nations. He had a large number of poems and many fellow citizens sang them for hope, like the blacks in America who sang the blues on the cotton plantations. The settlers would disfigure the landscape, fragment it but for a time. The war of liberation was brewing. The popular poetry of Mohamed Belkheir, emerging from popular memory, has had a significant impact on all generations, because it is transmitted by word of mouth. She had to be saved from oblivion by writing. A combat poetry worthy of the great masters of the word and true patriots As in all revolutions, there are enemies, declared traitors and all kinds of individuals who can stab you in the back, as soon as you an opportunity goes in favor of a personal interest. What happened to Mohamed Belkheir who, in addition to the colonizers he fought in the 19th century, had Attalah facing him, who is playing against the tide of history. The latter dared to consider the Algerian resistance fighters of the time as simple outlaws, Mohamed Belkheir wrote a long poem of which here is an extract in a pointed style: “Obviously, I cry over my open wounds, I have evil of the country and of the dearest country.
Here we are gathered joyfully, only the friends of Buran are in humiliation. Whoever wants paradise fights the disbeliever, whoever wants tranquility becomes a mercenary. Attalah, sinister Attalah, why do you interfere? Life has played you, vanity! Because its end is near.”
This is an extract of classic poetry of incomparable beauty, rich rhyme, pictorial vocabulary which expresses many things in few words. How about the verse: “He who wants paradise fights the unbeliever.” Mohamed was to find himself imprisoned in Corsica for intensely expressing anti-colonial ideas. In a harsher tone, “Exile” expresses itself directly, a theme so common in Algeria, whatever the circumstances. It consists of expatriation, isolation and any form of sidelining of anyone who causes problems for anyone exercising responsibility.
Algerians suffered greatly from forced exile assuming that a person was forced to live across borders.
This is the case of Mohamed Belkheir imprisoned in Calvi for his political activities: “Stop questioning me, my fate belongs to God, master of both worlds. I am waiting for the perfect saint with the white frame. Sid Cheikh, halo of saints. Nostalgia for my children, love for the master. Both trouble the heart. In exile in Calvi, with Cheikh Ben Douina, here we are hostage! » This text is largely representative of the entire work, a very long poem which speaks of the exile in all his states. We must remember that the poetic text is in Arabic version. He speaks not only of the poet, but of all those who find themselves in their exiled state. This is why we would classify it as epic poetry. A poem for special circumstances, one might say.
Abed Boumediene