Culture, Society & Diaspora
Culture, Society & Diaspora
Ghardaia is the principal town of the M’Zab Valley, a cluster of five fortified hilltop settlements rising from the rocky plateau of Algeria’s northern Sahara. Founded by Ibadi communities—ancestors of today’s Mozabites—from the early 11th century, it remains the spiritual…
In Algeria, the circumcision of a young boy is far more than a medical procedure. It is a ṭaḥāra — a purification — a moment many families see as confirming the child’s belonging within a Muslim family and community. For…
Noureddine Morceli dominated the 1500 metres like few athletes before or since. Between 1990 and 1996, the runner from the coastal village of Sidi Akkacha near Ténès won three consecutive World Championships titles, claimed Olympic gold at Atlanta in 1996,…
Assegas Ameggaz! On 12 January, as the Gregorian calendar’s new year settles in, Algerian families across diverse regions prepare to celebrate Yennayer, the Amazigh (often called ‘Berber’ in older European sources) New Year. This ancient festival marks the first day…
On 13 February 1960, a blue-tinged fireball erupted over the Algerian Sahara, marking France’s entry into the nuclear age. Code-named Gerboise Bleue after the desert jerboa (a desert rodent), this first French atomic bomb was detonated at a remote site…
Mohammed Dib spent over five decades crafting novels, poetry, and stories that traced the arc of Algeria’s 20th-century experience—from colonial hardship to independence, from exile to global literary recognition. His work, written entirely in French yet unmistakably Algerian in spirit,…