Culture, Society & Diaspora
Culture, Society & Diaspora
Algerian culture is a living tapestry woven from Amazigh roots, Arab and Islamic traditions, Ottoman influences, and the legacy of French colonialism—shaped by the Sahara and the Mediterranean, by resistance and resilience, by poetry and prayer.
From the rhythms of Raï to traditional dress, from wedding customs to the foods that bring families together, these stories offer a window into what it means to be Algerian.
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In the autumn of 1575, a Spanish soldier named Miguel de Cervantes was sailing from Naples toward home when corsairs seized his ship in the western Mediterranean. He would not see Spain again for five years. The city where he…
A second-century writer born at Madauros — modern M’Daourouch in Souk Ahras Province — not only called himself “half Numidian, half Gaetulian” in his own defence speech, but smuggled his hometown into the closing pages of his novel when a…
On a hilltop plateau about 70 kilometres west of Algiers, there is a circular stone tomb the size of a small stadium. It has been standing for roughly two thousand years. Scholars have argued about who built it, and who…
The Jardin d’Essai du Hamma — also known as El Hamma Botanical Garden or simply Jardin d’Essai — is one of Algiers’ most distinctive public spaces. Spread across roughly 32 hectares in the capital’s El Hamma district, it combines a…
In Algeria, the holy month of Ramadan arrives with an air of reverence so profound that it is sometimes spoken of with reverence as Sidna Ramadan, meaning “Our Master Ramadan”. For the country’s predominantly Sunni Muslim population, this month represents…
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…