Summary
Sufi mystic and relentless guerilla fighter against the French invasion of Algeria, one of the two first great protagonists of the military struggle at the center of the contest over Algeria in Edward Said’s Culture and Imperialism, Chapter Two, VII (Culture and Imperialism, PDF p.208-209 / printed p.181-182).
Details
- Against Marshal Bugeaud, whose severity ends in a policy of genocide and massive territorial expropriation, Abdel Kader endlessly regrouped, reformed and rededicated his troops against a stronger, more modern invading enemy; a recent edition of his Sufi poetry, edited and translated into French by Michel Chodkiewicz, is among the documents of the time Said sets beside Bugeaud’s letters and dispatches (PDF p.208-209 / printed p.181-182).
- His insurrection is listed among the earlier colonial uprisings across the non-European world, from the San Domingo revolution to the 1857 Rebellion, the Orabi Revolt and the Boxer Rebellion (PDF p.222-223 / printed p.195-196).
- The Algerian National Liberation Front, which inaugurated its insurrection against France in 1954, traced its ancestry to Abdel Kader, who fought the French occupation during the 1830s and 1840s (PDF p.224 / printed p.197).