Kabyles du Pacifique

Kabyles du Pacifique ("Kabyles of the Pacific") were a group of men and women deported by French authorities to labor camps on the island of New Caledonia, after taking part in the 1870-1871 mainly Kabyle uprising against colonial rule in Algeria.

Their arrest took place in 1871, and 212 persons were tried together in 1873, in the city of Constantine. Most were sent over to prisons in metropolitan France - Oléron and Saint-Martin-de-Ré (on Île de Ré), then, as these were due to be closed, to Quélern (near Brest). At the same time, 29 of them were kept in Oran - Antoine Chanzy, the Governor-General, attempted to have them removed from the public's eye by proposing they should be sent to the Marquesas Islands. They too were ultimately transported to Quélern, through Marseille. A third group was imprisoned together with former Communards in Thouars.

Due to malfunctions in the communication between ministries, the distinction made between sentences to transportation (traditionally, to French Guyana) and deportation (to New Caledonia) was no longer made - all were sent to New Caledonia in the end.

Their arrival to the island coincided with transports of Communards, who were to leave precious testimonies of the Kabyles' presence. However, Kabyles were left behind when the Communards were granted an amnesty in 1879, and remained in exile despite campaigns to raise the sympathy of French public opinion. An amnesty was awarded only in 1895, but they could return to Algeria only after 1904.

Some descendants of the deported Kabyles still live in New Caledonia. One of them, Taïeb Aïfa served as the mayor of Bourail from 1977 to 2001. In Nessadiou, south of Bourail, there is a "Cimetière des Arabes", or "Arabs' Cemetery" - a name that originates in confusion over the ethnicity of Kabyles.

References

*Mehdi Lallaoui, "Kabyles du Pacifique", 1994, Éditions Au nom de la mémoire.