Mohamed Saïl

Mohand Amezian ben Ameziane Saïl was an Algerian anarchist and anti-colonial activist. Born in Kabylia, he was largely self-taught and became an atheist and an anarchist after moving to Metropolitan France. After World War I, he joined the French anarchist movement and began agitating for Algerian independence. He was arrested and imprisoned several times during the 1930s, due to his anti-colonialist, anti-militarist and anti-fascist activism. He volunteered to fight in the Spanish Civil War and served in the Durruti Column until he was wounded and forced to return to France. After the Nazi occupation of France, he was interned in a concentration camp, but escaped and joined the French Resistance. With the liberation of France, he resumed his agitation for Algerian independence, calling for a social revolution to overthrow the French colonial empire. In his writings, he depicted native Kabyles as having their own libertarian and egalitarian tradition, and proposed the establishment of a non-hierarchical and secular society in an independent Algeria. He continued his activism up until his death, one year before the Algerian War of Independence broke out.