Ahmed Ben Bella

African Revolutionary Writers, Part 9b

Ahmed Ben Bella with Gamal Abdel Nasser

Ahmed Ben Bella

Ahmed Ben Bella is an Algerian Revolutionary and freedom fighter, 3^rd President of Algeria (1963-1965), born in 1918, now aged 91.

The main document linked below is an interview with Ben Bella done in 2006.

Of course it would be preferable to have a political pamphlet, speech, or article for a theoretical journal written by the comrade’s own hand. But this is a good substitute.

You will see that Ben Bella interacted with both Cabral and Mandela. Says Ben Bella:

“Mr. Mandela and Mr. Amilcar Cabral themselves came to Algeria. It’s me who coached them; afterwards they returned to lead the fight for freedom in their countries. For other movements, which were not involved in a military fight and who needed only political support, such as Mali, we helped in other ways.”

You will see Che Guevara was also there at one stage.

In 2003, Ben Bella went into action again and was elected to lead the International Campaign Against Aggression on Iraq. We all failed to stop that war. Ben Bella, old as he already was, did more than most.

Viva, Ben Bella, Viva!

Please download and read the text via this link:

Ahmed Ben Bella, People's Liberation Unachieved, 2006 (6778 words)

Further reading:

Muammar Gadaffi, The Green Book, Part 1, on Democracy, 1975 (6000 words)

Muammar Gaddafi, The One-State Solution, 2009 (939 words)

Shivji, Struggle for Democracy, 2003, with Malik, Struggle for Culture, 2002 (5035 words)

Samir Amin, 2004, The American Ideology (3214 words)