Searching for Proper Rebels

...When he lived in Tunisia, did he never learn that basically peaceful tactics are usually preferred there...

...Some of the repetitions of thoughts and phrases, some of the running broad jumps from topic to topic, and the frequent appearance of the statement "as we shall see," could have been eliminated, too...

...But one becomes annoyed with the author's frequently shifting opinion of whether Berber or Arab influence is predominant in Algeria, accompanied with praise for the civilizing influence of Turkey on both Tunisia and Algeria...

...What and where he is now is unknown, but since the preface was written in January 1966 in Rome, he apparently left Algeria after Boumediene seized power...

...that slogans are no substitute for plans...

...But as the title of this book implies and as its author frequently indicates, Algeria's leaders, most of whom "lacked Marxist training," neglected to study and employ "scientific Socialism" both before and after independence, and have therefore failed to effect a genuine "Socialist revolution...

...But when he notes that the "Turkish fighting spirit" rubbed off on people they ruled, he becomes downright fallacious...

...The Communists, he says, misunderstood and opposed Algerian nationalist feeling even after the outbreak of the revolution-as good an example as any of Communist fallibility...

...He is right to lament that (under Ben Bella at least) "Algerian affairs are conducted according to personal whims rather than by general principles...

...Disappointing also to its supporters has been the inefficiency of an ill-prepared administration which has done little to raise the overall standard of living, let alone fulfill the great expectations which were the justification for the enormous revolutionary sacrifices...

...Indeed, they often serve to sharpen his criticism by forcing him to compare harsh or ludicrous realities with the bright hopes he once had -something the uninitiated liberal cannot do...

...Although the rambling, the touches of apparent spontaneity, and the promises of more and better things to come do make the book occasionally resemble life in Algeria...

...Reviewed by LORNA HAHN Author, "North Africa: Nationalism to Nationhood" Both during and since its war for independence from France, Algeria has been an enigma for many Americans...

...A former writer for the New York Times and the London Economist, who at some point became a Marxist (though quite possibly never a bona-fide Communist), Humbaraci left his native Turkey in 1952, toured the Iron Curtain countries and participated in several world Communist conclaves, Later he worked in North Africa for Pravda during part of the Algerian War, and then apparently in Algiers with the Marxists who dominated the informational services during the Ben Bella era...

...His personal bitterness and his doctrinaire Marxist outlook, however, do not prevent him from making some sound observations and analyses...

...One can overlook discrepancies in dates, a slightly distorted account of Maghrebian relations, and possibly even the overstatement of the impending disintegration of the Algerian nation...

...Whereas American "intransigence" toward Castro forced Havana to take "extreme revolutionary measures," France's extensive aid to Algeria helped prevent a "Socialist revolution...

...Persons concerned with national strategy, particularly those conservative Cassan-dras who tend to equate "nationalism" and "revolution" with Communism, have had to scrap some convenient clich?©s on realizing that a "national liberation war," although fought in the general style of Mao and Giap, can be waged and won by non-Communist nationalists...

...For French assistance, writes Humbaraci, "sustaining as it does the natural Algerian desire for a higher standard of living, at the same time saps the existing will for revolutionary work and sacrifice...

...If these contentions fail to try the reader's patience and credulity, he should turn to the author's exhortations...

...The book would also have benefitted from better organization...

...Notable among them was the factionalism within the revolutionary leadership that culminated in the coup d'?©tat of June 19, 1965, when Army chieftain Houari Boumediene toppled Ahmed Ben Bella...

...Meanwhile the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria has provided sympathetic observers with some rude jolts...

...While this book makes some worthy off-beat contributions to our understanding of Communist failures and capitalist successes in general, as well as to the problems of Algeria in particular, it contains obvious inaccuracies, inconsistencies, contradictions, redundancies and absurdities...

...Though Americans have ample reason to be distressed with postwar Algerian developments, it might be comforting to know that Communists of every shade are at least as disappointed...

...The chapter on the Franco-Algerian entente, which was the basis of the Evian Accords and of de Gaulle's support of Ben Bella, could have been placed nearer the beginning...

...Humbaraei urges the Algerians to "revolutionize" and populate the vast Sahara as the Israelis did with the Negev...

...and that there was no good reason for any use of torture by Algier-ians against Algerians...

...Another pleasant surprise was the ease and cordiality of the Socialist-minded Algerians as they mended economic and diplomatic fences with France (which, albeit Gaullist, is still Western and capitalist...

...Perhaps even more encouraging to us (if not to him) is his explanation of why Algeria could not become "another Cuba...

...that too much propaganda bores rather than stimulates ordinary people, making them forget important issues...

...Arslan Humbaraci, judging by his background, is well qualified to render such pessimistic assessments from a Marxist perspective...

...Morocco is mentioned only in a footnote, with the delightful if dubious assertion that "night watchmen in the Maghreb are always Moroccan because they are the most courageous and reliable...

...Also instructive are his explanations of how the Algerian Communist party and its former overseer, the French Communist party, earned the distrust and hatred of most Algerians...

...The exponent of a cause in search of the proper rebels, of whom he found precious few in the Algeria of Ben Bella or Boumediene, Humbaraci fills his book with recriminations and captious anecdotes...

...And Humbaraei has some worthwhile remarks on Algeria's Egypt's and several Communist countries' failure to impress sub-Sahara Africans with the revolution...

...This burst of Turkish chauvinism is understandable (after all, Humbaraci might well have concluded after his recent peregrinations that between East and West, home is best...

...How could he forget that the Berbers of Algeria were famous for their military prowess as far back as the days of the Roman conquests...

...Like that breed of American anti-Communists who take their enemies' dialectical doctrines and propaganda at least as seriously as they do themselves, most Marxists expected to see the new Algeria rebuild itself along solidly Marxist lines, and align itself closely with the Socialist camp...

...And how could he overlook the fact that Moroccans (who he does note escaped Turkish conquest) have frequently been classed as the greatest fighters of them all...