The UGEMA generation of Algeria’s civilian leadership

Abstract

ABSTRACTBased on the published interviews of a sample of 33 former student leaders and members of the Union Générale des Etudiants Musulmans Algériens (UGEMA, 1955–1963), along with private interviews or other data collected about an additional 30, this article traces the brief history of the Algerian Revolution’s only autonomous NGO and the consequent patterns of cooperation and competition over subsequent years. The sample represents a broad political spectrum of Algeria’s recently retired civilian elite. It is biased towards students who eventually achieved high office. Elected leadership positions in UGEMA seem to have anticipated subsequent promotions and co-optation by Boumedienne’s regime (1965–1978) more than by Ben Bella’s (1962–1965). But unwilling or unable in the course of their careers to act in concert, this French-educated elite never acquired real authority. Its representative organ, UGEMA, was effectively ‘suicided’ in 1961, the summer before external military forces outgunned those of Algeria’s Provisional Government and seized power. For better or worse, UGEMA’s potential civilian leadership remained hostage to competing military factions. It was also seriously divided, its captains of industry opposed to Arabizing educators. Shutting down its only autonomous intermediary left independent Algeria with a weak, politically impoverished state.