On Friday 22 February 2020, Algerians will have been demonstrating peacefully every Friday for an entire year. 22 February 2019 saw millions of Algerians take to the streets across the country, with their children, their banners, and their sense of humour to demand that Abdelaziz Bouteflika, the then president, step down and that the entire political junta go with him. Eventually, they won a first battle. Bouteflika did go. But the old guards remain and Friday demonstrations continue til today. To remember how Algerians got here, the journalist Lynda Abbou has retraced the past, to the few days before 22 February and the beginning of a revolution.
Lynda Abbou's article was published in French in the Algerian online press (see source below). It retraces an important chronology of events, and it is translated here to English to help it gain wider readership.
Source: "Ces évènements qui ont annoncé la révolution du 22 février" by Lynda Abbou on Maghreb Emergent, posted on 22 February 2020
(photo credit: Lynda Abbou)
The
events that announced the revolution of 22 February*
A year ago, on Tuesday 12 February 2019, a
demonstration against Bouteflika’s 5th term was organised in the wilaya of
Chlef (205 km from the capital), by a few dozen people. It is from this city
that the slogan “Bouteflika, yal merouki, makeche ohda khamsa”,
(Bouteflika, the Moroccan, there’ll be no 5th term) was chanted for the first
time. No one could know that this action would change Algeria’s destiny and
would snowball until it gave birth to the revolution of 22 February 2019.
This demonstration occurred after two major
‘provocations’. The first was a meeting organised at the Coupole du 5
juillet, in Algiers, to officially announce that Abdelaziz Bouteflika was
running for a 5th term, driven by what was called the ‘presidential
alliance’ on 09 February 2019. The second was the declaration of Ahmed Ouyahia,
the then Prime Minister, who had told the press on 11 February 2019 that the
Algerian people were happy about Bouteflika’s candidacy.
Everything then gushed forth from a little
street in the city of Chlef with a short video published on social media. “Makeche
Ohda Khamsa” (there’ll be no 5th term) would become the slogan of millions
of Algerians across the country, and it would make Bouteflika fall.
On 14 February 2019, Saint Valentine’s day,
and out of love for their country, the people of the wilaya of Annaba organised
a sit-in against Bouteflika’s candidacy. On that day, the revolution’s early
wave would swell by a hundred protesters.
With a phone in his hand, the young Chems
Eddine Lalami, called Brahim, filmed the march he’d organised with a small
group of young people in the wilaya of Bordj Bou Arreridj on Friday 15 February
2019. They stood defiant and responded to Ouyahia by saying that the Algerian
people were ‘not happy’. They chanted loudly “had chaâb la yourid,
Bouteflika w’Said”, (this population does not want Bouteflika nor Said [Bouteflika’s
brother]). This slogan became another that would echo in all of Algeria, until
the fall of the two brothers who held all power as president and advisor.
During this demonstration, Brahim Lalami went
beyond slogans against Bouteflika and Ouyahia, he also demanded a system change
and denounced the actions of Tliba, Ghoul, Ben Younes and all those who spoke
in favour of the regime’s continuity and defended the « mommy ».
This young man, in jail today for his
activism during the Hirak, had articulated and underlined the one strong aspect
of a revolution still ongoing: pacifism “La tadmir, la takssir, nahno norido
ataghyir”, (no destruction, no wreckage, what we want is change) chanted
Brahim and his friends on that day.
After the first two demonstrations of Chlef
and Bordj Bou Arreridj, the first large demonstration occurred in the city of
Kherrata, in the wilaya of Béjaia on Saturday 16 February 2019, against the 5th
term of the now fallen Abdelaziz Bouteflika, and against the powers at be. Several
hundreds of people of all ages marched bearing black flags and chanted slogans
against the country’s leaders like “Y’en a marre de ce pouvoir” (we’re sick of
this regime). They had brought placards and banners on which were written “je
suis Algérien, je suis contre le 5e mandate” (I am Algerian, I
am against the 5th term), “pouvoir assassin” (murderous regime) or “le mandat
de la honte” (the term of shame).
Then, mobilisation increased, Algerians
displayed their rejection of the 5th term more and more openly, influencers
began to call out for a popular uprising. The dates of 22, 23 and 24 February
began to be circulated on social media, and Friday 22 February 2019 was
selected, by artists and activists while the source of the call remained
anonymous.
After Chlef in the West, and Bejaia in the
centre, arrived the turn of the wilaya of Khenchla to the East of the country.
On Tuesday 19 February 2019, a giant poster of president-candidate Bouteflika
was taken off its hook, brought down from the face of the city council, and was
trampled by a crowd of demonstrators in Khenchela. “Nehi teswira o kheli
laâlam”, (take out the photo and leave the flag). This is how the people of
Khenchla broke off all ties with Bouteflika’s reign. This action was a response
to a provoking message posted the night before by the mayor of the city, Kamel
Hachouf, who opposed the visit of Rachid Nekkaz. Demonstrators went to the city
hall and chanted “Nekkaz Président !” (Nekkaz President!), “Non au 5e
mandate” (No to the 5th term).
On Friday 22 February 2019, dozens, hundreds,
thousands, then millions of Algerians, women and men of all ages, of all
political colours and ideologies, from every region of Algeria, took their
destiny by the hand. They want radical change.
A year exactly separates us from the first
sparks that set light to the revolution of hope, one which ten days from now,
will celebrate its first anniversary …
*This article was translated from the French
by Nadia Ghanem.
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