Larbi Bouhali

Who is Larbi Bouhali?

Larbi Bouhali was an Algerian communist politician. Bouhali served as general secretary of the Algerian Communist Party.

Born in El Kantara, Bouhali hailed from an Arab peasant family. In 1934 he travelled to Moscow, where he received political training for 9 months. Bouhali took part in the founding congress of the Algerian Communist Party in 1936. In 1939 he was named secretary of the Algerian People's Aid, an organization dedicated to assisting victims of colonial repression.

In 1940 Bouhali, along with other Communist Party leaders, was imprisoned and deported to the Sahara. He was detained at the Djenien-Bou-Rezg concentration camp. At the third party congress, held in 1947, Bouhali was elected general secretary of the party, substituting Amar Ouzegane.

Bouhali was exiled throughout the Algerian War of Independence. When the insurrection broke out, he moved to metropolitan France, and after the banning of the Algerian Communist Party on September 13, 1955 he moved to East Germany. At the time of Algerian independence in 1962 he remained in East Germany. Bouhali returned to Algeria, but went into exile again a few months after the 1965 coup d'état.