Amar Ouzegane

Who was Amar Ouzegane?

Amar Ouzegane was an Algerian politician. Ouzegane became a leader of the Algerian Communist Party, but later broke with the party and became a nationalist. After independence, he served as a Minister.

Ouzagane came from a family of Kabylean peasants who had lost their possessions after the 1871 insurrection against the French. He studied in a Quranic school, and later went on to get a French education. He sold newspapers, and later got a job at the Post. He joined the Communist Youth in 1930. In the same year he became a member of the Algiers committee of the trade union movement Confédération générale du travail unitaire. In 1934 he became secretary of the Algiers branch of the French Communist Party. Moreover, he was appointed second in command of the Communist Youth in Algiers, but in reality he led the organization.

In 1935 Ouzegane led the Algerian delegation to the Seventh Congress of the Communist International.

Ouzegane was fired from his job at the Post, as a result of his political activities. Afterwards he became a party whole-timer. When the Algerian Communist Party was banned in 1940, Ouzegane went underground. In April 1940 he was arrested. He was jailed in southern Algeria until 1943.