New Caledonia exiled families ask for the ancestors’ reconsideration

Meeting hall at the headquarters of Draa El Mizane Municipality noticed a historical environment in a meeting of the descendants of Algerian prisoners, who were sentenced by France in the compulsory exile to New Caledonia, at a distance of 22.000 kilometers from the motherland, to demand the reinstatement of the rebels in 1871 in the face of French colonialism after the disobedience in the Kabilyan area at the time.

In a brief speech, the session’s Chair said that the population of the area from Ysser to Tagmount passing from Draa El Mizane and Mechtras participated in this armed insurrection after the meeting of leaders and a group of citizens after receiving a letter from Sheikh Al-Haddad that was read on the ears of the citizens by its holders, from then the decision was made to participate in this revolution, as a lot of revolutionaries were arrested and taken to exile to New Caledonia as a maximum penalty, and their number reached 11 people who were sentenced to compulsory exile, and they set off into the unknown on the second day of the month in 1874, and arrived in the land of exile on January,18, 1875, then they were detained with their Algerian brothers in the fortress of “St. Ray” with numbers that were given to them before they get there.

The following families were exiled: Talash, Gahlaz, Belarbi, Hali and Bouzidi, and on this basis the association which is consisting of 21 members who represent the mentioned families for the rehabilitation of those who were ignored by history, and their only fault is that they stood in the face of the colonial intruder.