Djelloul Bachdjarah

Djelloul Bachdjarah (Arabic: جلول باش جراح), born in 1908 in Algiers, died on March 29, 1971, in Algiers; a man of the theater and film actor, a proponent and organizer of a politically engaged theater. His name (often spelled Djelloul Bach-Djera or Djelloul Bachdjerrah) contains the prefix "bach," indicating a function. Djelloul Bachdjarah belonged to a family from the former Beylik of Algiers, the so-called Ottoman military caste; one of his ancestors served in the Ottoman Empire's army as a surgeon (djerrah). At the age of sixteen, he deserted the French army, in which he had just been drafted, following a forced recruitment campaign conducted by the gendarmerie. Imprisoned, he was released a few months later. Around 1924, the young Djelloul attended meetings of La Fraternité algérienne (The Algerian Fraternity), an association founded by Emir Khaled and often led by communist activists. It was there that he reportedly heard a call for the creation of "an Algerian theater of strugg...