On Algeria

The Ottaways are excellent at writing historical narrative, but remarkably terrible about historical interpretation. To them, the problem with political power in Algeria during the 60s was about asabiya. Asabiya is an idea put forth by Ibn Khaldun in the 14th century that North African empires fall because Berber tribes are too clannish. When the sultan loses support of the tribes, the state collapses in on itself. To Ottaway, the leaders of Algeria—Ben Bella and Boumedienne—are the sultans. The differing factions within Algerian mass society (the FLN, UGTA, etc.) make up the “Berber tribes.” Essentially, the argument is Orientalist in that it projects a timeless past on what they view as a fundamentally different people.

This is nonsense—asabiya is not distinct to North Africa nor is it a timeless phenomenon. The coups all across Africa in the second half of the 60s might all be classified as asabiya, but few of them took place in what we could classify as Tamazgha. Moreover, we see the same pressures of political power in states as far ranging as the Soviet Union (who becomes chairman next?), the People’s Republic of China, and a wide range of other states throughout both the “First” and “Third” Worlds.