ALGERIA

officially Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, Arabic Al-Jaza'ir, or Al-Jumhuriyah al-Jaza'iriyah ad-Dimuqratiyah ash-Sha'biyah country of Africa, located on the Mediterranean coast in the Maghrib (northwestern Africa). It is the second largest country on the continent (after The Sudan). It extends about 1,240 miles (2,000 km) from north to south and about 1,120 miles (1,800 km) at its widest from east to west. Algeria is bounded on the east by Tunisia and Libya, on the southeast by Niger, on the southwest by Mali, Mauritania, and Western Sahara, and on the northwest by Morocco and fronts the Mediterranean Sea on the north. The capital is Algiers. Area 919,595 square miles (2,381,741 square km). Pop. (1995 est.) 27,939,000. Algeria's economy is dominated by its export trade in oil and natural gas. Until 1962 the economy was largely rural-based and complementary to that of France. Since independence, however, production of oil and especially natural gas has come into its own, and industrialization has proceeded rapidly. A series of nationalizations and national plans transformed Algeria into a centrally planned economy with a state socialist system, but, with efforts to privatize parts of the economy taking place in the 1980s, its socialist orientation has been modified somewhat. Standards of living have risen to those of an intermediately developed country, but lower levels of self-sufficiency in food production and an increasingly serious international debt problem pose major obstacles to continued rapid development. Resources Extensive deposits of sulfur-free light crude oil were discovered in the Algerian Sahara in the mid-1950s. Production began in 1958, concentrated in three main fields: Hassi Messaoud in the northeastern part of the Sahara, Zarzatine-Edjeleh along the Libyan border, and El-Borma on the Tunisian border. Reserves in the late 20th century were estimated to be more than nine billion barrels. Deposits of natural gas were first discovered at Hassi R'Mel in 1956, and since then discoveries have also been made at several other fields. With proven reserves of some 106 trillion cubic feet (3 trillion cubic metres), Algeria ranks seventh in the world in terms of total gas reserves. The gas has a methane content of almost 85 percent and also contains ethane, propane, and helium. Gas liquefaction plants at Arzew and Skikda and a trans-Mediterranean pipeline to Italy via Tunisia permit exports of Algerian gas. Extensive deposits of high-grade iron ore are worked at Ouenza, and major deposits of medium-grade ore exist at Gara Djebilet near Tindouf. Deposits of nonferrous metal ores are smaller and more scattered. These include sizable deposits of zinc and lead at El-Abed near Tlemcen and of mercury ore at Azzaba. Intensive prospecting for minerals in the Ahaggar Mountains has been carried out, and traces of tin, nickel, cobalt, chrome, and uranium have been found. Development of the Ahaggar uranium deposits began in the early 1980s. Phosphate deposits of relatively inferior grade are mined south of Tbessa at Djebel Onk. Sizable kaolin deposits at Djebel Debbagh and large reserves of marble and onyx have been found. Relief Most of the population of Algeria lives in the northern part of the countrythe Tellwhich is the richer and the better-watered sector. The remainder of the country, the Saharan region, is uninhabited desert, with the exception of several oases. The Saharan region conceals rich mineral resources and, above all, oil and gas. Each of the country's two physical regions results from a different geologic evolution. The main features of structure and relief have been produced by the collision of the African and Eurasian tectonic plates. This has formed the geologically young and crumpled mountain chains in the north, with the solid and ancient platform of basement rock, horizontal and uniform, forming the south. The first of these areas is the mountainous Atlas region, consisting of two large mountain chains that run roughly parallel from east to west and that are separated by high plateaus. The second region consists of the Sahara desert. From north to south there are five different zones, all running from east to west. The first zone is formed by intermittent coastal folded massifs; the second is formed by the coastal plains that separate and extend south of the coastal massifs; the third zone consists of the chain of the Tell Atlas (Atlas Tellien) mountains; the fourth zone consists of the High Plateaus (Hauts Plateaux); and the fifth consists of another chain of mountains, the Saharan Atlas (Atlas Saharien). The coastal ridges and massifs are indented with numerous bays and are often separated from each other by plainssuch as the plains of Oran and Annabathat extend inland. In the same way, the Tell Atlas is not continuous. In the west it forms two distinct ranges separated by interior plains. Thus the plains of Maghnia separate the Tlemcen Mountains to the south from the Trara Mountains to the northwest. Similarly the plains of Sidi Bel Abbes and Mascara are nestled between hill ranges to the north and south. The Dahra Massif forms a long range extending from the mouth of the Chelif river in the west to Mount Chenoua in the east; it is separated from the Ouarsenis Massif to the south by the plains of the Chelif valley. The relief as a whole, therefore, does not constitute a barrier to communications in the western Tell. However, this is not the case in the central Tell, where the Blida Atlas merges with the Titteri Mountains and the mountainous block of the Great Kabylie joins with the Biban and Hodna mountains to make north-south communications more difficult. Only the valley of the Wadi Soummam permits communication with the port of Bejaa. Farther east, from Bejaa to Annaba, one mountain barrier follows another to separate the Plains of Constantine from the sea. The lands south of the plains are dominated by the Hodna, Aurs, and Nemencha mountains. The plains themselves, which have long been used for growing cereals, have a distinct local topography and do not present the same features as the Algero-Oranian High Plateaus, which extend westward from the Hodna Mountains into Morocco. The latter are broken by sebkhas (lake beds encrusted with salt) and are much less favourable to agriculture because of their lower rainfall. To the south of the Algero-Oranian High Plateaus and the Plains of Constantine runs the second mountain chain, the Saharan Atlas, which is formed of a series of ranges trending southwest to northeast. These decline in altitude from the west where Mount Assa attains an elevation of 7,336 feet (2,235 metres) in the Ksour Mountains to lower summits in the Amour and Oulad Nal mountains. Higher summits are again found in the Aurs Mountains, where the highest peak in northern Algeria, Mount Chelia (7,638 feet), is located. The Algerian Sahara may be divided roughly into two depressions of different altitude, separated from one another by a central north-south rise called the M'zab (Mzab). Each zone is covered by a vast sheet of sand dunes called an erg. The Great Eastern Erg (Grand Erg Oriental), which has an average altitude of 1,300 to 2,000 feet, and the Great Western Erg (Grand Erg Occidental) decline in elevation northward from the foot of the Ahaggar (Hoggar) Mountains to below sea level in places south of the Aurs Mountains. The Ahaggar Mountains in the southern Sahara rise to majestic summits, the highest, Mount Tahat, reaching 9,573 feet in altitude. Only the northern Tell ranges, lying along a tectonic plate boundary, experience much seismic activity. Severe earthquakes there have twice destroyed the town of Chlef (El-Asnam), in 1954 and 1980. An earthquake in 1989 did much damage in the zone between the Chenoua massif and Algiers. Drainage Most of the rivers of the Tell Atlas are short and undergo large variations in flow. The largest river is the Chelif, which rises in the High Plateau. It crosses the Tell Atlas and flows through an east-west trough to reach the sea east of Mostaganem. The Chelif is so intensively exploited for irrigation and drinking water that it has ceased to flow in its lower reaches during the summer months. South of the Tell Atlas only ephemeral rivers (wadis) are found, and much surface runoff ends in saline chotts within inland depressions. Several Sharan watercourses, in particular those flowing off the Ahaggar uplands, occupy valleys formed largely during past pluvial periods in the Pleistocene Epoch (1,600,000 to 10,000 years ago). Some southward-flowing wadis feed the water tables beneath the Saharan surface, and desert oases occur in locations where the water, under hydrostatic pressure, rises to the surface in artesian wells or springs. officially Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, Arabic Al-Jaza'ir, or Al-Jumhuriyah al-Jaza'iriyah ad-Dimuqratiyah ash-Sha'biyah, country of North Africa. It is bounded to the east by Tunisia and Libya; to the south by Niger, Mali, and Mauritania; to the west by Morocco and Western Sahara; and to the north by the Mediterranean Sea. With an area of 919,595 square miles (2,381,741 square kilometres), it is the second largest country in Africa and the 11th largest country in the world. Nearly nine-tenths of the national territory, however, consist of six Saharan wilayat (dpartements or provinces) in the south. The capital is Algiers. Algeria is a country of vastness; the Mediterranean to the north separates it from Europe but at the same time opens a thousand doors to it, while in the south the Sahara links it to Africa. History, language, customs, and Islam make it an integral part of the Arab world. Algeria's struggle for liberation, which lasted from 1954 to 1962, has gained it a significant place among the nonaligned nations. For the first two decades of independence, Algeria was firmly part of the socialist Third World. During the 1980s its economy was increasingly opened up to privatization and liberalization measures, and multiparty democracy commenced in 1989. Government Algeria is a multiparty republic with one legislative house, the National People's Assembly. Dominated since independence by the National Liberation Front (Front de Libration Nationale; FLN), the sole legal political party, Algeria adopted new electoral laws in 1989 to become a multiparty state. The constitution, adopted in 1976 and subsequently amended, provides for a strong executive branch headed by a president. Elected to an indefinitely renewable five-year term by universal adult suffrage, the president appoints a prime minister who, in turn, appoints a cabinet to complete the executive. The prime minister drafts and implements the government's program and presents it to the National People's Assembly for ratification. The assembly is composed of 295 deputies elected by universal adult suffrage to five-year terms. Meeting twice a year in sessions that may not exceed three months' duration each, the Assembly, being empowered to legislate in all matters except those involving national defense, prepares and votes on the country's laws. Below the national level, the country is divided into 48 wilayat (provinces), each with its own elected assembly (Assemble Populaire de Wilaya, or APW), executive council, and wali (governor), the latter being appointed by the central government and responsible to the Ministry of the Interior. The provinces are in turn divided into 227 daraat (administrative districts) and more than 1,500 communes, each commune having its own popularly elected assembly (Assemble Populaire Communale) to run local affairs. The executive council of the province is the chief regional authority. It is composed of the regional directors of the state services established in the province; the province is thus oriented to both regional and national levels. Under the authority of the wali, the province exercises trusteeship and administrative control of local collectives and public establishments, as well as of independent enterprises and national societies. As an organ of the national government, it participates in the development and application of the national development plan and assists in the coordination of matters that concern the province. The wali himself is at the same time the sole and permanent representative of the central government as well as of the province. He assumes those functions that must necessarily be called into play in the relationship between the governmental summit and the popular base. As the representative of the province, he presides over the implementation of the decisions of the APW. As a high state functionary, he is the delegate of the government and the direct representative of each of its ministers. Justice At independence, Algeria inherited colonial judicial institutions that were primarily established in the larger towns where the European communities were concentrated. The judicial system was oriented toward the maintenance of colonial authority. A jurisdictional duality also existed, since judicial organization was founded upon the separate foundations of so-called common law and Muslim jurisdiction. In 1965 the entire system was reformed by a decree that instituted a new judicial organization. This decree was followed a year later by the promulgation of new legal codesthe penal code, the code of penal procedure, and the code of civil procedure. Forty-eight provincial courtsone in each provinceand nearly 200 widely distributed tribunals were eventually created. Three levels of justice were established. At the first level is the tribunal, to which civil and commercial litigation is submitted, and which takes action in penal cases of the first instance. A single judge is empowered at this level. At the second level is the provincial court, which consists of a three-judge panel that hears all cases. It functions as a court of appeal for the tribunals and for the administrative jurisdictions of the first instance. At the third and highest level is the supreme court, which checks and unifies the ensemble of jurisprudence. It enjoys the powers of a final court of appeal and of appeals against the decisions of the lower courts. In 1975 the Court of State Security (Cour de Sret de l'tat), composed of magistrates and high-ranking army officers, was created to handle cases involving state security. Of the three fundamental legal documents on which the juridical system is based, the firstthe penal codereaffirms the principles protecting individual liberty; the secondthe code of penal procedurecontains more detailed safeguards; while the thirdthe code of civil proceduresimplifies the conduct of judicial actions in order to eliminate delays, discourage abuses, and augment the efficiency of tribunals. The penal code was revised in 1982. Three special courts for trying economic crimes against the state were established in 1966those of Algiers, Oran, and Constantine; each is composed of magistrates and of members representing the Ministry of Finance. Their decisions are without appeal. Ethnic composition Some 80 percent of the country's population consider themselves to be ethnically Arab, though most Algerians are descendents of ancient Berber groups who mixed with various invading peoples from the Arab Middle East, southern Europe, and sub-Saharan Africa. Arab invasions in the 8th and 11th centuries brought only limited numbers of new people to the region but resulted in the extensive Arabization and Islamization of the indigenous Berber population. About 20 percent of Algerians now consider themselves to be Berber, of whom the Kabyle Berbers, occupying the mountainous area east of Algiers, form the largest group. Other Berber groups are the Shawia (Chaoua), who live primarily in the Aurs Mountains; the M'zabites, a sedentary group descended from the 19th-century Ibadite followers of 'Abd ar-Rahman ibn Rustam, who inhabit the northern edge of the desert; and the Tuareg nomads of the Saharan Ahaggar region. Nearly all the European settlers, mainly French, Italian, and Maltese nationals, who formed a sizable minority in the colonial period, have departed. Linguistic composition Arabic is the first language of the majority of the population and is understood by most others. It is also the country's official language. Berber, in several geographic dialects, is spoken by Algeria's ethnic Berbers, though most Berbers also tend to be bilingual in Arabic. Algeria's official policy of Arabization since independence, which aims to promote indigenous Arabic and Islamic cultural values throughout society, has resulted in the replacement of French by Arabic as the national medium and, in particular, as the primary language of instruction in primary and secondary schools. Arabization has met with strong resistance among some Berber groups, who fear domination by the Arabic-speaking majority. Algerian culture and life have been profoundly affected by 130 years of colonial rule, by the bitter War of Independence, and by the subsequent broad mobilization policies of the postindependence era. With the resulting emergence of a mobile, often rootless society, Algeria's cultural continuity has accordingly been undermined. Only Islamic belief and populist ideology have seemingly prevented social disintegration. There has been a contradiction, however, between the government's various populist policies, calling for the radical modernization of society on the one hand and the promotion of beliefs based on the country's Arab-Islamic heritage and traditional family structure on the other. The cities, with their numerous discontinuities, have become the centres of this cultural confrontation, but, even in remote areas of the country, formal institutions of the state have begun to replace the extended family or clan as Algerians are caught between a tradition that no longer commands their total loyalty and a modernism that allures their senses but fails to satisfy their psychological and spiritual needs. Only the more isolated Berber groups, such as the Saharan M'zabites and Tuareg, have escaped these divisive pressures to some degree. Daily life Whether in the city or countryside, the daily life of the average Algerian is permeated with the atmosphere of Islam, which, in this former colony of a Western power, has become identified with the concept of an autonomous Algerian people and of resistance to the West. Practiced here largely as a set of social prescriptions and ethical attitudes, Islam has more characteristically been identified with supporting traditional values than with serving as a revolutionary ideology. The emancipation of women, in particular, has been opposed by the influential Islamic clergy. The family, headed by the husband, is considered to be the basic unit of society, and women are expected to be obedient and provide support to their husbands. Men and women largely constitute two essentially separate societies, each with its own attitudes and values. Daily activities and social interaction normally take place only between members of the same sex. Marriage is a family rather than a personal matter, and parents typically arrange marriages for their children. Most women continue to wear veils in public, as it is considered improper for a woman to be seen by men to whom she is not related. The practice of veiling has increased since independence, especially in urban areas where the chance of contact with nonrelatives is greater. Arguably, since it provides a means of mobile seclusion, veiling has actually increased the freedom of women in many areas. Additional reading Several comprehensive general works are available, including Harold D. Nelson (ed.), Algeria: A Country Study, 4th ed. (1985); John P. Entelis, Algeria: The Revolution Institutionalized (1986); John P. Entelis and Phillip C. Naylor (eds.), State and Society in Algeria (1992); and Rachid Tlemcani, State and Revolution in Algeria (1986). Population and settlement matters are covered in Keith Sutton and M. Nacer, Population Changes in Algeria, Geography, 75(4):335347 (1990); Keith Sutton, The Influence of Military Policy on Algerian Rural Settlement, Geographical Review, 71(4):379394 (1981); and Richard I. Lawless and Gerald H. Blake, Tlemcen: Continuity and Change in an Algerian Islamic Town (1976). Ethnographic introductions include Jeremy Keenan, The Tuareg: People of Ahaggar (1977); and Pierre Bourdieu, The Algerians (1962; originally published in French, 1958). Economic development is covered in Mahfoud Bennoune, The Making of Contemporary Algeria, 18301987: Colonial Upheavals and Post-Independence Development (1988). Agricultural change is covered by Karen Pfeifer, Agrarian Reform Under State Capitalism in Algeria (1985); and industrial development in M. Bennoune, The Industrialisation of Algeria: An Overview in Halim Barakat (ed.), Contemporary North Africa (1985), pp. 178213. David Prochaska, Making Algeria French: Colonialism in Bon, 18701920 (1990), considers colonial politics. Keith Sutton