Algerians of New Caledonia are also known as “Algerians
of the Pacific”, were group of men (Arab & Kabyle) that got deported by
French Authorities to labour camps on the islands of New Caledonia, as a
punishment for participating in the 1871 uprising against the French Colonial Administration
in Algeria.
Image Above (Left: New Caledonia Flag, Right: Algerian Flag)
Revolution of Mokrani 1871
The most of the deportees
are the ones who participated in Mokrani Revolt in 1871, it is a revolution
that started from Souk Ahras led by Mohamed Keblouni in eastern Algeria then
the uprising spread across Algeria until it reached Bordj Bou Arreridj and
Kabylie. The Revolution of Mokrani was the largest uprising against the French
Colonial Administration since the Invasion of Algeria in 1830, the revolution
was led by Sheikh El Mokrani, Boumezrag El Mokrani and Sheikh El Haddad but the
revolution eventually ended after a year of heavy resistance against the French
Invaders, the punishment for the revolution was the deportation of all
resistance fighters including the family of Mokrani and Rezgui.
Image Above (Sheikh El
Mokrani)
Arrests and trails
The trial took place in the
city of Constantine in May 1873, the trail of 212 individuals which included 74
notable leaders and Sheikhs that are accused in participating in the revolution
of Mokrani. Most of them are sent to jails in Metropolitan France in first they
were sent Château d'Oléron or Saint-Martin-de-Ré jails then they were
transferred to Fort Quélern which is located near Brest. The 29 of them were
sent Oran where they get arrested temporary before being transferred to Fort
Quélern .
Image Above (Fort Quélern)
Deportation
Mohamed Ben Brahim is the
first Algerian to be deported to New Caledonia in May 9th 1864.
The largest number of deportees
are sent between 1867 and 1895, 2,166 prisoners were transported from North
Africa to New Caledonia in the Pacific Ocean the majority of the prisoners were
Algerians with minority of Moroccans and Tunisians they arrived to New
Caledonia in 42 Convoys, the deportees were not allowed to be accompanied by
their wives and children.
Nationality of the
deportees:
1,702 Algerians
63 Tunisians
48 Moroccans
7 Sudanese
Only 2,106 deportees
survived through the journey out of 2,166, most of Algerian deportees where
from Kabylie, Algiers, Oran and Constantine and their average age was 21-30
years old. Before their departure all deportees received serial numbers they
were transported in ships equipped with steam engines the routes that the ships
used to take was through Cape of Good Hope (South Africa) or thorough Suez
Canal (Egypt) with regular stops in order to get fresh water with them abroad.
They traveled 30,928 Km
across the seas which lasted them about 150 days, the deportees slept on
folding beds and they were grouped in cage were 60 deportees would be inside
them, for the food the deportees used to eat bread and beans twice a day and
they used eat fish or French cheese on Fridays but they are some deportees that
starved to death on their journey to New Caledonia.
Image Above (Map of New
Caledonia)
The transport of deportees
were classified into three groups:
Transportation (convicts) –
18 convoys – 1,822 men – 1864 until 1897
Deportation (politicians) –
11 convoys – 180 men – 1874 until 1921
Relegation (recidivists) –
14 convoys – 164 men – 1888 until 1897
Image Above (deportee’s
ships)
Life in New Caledonia
There is little
documentation of the Algerian deportees sent to New Caledonia like military and
prison documentation. There have two types of punishments applied to the
Algerian deportees either they bee fortified residence on the Peninsula of Ducos
in Noumea or they get deported again to the Isle of Pines (Camp of Arabs).
The French wanted to deracinate
or destroy the identity of the Algerian deportees by refusing to send them back
home to Algeria when they release them from labour camps or when they finish
their sentence, not allowing the deportees to be accompanied by their wives and
children and lastly cultural alienation by marriage, marital status and catholic school.
The Algerian deportees were
deployed to work in mines of cobalt and tin, road construction, and
horticulture. Algerian deportees married Kanak, Indonesian and French women but
they were forbidden to name their children Arabic names the French Colonial
Administration only allowed Christian names, the Algerian deportees found many
problems in adapting into the life in Caledonia because of the difference
between the deportees and the Kanak people like language, religion and cultural
obstacles but from time to time they adapted into the Caledonian society.
Image Above (Algerian
deportees)
The deportee’s children
were forced to go to church in order to get catholic education the goal of this
is to Christianise the children of the deportees, the girls attended their
classes where they learn theoretical household and practical agriculture and
boys learned grammar and arithmetic. The living condition of the Algerian
deportees was extremely difficulty they were suffering from poverty, diseases
and especially discrimination as they were not allowed to teach Arabic or
Berber language and the religion of Islam. Algerian deportees are the first
people to plant the date palm in the New Caledonia, the deportees brought the
date cores with them.
The descendants of the
deportees who still continued to live in New Caledonia are estimated to be
about 20,000 but there is no official figures on them. The descendant of the deportees refer to their ancestors as “Old
Arabs” there are some descendants of the deportees who actually returned to
their ancestor’s homeland in Algeria. Many descendants of the Algerian
deportees are struggling to go back to their origins due to the practice of French
colonial administration of altering the names of deported Algerians, they could
neither read nor write French language so the full names of the deportees were orally
spelled which resulted in different spellings of the names.
Image Above (New Caledonia)
The cemetery of Arabs (Cimetière
des Arabes) is located in In Nessadiou, south of Bourail, as Nessadiou is also
known as "Little Africa".
Image Above (The cemetery of Arabs)