Algerians of New Caledonia

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 9^th 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)