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Algeria - Clans

There are about 15 major clans in Algeria, the elements that made up the balance of forces in Algerian society. The clans played an informal but important role in shaping government decisions, implementing decisions, and securing financial favors, jobs, party and government positions, housing, and other perks.

During the Ottoman period, before the coming of the French in 1830, the people were divided among a few ancient cities and a sparsely settled countryside where subsistence farmers and nomadic herdsmen lived in small, ethnically homogeneous groups. Rural patterns of social organization had many common features, although some differences existed between Arabs and Berbers and between nomads and settled cultivators. The groups did not form a cohesive social class because individual behavior and action were circumscribed by the framework of tribe or clan.

In the rural areas, social organization depended primarily on kinship ties. Beyond these lineages were the patrilineal clans called adhrum by the Kabyles and firq by the Arabs, in which kinship was assumed and the links between individuals and families were close. The largest units consisted of tribes that were aggregations of clans claiming common or related ancestors or of clans brought together by the force of circumstance. Sharing a common territory, name, and way of life, member units of a tribe, particularly among the Berbers, had little political cohesion.

Deep personal and ideological divisions surfaced within the National Liberation Front [FLN] as the war for independence drew to a close in 1962 and the date for independence approached. Competition and confrontation among various factions not only deprived the FLN of a leadership that spoke with a single voice, but also almost resulted in full-scale civil war. According to historian John Ruedy, these factions, or "clans" did not embody "family or regional loyalties, as in the Arab East, because the generations- long detribalization of Algeria had been too thorough. Rather, they represented relationships based on school, wartime or other networking."

The important clans had a heavy regional cast and most involved a mixture of business, military, banking, civil society figures, and a least one senior Sonatrach executive, in order to assure access to Algeria's cash cow. Other clans involved functional groupings centered around generals, political personalities like former President Chadli and Zeroual, and francophiles. The regional and functional clans overlapped to some extent and their influence was sometimes cross-cutting. For example, Military Intelligence Chief Mediene and former Armed Forces Chief Nezzar were associated with the same clan but the former supported Bouteflika and the later despised him.

In the reform process, it was the second and third tier of these clans imbedded in government bureaucracies that were often responsible for delaying or blocking reform efforts being pushed by President Bouteflika.

Among the fifteen clans there were two from the Kabilye and an assortment of others from places like Souk Ahras and Annaba, Batna, Tlemcen, and Tiaret. The clans from Souk Ahras were very close and often collaborated, as did the others when interests meshed. While the clans from the East were spread out among various cities, the clan from "the West" was fairly unified and included many close associates of President Bouteflika.

Minister Belkhadem was from the Tiaret clan, which was traditionally linked to the zaouias in the region. Belkhadem had never gotten involved in the financial/business side of clan dealings. Belkheir, probably the smartest individual in the leadership, came from the same clan initially, though he now had cross-cutting interests, remained close to former President Chadli, with whom he worked closely in the 1980s, and of course had strong ties throughout the military. Long-serving Education Minister Benbouzid had kept his portfolio throughout numerous government changes because he was part of the clan associated with his brother-in-law, former President Zeroual.

The creeping domination of Algerian political life by a clannish group of officials from western Algeria is very real, the subject of cynical wisecracks and political cartoons. Opposition leader Said Sadi of the Rally for Culture and Democracy (RCD) has repeatedly described the "Tikritization" of Algeria, comparing the dominance of a group of leaders from the confined western region to the situation in Saddam Hussein's Iraq.