I recently had an unexpected opportunity, which I seized to make an appeal highlighting the importance of paying greater attention to the history of our region, particularly since the creation of the town of Ahfir. I stressed the need to build a documentary archive that would gather everything capable of informing us about our past, recounting the stages of the emergence of our town, the development of its unique identity and characteristics, and the formation of the main elements that shaped our mentality, customs, and traditions.

In fact, this initiative was inspired indirectly by our friend Badr Talbi. In one of his articles, he presented a text dating back to 1910, describing the travel impressions of a French journalist, Raoul Besson, who visited our eastern region at the beginning of its occupation by foreign forces.

Through this article, I would first like to salute our brother Abdelhakim, who supported this project. I would then like to return to this topic in order to present a modest viewpoint regarding a methodology that may help us gain a more accurate and comprehensive understanding of the subject and encourage us to move forward toward our desired goal.

In this regard, I believe it would be more effective to divide the history of our region into several research themes that could serve as a foundation for study, expansion, and enrichment.

Among these themes are:

The beginning of the colonial forces’ advance into our region;

Documenting the patriotic resistance efforts against the occupation;

The settlement and establishment of colonial settlers over the years;

The development of Ahfir’s urban growth and population since its foundation;

The formation of our local Ahfir dialect;

The reasons behind the current decline of the Amazigh language in our region;

The factors that contributed to shaping our local mentality and distinctive identity;

Human exchanges and coexistence with our Algerian neighbors;

The progress of schooling and education in our area;

The social and economic changes experienced by our town.

These themes are merely general avenues of research that can serve as a basis for study, reflection, and enrichment within the framework of this noble and exciting project. Its objective is to gather all the elements and documents that can shed light on our recent past and provide a fuller understanding of everything related to our history, especially from the dawn of the twentieth century to the present day.

 

View of the Martimprey du Kiss Hotel, located on the site of present-day Ahfir.

Amar Belahcen

(January 6, 2011)