With this article I pay tribute to a great lady, a Moudjahida, whom I knew as a child and who died on the first of November 2017…..Chrysalide…
By Boukhalfa Amazit, Journalist
What the hell was she going to do in this mess? She, little Toumya, born in the Marine district, at the foot of the legendary Casbah, the same year Duvivier was filming Pépé le Moko there. She, the state-certified nurse, who grew up in Fontaine Fraîche. Innocent “mower” of drugs for the brothers, who pushed the audacity to hide or transfer the few weapons that existed, or who distributed leaflets …
Until the day when the brothers came to her to urge her to enter the bush. Her mother, who was far from imagining her in this world reserved exclusively for men, “threw the iron she was holding in her face. She missed me or pretended to do it, ”she recalls with a burst of laughter.
So, “I was going to join the Jebel, place of all the heroisms where history was written”.
When he arrived, as usual, his manager asked him to choose his nom de guerre. “I already had a little problem with my family name. My father, for civil status, called me Toumya; my mother, finding this name outdated and too rustic, called me Baya, it was more urban. “Do you want to add another one for me?” I said to the captain. He looked at me for a while and then said, “Would you be offended if we called you Baya El Kahla” (Black Baya)? “And since …” Even in its leaflets, the French army called me that. ”
This name will resound from ridges to talwegs, throughout wilaya IV (center of Tellian Algeria). She was the first nurse in zone 1, in region 1, sector 1. Village healer and war nurse for combatants, but also a scout who organized the djounoud dropouts, she was the little black fairy of commando Ali Khodja, a elite unit from which legendary names will emerge.
Arrested, transferred to Annaba, tortured… “One day they came. They gave me clean laundry, and took me to a beautiful villa. In a luxurious lounge, ladies Bigeard and Massu, who spoke first, were waiting for me “, recalls Baya:” Why did you go to the bush? You lacked nothing. Your father worked at the GG (general government). You’ve been to school. What more did you want?
– Did you accept the Germans? I told him spontaneously. I am looking for my identity. It was taken from me. I don’t have any more, I want to win it back.
– Why don’t you follow Miss Sid Kara’s example? she replied.
– Miss Sid Kara has chosen her camp and I have chosen mine.
– Maybe you’ve been bamboozled.
– Not at all, I am convinced of the independence of Algeria. And if there is only one Algerian left on this land, the day will come when he will be independent. ”
His ordeal was not going to end. On the contrary, he was beginning. The nightmare was coming …
Baya El Kahla was only twenty-two!
Baya El Kahla portrait
By Mustapha Boutadjine
Paris 2012 – Graphics-collage, 100 x 81 cm
translated from : https://jazairhope.org/la-petite-fee-du-commando-ali-khodja/
