Mohamed Seghir Boushaki (محمد الصغير بوسحاقي), (born 27 November 1869 in Thénia, Boumerdès Province, Kabylie, Algeria; died 1959 in Thenia, Algeria) was an Algerian Kabyle politician after the French conquest of Algeria.
Presentation
Mohamed Seghir Boushaki was born in 1869 in the village of Thala Oufella (Kabyle: ⵟⵀⴰⵍⴰ Oⵓⴼⴻⵍⵍⴰ) called Soumâa (called Arabic: الصومعة) because of the ruins of Benian ntâa Soumâa. This ancient Berber citadel of Benian ntâa Soumâa was built by King Nubel when the region of Thenia was the capital of Kabylie and Mitidja in North Africa during Antiquity. The lands ranging from Oued Boumerdès and Oued Meraldene in the west to Oued Isser to the east of the village "Thala Oufella (Soumâa)" belonged to the tribe of "Aïth Aïcha" to which Mohamed belonged Seghir Boushaki before the French conquest of Algeria. Just two years after the birth of Mohamecd Seghir, all of Kabylie rallied to the "Mokrani Revolt" on 16 March 1871 to expel the French colonial troops from the plain and the heights. After the defeat of the brotherhood of the Rahmaniya in this Kabyle uprising, the tribal leaders were deported to New Caledonia, among them Cheikh Boumerdassi and "Ahmed Ben Belkacem" the chief of the "Aïth Aïcha" who was close to Mohamed Seghir. "Ahmed Ben Belkacem", born in 1837 and son of Ahmed, was deported under the "Number 18744".
Childhood Mohamed Seghir Boushaki grew up in a large family where his elder brother "Ali Boushaki" (1855–1965) was his model. Their father "Mohamed Boushaki" (1834–1889), known as "Moh Ouaâli" (Arabic: موح واعلي, was one of the survivors of the French expedition against the town of Dellys from 7 to 17 May 1844 and which had decimated dozens of villages of Kabylie, including "Thala Oufella (Soumâa)". Thus, Mohamed Seghir's grandfather, "Ali Boushaki" (1823–1846) who was married to "Khdaouedj Dekkiche" from Gueraïchene village of Souk El-Had, was one of the Kabyle martyrs during the fighting against the French Conquest of Kabylie, leaving his son "Moh Ouaâli" orphaned. The massacre of Jacques Leroy de Saint Arnaud completed and the village of "Thala Oufella (Soumâa)" devastated, the widowed grandmother "Khdaouedj Dekkiche" could only preserve her child "Moh Ouaâli" taking him with her to her parents in the village of Gueraïchene (Arabic: إيقرعيشن) at Souk El-Had until her puberty and the reconstruction of his native village in "Aïth Aïcha" tribe. After his return to "Thala Oufella" in 1852 at the age of 18, "Mohamed Boushaki (Moh Ouaâli)" married his cousin "Aïcha Ishak-Boushaki" from Meraldene village who bore "Ali Boushaki" in 1855 and then of "Mohamed Seghir Boushaki" in 1869.
Education Mohamed Seghir Boushaki began his Quranic studies in the reconstructed Zawiyet Sidi Boushaki in the village of "Thala Oufella" near the mausoleum of his great-grandfather Sidi Boushaki (1394–1453) who was one of the berber scholars and theologians before the arrival of the Ottomans in Algeria. Meanwhile, the plain of Mountain pass of "Aïth Aïcha" tribe, north of "Thala Oufella" village, was colonized as early as 1871 by Alsatian and Lorraine farmers who came from France to found the town of Ménerville. Thus, from 1874 to 1881, Mohamed Seghir grazed the herds of the village with his brother Ali and his cousins while continuing his Muslim teaching in his native village. After the creation of the Arab offices in Kabylie and the establishment of the registers of the civil state by the governor Louis Tirman, new patronyms were attributed to the families of "Aïth Aïcha" tribe, and identity papers were handed to the villagers, allowing Mohamed Seghir Boushaki to continue his studies at Zawiyet Sidi Boumerdassi and Zawiyet Sidi Amar Cherif, and also at Tizi Ouzou in the "Zawiya of Sheikh Mohand Ameziane" where he became acquainted with many of the futur notables of the Great Kabylie. The deep recitations and exegesis received by Mohamed Seghir in the Tizi Ouzou Zawiyas, as well as the measured attendance of French settlers, allowed him to anchor in the Berber-Arab culture on the one hand, and to open up on the accomplished fact of the European presence in Kabylie of another coast, thus endowing him with the major trilingual asset for the pursuit of his political and social journey.
Work
After ten years of Islamic studies in Great Kabylie, Mohamed Seghir Boushaki settled in his village "Thala Oufella (Soumâa)" in 1891 and began to work in agriculture and commerce. He specializes in carob tree arboriculture by weaving a professional carob bean harvesting network for sale in the state and for processing into locust bean gum and carob bean molasses. He soon gained notable profits which allowed him to rent a house in the French colony of Ménerville (Thénia) bordering "Oued Arbia" in which he married in 1898 at the age of 29 with Fatma Cherifi, daughter of a rich family residing near Zawiyet Sidi Amar Cherif in Sidi Daoud along the Sebaou River. Mohamed Seghir assiduously transformed the mesh of collection of carob bean in Kabylie into a network of inter-village alliances by marriage in the former Algiers Department regrouping the current wilayas of Algiers, Boumerdes, Tizi Ouzou, Bouira, Blida and Tipaza. While remaining a fervent supporter of the Sufi Tariqa of the Rahmaniyya, he frequently frequented the two mosques of Sidi M'hamed Bou Qobrine in Bounouh (Boghni) and Hamma (Algiers), and as soon as he had his first boy in 1907, he named him "M'Hamed Boushaki" in memory of the kabyle theologian "M'Hamed Ben Abderrahmane El Azhari". His intense commercial activity allowed him to attend the weekly markets throughout Kabylie where trading transactions and marriage agreements were negotiated.
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