Ali ou AddaPortrait not documentedNo authenticated image of this person is known from the sources consulted.

Ali ou Adda

Ait Atta intermediary in the negotiations of 24-25 March 1933.

Born: unknown
Died: unknown
Aït Atta
Affiliation: “Notable of the Attaoui of the R'teb” (Ait Atta of the Rteb), allied with the Protectorate (Saulay).
Spellings: Ali ou Adda

Biography

According to Saulay, Ali ou Adda accompanied the previous day's delegates and “took charge of the talks” on 24 March; he persuaded Commandant Boyé to accept the agreement and brought the jemaa of the Bou Gafer back to the table. Saulay also attributes to him a cynical calculation: herders whose flocks had been decimated would settle and the block of fighters would dissolve of itself, words reported by a French source fifty years later.

Assisted translation, not validated

Sources — 1 sources cited · 1 independent documentary line(s)

Saulay, 1983 — p. 61-62Full text consulted · Colonial military

Related events

21 March 1933 – 24 March 1933Confirmed by a verified source
Four days of talks between the lines
After an hour of “oratorical jousting” on 21 March, the Ait Aïssa ou Brahim agree to talk; on the 24th, the jemaa led by Assou Oubasslam declares: “We are still at war and we are not ‘Maghzen’”, and states its conditions (Saulay).
⌖ Bou Gafer massif (combat area)
On the 23rd a local truce allows about fifteen delegates to come down; Assou, who had come with them, left on seeing that the artillery was still firing. On the 24th he asked to leave the Bou Gafer with the flocks and to return freely, weapons in hand, to the transhumance routes. When Commandant Boyé replied that they would be treated like the fractions already rallied, the jemaa dispersed in protest; the intermediary Ali ou Adda and Lieutenant Lecomte finally obtained an agreement in principle. Saulay also reports that a prophecy had led the Ait Aïssa ou Brahim to elect as war chief a five-year-old child of the Ou Ghezis clan, the only survivor of his line.
On the 23rd a local truce allows about fifteen delegates to come down; Assou, who had come with them, left on seeing that the artillery was still firing. On the 24th he asked to leave the Bou Gafer with the flocks and to return freely, weapons in hand, to the transhumance routes. When Commandant Boyé replied that they would be treated like the fractions already rallied, the jemaa dispersed in protest; the intermediary Ali ou Adda and Lieutenant Lecomte finally obtained an agreement in principle. Saulay also reports that a prophecy had led the Ait Aïssa ou Brahim to elect as war chief a five-year-old child of the Ou Ghezis clan, the only survivor of his line.
Source pagesSaulay, 1983, p. 61 Saulay, 1983, p. 61
Sources — 1 sources cited · 1 independent documentary line(s)
Saulay, 1983 — p. 61-62, n. 2-3Full text consulted · Colonial military

Source pages

ConfirmsShort quotationSaulay, 1983, p. 61
On 24 March, the jemaa led by Assou refuses to be treated like the fractions already rallied; according to note 2, Assou asks to leave Bou Gafer with weapons and herds and freely return to the transhumance routes.
« « Nous sommes toujours en guerre, disent-ils et nous ne sommes pas « Maghzen » ». Ils posent leurs conditions de soumission, qui paraissent inacceptables au commandant Boyé. »
Account by a former goum officer, published in 1983 in the bulletin of a veterans' association of the Native Affairs service and based on French operation reports. The vocabulary (“submission”, “insurgents”) is the source's.
Document :
La Koumia. Bulletin de liaison, n° 88 · Periodical issue
Source :
Saulay, 1983
printed page
printed page 61 · PDF page 65
Status
Quotation checked on the page image · 2026-11-07
SHA-256 fingerprint of the private capture :
f5a290a514750184b03d4a1c4c5f94f8804dc547b42cfed7a8ecd9f1bfa5d98b
Reproduction of the page not authorised: reference and short quotation only. The capture stays in the project's private archive.
Linked to21 March 1933 – 24 March 1933 — Four days of talks between the lines 24 March 1933 — Negotiations between the jemaa and the officers Assou Oubasslam Ali ou Adda

Biography

Related events

Four days of talks between the lines

Source pages

On 24 March, the jemaa led by Assou refuses to be treated like the fractions already rallied; according to note 2, Assou asks to leave Bou Gafer with weapons and herds and freely return to the transhumance routes.