Born in 1927 in the area of Setif, at Kerata, Bachir Boumaza joined the fight for an independent Algeria in 1945.

Arrested on the first day of the 1954 insurrection, he succeed, a few years later, in escaping from prison, and played a major role in the foundation of the FLN in France up until his arrest in 1958. While imprisoned in Fresnes, he wrote “La Gangrène” (Gangrene), a book about the torture that took place on French territory during the Algerian war. On October 17, 1961, he escaped from prison, on the same day as the famous riots in Paris. Minister under Ben Bella, Boumaza was forced into exile when Boumediene came to power. He rejoined his friend François Genoud in Switzerland and continued the anti-colonialist struggle, fighting for the Palestinian cause alongside Haddad. He also acted as intermediary between Waddi Haddad (PFLP) and Abou Jihad (Arafat’s Fatah), forged closer ties with the Irish and ironed out ideological differences with the Marxist Georges Habbache (cf. “L’Extremiste“ by Pierre Pean).

In 1990, he created the “8th of May 1945 Foundation“ which fights for the requalifying of the Sétif massacres as ‘crimes against humanity’ so that they become imprescriptible. Today, he maintains office as a senator.