The first Algerian to obtain a baccalaureate degree
The first Algerian to obtain a baccalaureate degree in 1874
Muhammad ibn Rahal al-Nedroumi of Algeria. He was born in May 1856 from a family that used to occupy positions of judges and teachers, as his father was a judge. He joined the French school after memorizing the entire Qur’an, then he joined the Imperial High School in the capital. Where he had the honor of succeeding in the baccalaureate degree as the first young Algerian in the year 1874 AD and he was 18 years old.«His efforts and the issues he worked on and fought for»
Defending and supporting the Islamic judiciary and demanding education reform and its generalization among Algerians, and teaching Arabic to Algerians. He also strongly opposed the compulsory conscription law and refused naturalization. He called for expanding the presence of Algerians in parliamentary assemblies.
Si Muhammed bin Rahal Al-Nedroumi Al-Tlemsani (1856-1928), who put his fingerprints on the course of the Algerian political and cultural movement in the late nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century. Many aspects, which began to emerge since he assumed the position of Qaid over the city of Nedroma in 1878.
His dual Arab and French culture had an effective influence on his positions, especially those related to the policy of integration and education, which he expressed in official meetings and petitions submitted to the French administration, whether before the general government in Algeria or before the French government in Paris, in addition to the electoral council halls as he was a financial commissioner. In the financial committees as well as a general advisor in the General Council of Oran, without forgetting his works and writings, whether published or unpublished, which were a translation of his own ideology. An educated man like Muhammad bin Rahal; He bewildered the French administration as he bewildered the Algerians themselves. He called for French education and at the same time demanded Arab education. He welcomed the policy of integration and the achievement of equality between the Algerian and the French, but he refused total assimilation into French culture. Therefore, we do not make a mistake if we make Si M’hamed Ben Rahal in the ranks of the educated elite. French culture on the one hand and on the side of conservatives with an Arab culture on the other. In any case, we will focus in this study on four basic positions that mixed politics and culture, and marked the struggle of Si Muhammad bin Rahal, namely:
1- Ibn Rahal's position on the policy of integration , which is the ground on which the French administration relied to achieve control Nedruma in Tlemcen, and these two cities were more stringent and denounced compulsory conscription, and witnessed the largest emigration and exodus of Algerians in 1911 towards Arab countries to escape conscription.
3- His position on parliamentary representation, as the main demand that he focused on as the Algerian elite focused on in the framework of obtaining political rights.
4- Si Muhammed bin Rahal and the issue of educating the Algerians: This is considered one of the most important reformist cultural stances of Ibn Rahal, as evidenced by the significant number of studies prepared by Muhammed bin Rahal on this particular subject, which he published in the Archaeological and Geographical Journal of the Prefecture of Oran between 1887-1892, of which he was a member. active in it.
The interventions and positions of Si M'hamed Ben Rahal remain innumerable and did not touch every small and large in the life of the Algerian individual at that time, and it was a base from which he launched his successor in the struggle.
This was the result of what we will meet and present, with God's will and satisfaction, about this able Algerian personality
Sources :
An article by Hamza Haddad at aljazair.info
Book: Si Mohamed Ben Rahal, Dean of Algerian Youth, by Dr. Sabrina El Waer.