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PERTH, THURSDAY, APRIL 16, 1963.
SEVENTIETH TRAR.
Rative Illanpower in Itorth African Campaign High Quality Morale, Courage and Endurance in Various Desert Tribes The writer of the following article in the New York "Commonweal," J. Paar Cabrera, is a specialist in military matters and has had considerable firsthand experience with various European soldiers. He gives an interesting picture of the French fighting manpower in Northern and Western Africa, a descriptive survey which should be of especial interest at the present time.
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*Curse of Usury, Family Feuds and Other Customs
The territories of Northern and West- hopelessly stacked against them. From ern French Africa are inhabited by such a funk they may be snapped by officers able to crack jokes in crucial some 31,000,000 natives, many of them warlike. Moreover, the conscription moments, or by officers who take long system has been in vigour since before chances when the going is particularly 13erher-Semitic stock, Berbers and sons tough. the first World War in Algeria, Tunisia, of white colonists. and Senegal. As potential effectives High Quality Morale. The Algerian Arabs sifted with trethree the are there against the Axis of worship is a mendous endurance, can cover marches form Senegalese The hundred -odd thousand soldiers-active of Mohammedanism and idolof fifty or sixty miles with fully loadduty and first-line reserves-of the mixture atry. It has been of real assistance ed packs, resting a few minutes every French Army in Northern and West- ,to the Thus colonial leaders. couple of hours or so, and go into ern Africa and an additional six hun- lateFrench Marshal Lyautey could send Sene- battle immediately after, fresh as daisdred thousand natives of military age However, although not easily galese tirailleurs against the worst op- ies. with training. confident that they would frightened, they prefer to avoid death The first units of Senegalese "tirail- position through, because Senegalese and wounds if they can help it. Consmash leurs" were mustered, drilled and led in held that he had the "Bar- sequently they need firm supervision combat by officers of the Colonial in- superstition or gift of invulnerability and suc- and prodding under fire. fantry, which was, in its turn, a branch aja," The late General Mangin could cess. The Tunisian Arabs have, to a minor Hence the of the French Marines. do what he wanted with Senegalese extent, all the good qualities of the Senegalese tirailleurs are still under that belief their of because Arabs, all their faults and are, tirailleurs Algerian the jurisdiction of the French Navy had the power of putting the evil besides, inordinately lazy. They reDepartment. Tradition being strictly he eye on whoever met his displeasure. spond, however, to enlightened action respected in the French military sysBut, in many instances, sheer enthu- of command. tem, this may explain why the prevalenabled has not superstition and The Algerian Berbers-those from siasm ently Senegalese tirailleur garrison of the Senegalese tirailleurs to turn ap- Kabylia make steady, especially Dakar resisted General de Gaulle, was parent defeat into victory. the In brave and reliable soldiers. They are not the object of an appeal by General war of the Riff some badly beaten exceptionally hard-working and tough Giraud, and obeyed the order to line Senegalese battalions rallied and seiz- because of the strenuous run of life of up behind the American armed forces ed the enemy position in a surge of their communities. Kabyles are mostin the service of the Allied cause sent martial spirit when their officers sud- ly light-complexioned-many of them to them by Admiral Darlan-with intoned their corps anthem, have blue or grey eyes, and light brown wholehearted enthusiasm because Am- denly 1. They are strong which is that of the old Infanterie de reddish beards. erica is loved and respected in French Marine, and which does not mention or and tireless workers, who exploit their Africa. Senegalese at all. lands to the limit and live in houses The Senegalese soldiers proper belong the an anthem, to a pleasant but of sun -hardened clay with an appeargenerally to the Auloff and Sereres notSuch with the ance of soft dough. begins tune, martial tribes. They are tall and muscular words: "Pour faire un soldat de marIn Kabylia hard wood is scarce, and Negroes who think that they are as Consequently ine it faut avoir dans sa poitrine l'ame white ants abundant. good as any white man, and better or, soldat," d'un celle et matelot instead of chairs. tables and beds, the than most. They have a disconcert- d'un one with infantryman equipped are a marine houses become to Kabylian ing habit of criticising and answering must have in his breast the soul of a slabs of hardened clay jutting back roughly, but they are convinced sailor and that of a soldier, etc. Actu- big the foot of each wall which have that they are Frenchmen first and ally the Senegalese tirailleurs include from eerie appearance of sarcophagi. The an unto faithful are and next, Senegalese Negro levies from South-eastern Mau- Kabylian house supplies-enormous death to their officers in war. ritania, the Upper Volta, the basin of clay jars wherein are stored grains, Senegalese are not as enduring as AlNiger River, etc. dried fruit or olive oil, the pottery, the gerians or as fearless as Moroccans. the wick lamps-are shaped like the doThey are excellent hand-grenade throwThe Hardy Arab. mestic implements used along the ers, poor marksmen with rifles, run-ofNumerically superior to the Sene- shores of the Mediterranean Sea long the-mill machine gunners. Very danclasses before Rome was built. gerous for the enemy when the com- galese are the regular troops, trained men bat runs in their favour, they rally of reservists andofpartially The Curse of Usury. Tunisia, and Algeria easily after a minor setback, but may of military age and Before the present war it was cusbecome dispirited and passive if they who are mostly so-called Sabir Ksour-or town and village-Arabi of tomary for Kabylian young men to go become convinced that the odds are
of Moroccan Fighters
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tened under their gandourahs or tunics. They lend by the week-the loan not repaid on the appointed day becomes double, after an additional week qualruple-and so on. There have been cases when an original loan of ten francs has eventually placed in the power of the usurer the house, the land and the livestock of the debtor. The French efforts to eliminate the evil of usury in Kabylia have made little headway against the ingrained power of age-old custom and the Kabylia secretiveness.
The Kabyles know how to manufacture crude rifles and black gunpowder. Therefore the practice of the Baroud cannot be eradicated among them. The Baroud, meaning literally powder, is a feud into which are dragged the male relations and friends of the contending parties. Whenever the interfere French authorities don't quickly, it degenerates into pitched battles with plenty of casualties. These are the reasons proving that. the Kabyle mental quotient is inferior to the Kabyle stamina-which explains why military duty and even war are easier on Kabyles than their strenuous tribal way of living. Usury and the Baroud are the curses of Kabylia.
Fighting is a Pleasure. The six million inhabitants of Morunder the nominal rule of the are occo Sultan, and the effective one of the local French administration which has mustered several battalions of Moroccan tirailleurs, Moroccan artillery, (Continued on Back Cover.)
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to work as labourers and longshoremen in France during the winter. Back in Kabylia in the spring with their hoarded savings they often squandered them in prolonged banqueting or gambling. Kabylian moneylenders look like beggars, and carry often millions of francs in currency in their money belts fas-
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