Ahmed Ben Bella Quotes

Author Image

Ahmed Ben Bella

Profession : Politician

Birth : December 25, 1918

Yes, I am Algerian of Moroccan origin through my parents, but all my life is Algeria. I was born there.

Ahmed Ben Bella

Peace does not include a vendetta; there will be neither winners nor losers.

Ahmed Ben Bella

The liberation movement which I led in Algeria, the organization that I created to fight the French army, was at first a small movement of nothing at all. We were but some tens of people throughout Algeria, a territory that is five times the size of France.

Ahmed Ben Bella

My life has been a bit special, this is true. I participated in the liberation of my country. I was one of the organisers of its struggle for liberation. I likewise actively participated in all the struggles for liberation.

Ahmed Ben Bella

In the past, we spoke of poverty, misery only in the south. Now there is a lot of misery, a lot of bad that creates victims in the north as well. This has become manifest: the global system was not made to serve the good of all, but to serve multinational companies.

Ahmed Ben Bella

Colonialism is an idea born in the West that drives Western countries - like France, Italy, Belgium, Great Britain - to occupy countries outside of Europe.

Ahmed Ben Bella

Algeria is not breaking up.

Ahmed Ben Bella

I can say now: all the combatants who participated in the fight for freedom in South America came to Algeria; it's from there that all those who fought left. We trained them, we arranged for the weapons to reach them, we created networks.

Ahmed Ben Bella

Algeria was therefore only the beginning of something that was in development: this is why I say that it's the global capitalist system that finally reacted against us.

Ahmed Ben Bella

The French colonisation of Algeria lasted a long time: 132 years.

Ahmed Ben Bella

I'm optimistic because I'm pragmatic: Neither of the two sides, the military government nor the Islamic front, is capable of winning. If they continue to fight, they will both bleed to death.

Ahmed Ben Bella

Colonialism is known in its primitive form, that is to say, by the permanent settling of repressive foreign powers, with an army, services, policies. This phase has known cruel colonial occupations which have lasted 300 years in Indonesia.

Ahmed Ben Bella

Yes, my life is a life of combat; I can say that this has never stopped for a single instant. It is a combat that started for me at the age of 16. I'm 90 years old now, and my motivation hasn't changed; it's the same fervour that drives me.

Ahmed Ben Bella

When I was engaged in the struggle for my country, I was very young. My horizons were open.

Ahmed Ben Bella

I am a Muslim Arab, in my actions oriented very to the left, in my convictions.

Ahmed Ben Bella

I accommodated practically all of the liberation movements, including those of Latin America.

Ahmed Ben Bella

I am the son of poor peasants who came at a very young age to live in Algeria. I only recently saw the place where they were born, near the city of Marrakech.

Ahmed Ben Bella

When someone came to ask us for help, it was sacred. We did not even think twice. We helped them, even if we had only meagre means; we offered them arms, a little bit of money, and in occasion, men.

Ahmed Ben Bella

Everywhere that the struggle for national freedom has triumphed, once the authorities agreed, there were military coups d'etat that overthrew their leaders. That is the result time and time again.

Ahmed Ben Bella

It is obvious that taking the country from a state of war to being a lawful state won't be easy.

Ahmed Ben Bella