The Arabs arrived in Algeria and settled in the towns and cities mainly in the northern parts of the country, since 680AD, seeing many convert to Islam. Algerian Arabs speak an Algerian dialect of Arabic.
In history they were surrounded often by the Berber tribes who have traditionally resisted full assimilation into Arab culture. Dominance and respect have been given to the Arab influence, especially because they carry the revered language of Islam, and the Arabs have inter-married with some of the Berbers, having a great influence on developing Algerian society.
Civil unrest in recent history has somewhat isolated Algeria from contact with the outside world. However, in this time there has been a great number of people coming to Christ. Many of those who have come to know Jesus have a Berber heritage, but also a number of Arabs are finding new life in Jesus Christ. There is a growing disillusionment due to the extremes of some Islamic groups, and a spiritual hunger is growing in many lives. Many are still without any Christian witness in their communities and in reality, vast numbers of Algerian Arabs have yet to hear about Jesus Christ.
Algerian Arabs live mostly in Algeria, although a large number, possibly over a million, live in France. Most of the Algerian Arabs are city dwellers, and have lived an urban life-style for centuries. There are many large cities, especially across northern Algeria, with more than 500,000 people. There are contrasts between the modern and the tradtional amongst the Algerian Arabs.
There are a growing number of Christian believers amongst the Algerian Arabs, though they are not as numerous as those from the Kabyle Berber neighbours. Many have come to know the Lord and the church has grown without or with little help from outside. Kabyle and Arab believers fellowship together. Many of these believers are young in their faith, and are being encouraged. There are vast communities that do not have a witnessing community of Christians in their reach yet.
Identity/Location
People Name: Jazairi
Primary Language: Algerian Colloquial Arabic
Ethnologue Code: ARQ
Other Names: Algerian Arab
Dialects: Slight variations in different regions
Population
Total People: 27 million (1999)
Urban Percent: 60% (1996)
In this Country: 25 million (1999)
Adult literacy: 61.5% (1995)
Other countries: France 2-3 million (year); Belgium 11,000 (1985)
General Description
The Algerian Arabs are a mixture of those descended from Arab conquerors, and others who have intermarried with them through the centuries. Olive coloured skin, dark hair, brown eyes, average height is predominant. They are distinguished by having Algerian Colloquial Arabic as the language spoken at home and in social contact.
Language/Literacy Information
Adult literacy: 58.4% (1990)
Primary language: Arabic (colloquial, which is not taught for reading and writing) 100% speakers
Second language: Modern Literary Arabic is used in schools
Third language: French 60% speakers
Fourth language: English 20% speakers
Economics
GNP per capita: US$ 1,851 (1992)
Occupations: Agriculture 22% of workforce, industry and commerce 32% , services and government 33%,
Income sources: Hydrocarbons (provide 98% of export revenues), particularly light crude oil and natural gas.
Products: Agriculture: cereals, grapes, olives, citrus, fruits, vegetables, sugar beets, dates, and tobacco, sheep cattle.
Manufacturing: Iron, heavy machinery, consumer goods. Mining: minerals, like mercury, phosphate, iron ore.
Handcrafts: Carpets, brass, ceramics, etc.
Trade Partners: Exports: France, Germany, Spain. Imports: EU, Canada, USA. Import of milk, meat, vegetable oils, animal feed, rice, tobacco, sugar, coffee, tea, spices.
Recreation: Drinking tea, socialising, watching or playing soccer (for men), watching television.
Art forms: Music is probably what young people are most interested in: classical (andulou) or modern (chaabi, and raï). Rural art consists of weaving, jewelry and pottery. Urban art: ceramics, enamel, woodwork, brass. Both make carpets in different designs.
Festivals: Common Muslim feasts and holy-days. Festivals in several locations, once a year.
Unemployment: 30% (1999)
Other: The country’s economic and social development was threatened by two decades of near explosive demographic growth. Overpopulation caused a mass migration to cities and towns, leading to a desperate shortage of urban housing, soaring imports of food, overburdened educational facilities, and an even more expensive public health care system.
Modernisation/Utilities: During the 1980s the government allocated shares to various sectors, reflecting a continuity in its policies of building a more diversified economy for the 1990s. In the early 1980s the government carried out various measures to increase the size of the private sector and to facilitate its operations. Incrreasing privatisation of what formerly were government run businesses is taking place.
GNP per capita: $1570 (1992)
Minimum wages: 5,000 legal minimum wage (US$132 - Reuters 1999)
Living Conditions/Community Development Status
Basic diet: Bread, vegetables, cous cous.
Food: Cereals, grapes, olives, fruits, vegetables, sugar beets, dates. Prices went up 50% in 1990, living is getting more difficult.
Urbanisation: 52%
Clothing: Traditional dress for the women: the long white haïk, that covers everything. Under this they wear the saroual, short wide trousers. Veiling is less common in rural areas than in urban localities. Many, especially young women, have been wearing western style clothes, but influenced or pressurized by the fundamentalists, they are starting to wear the long tunic with long sleeves, and white scarf (hijeb). Most of the men wear western style clothes, sometimes with a burnous over it. Many men also wear the turban.
Health care: National health plan provides free hospitalisation, medicine and outpatient care.
Water supplies: (Domestic/Agricultural): Irregular rainfall has long been a threat to agriculture and has limited hydro-electric schemes.
Other: There is a social welfare system, providing health insurance, old-age pensions, and family allowances.
Society
Family structures: Tradition-orients life around the family unit. The senior male family member may exercise authority, influencing the lives of the family members. Since independence there has been a trend toward smaller family units consisting only of the nuclear family (one couple and their unmarried children). The younger and better educated prefer to run their lives independently of the will and supervision of others. Familial ties of loyalty and respect are not in question, although they tend to loosen. It is rather a matter of rearranging family relationships with respect to living space and decision-making. The mother may have an important role in finding a bride for her son. The honour of the family depends largely on the conduct of its members. The women are expected to be decorous, modest and circumspect. In the countryside they will often take part in heavy work. The status of women especially those who were educated and living in urban areas has improved. The family code (1984) regulates marriage and the family, it grants some legal protection to women. Polygamy is still permitted (but rare).
Neighbour relations: Urban Arabs are more apt to identify with the Algerian nation, whereas the ethnic loyalties of the remote rural and nomadic Arabs are likely to be limited to the tribe. After independence from France there has been a strong Arabisation, the major emphasis being on the language. The Kabyle have opposed this strongly, so the relationship with the Kabyle has always been tense.
Rule/Authority/Selection: After independence the government was dedicated to the creation of an Islamic (egalitarian) socialism. Presently Algeria is moving towards more democracy, but this was stopped between two rounds of elections at the end of 1991, when the militant Islamic parties were about to win a majority of the votes.
Social habits: Mostly the women will socialise at parties or by visiting one another. Men seem to be meeting in cafés drinking mint tea, or in the streets. Educated and uneducated people seem to mix with their own groups in society.
Cultural Change: ( ) Static (X) Slow ( ) Medium ( ) Rapid
Self Image: ( ) Threatened (X) Depressed (X) Prestigious/Proud
Judicial system/Trial punishment: Legal system inherited from France being superseded by Algerian civil, criminal and family codes. There is a Supreme Court, numerous provincial courts and lower tribunals. Also there are special courts for security cases and charges of official corruption.
Crisis/Conflicts - History/Status: Independence from France July 5, 1962
Foreign Relations: Part of the Maghrab partnership, with Morocco, Tunisia, Libya and Mauritania. The relationship with Morocco has been sensitive at times, because of Algeria’s support of the Polisario.
Political situation: Has been unstable, with bombings, and massacre reports continuing for several years.
Media (Radio/TV/Newspapers/Films/Videos/Recordings): Not much is available in the Algerian Arabic language, though, there are published materials in Modern Standard Arabic.
Press: Two newspapers in standard Arabic, two in French, and there are several weekly or monthly magazines.
Radio: In Arabic or French (channel 3)
Television: One channel, another one coming in the future. Numerous people have access to satellite television as well as the national television station.
Children/Youth
Population under 15 years: 43.1% (1993)
Education/Type of Schooling: Free public education through university level. Attendance compulsory in theory for nine years on primary and intermediate levels. Attendance is higher among males, students from urban centers and the north, than it is among female, rural or southern students. Attendance in urban centers approaches 95% and in rural areas 67% (elementary school). It is mainly in Standard Arabic, French is taught as a foreign language. Major universities in Algiers, Oran, Constantine and Annaba. Each year 7,000 students are sent overseas. Most of them study in France, or Western Europe, others in Eastern Europe, or the USA. 370,000 university students (1998/ Reuters)
Labour/Tasks: Girls are required to help with the running of the household and in rural areas the boys will also help with livestock and in the fields.
Problems (Morality/Family/Insurrections/Etc.): In the 1980s a large proportion of Algerian youth were idle and alienated because of high rates of unemployment, inadequate education, and confused models of cultural behaviour. Many were clearly despondent over their dim prospects for a life of well-being and social achievement commensurate with their aspirations, and they constituted a source of potential trouble and turmoil.
Greatest needs: Because the population is overwhelmingly young, the state faces the task of training and employing huge numbers of young people. It is estimated that over 40% of the young people are unemployed.
Other: After having ignored the demographic situation, the government in the early 1980s sought to gain control of the problem through family planning program acceptable to the Islamic clerical establishment and the society at large. Emotional scars from the civil unrest in the 90s have influenced many families in Algeria.
Religion
99.99% Muslim
Religious practices/ceremonies: General Muslim holidays and practices
Redemptive Analogies/Bridges: Analogies common to Islam.
Spiritual Climate/Openness: Islam is the state religion, is not officially allowed to convert allegiance.
History of Christian Presence Amongst This People Group
In the first centuries AD there was a North African church, where some of our well known church fathers came from. Missions started again around 1880 with the Algiers Mission Band and North Africa Mission.
Current Church Development
The Government is opposed to missions. Evangelism is illegal, and the church is underground. Some Arabs go to French speaking Catholic and Protestant churches.
Christian (All - #): 0.001% <1,000
Scriptures available: Bible in Standard Arabic and French for the literate. Portions in Algerian Arabic on audio and video cassettes.
Other Literary Resources: No
Christian Radio: TWR, IBRA, ELWA and others.
Videos: The Jesus film (1999-2000)
Satellite Media: This is a growing means of communication in this area of this world.
Response to Christians: Open to dialogue about spiritual issues. Many associate Christian with Europe and other ‘Western’ countries, which are perceived to have loose morals.
Receptivity: Varying responses. Receptivity is growing.
Current Needs
Income generating projects, proving employment, especially for the young people. As they are importing a lot of their food, it might be necessary to do some agricultural development work. Many people, especially in the bidonvilles, (poorer neighbourhoods) have basic needs: water, sewage, adequate housing, medical help, employment.
Statistics