WINDHOEK
AfricAvenir presents the Namibian Premiere of Zabana! at the Goethe Institute this Saturday with the Algerian ambassador to Namibia, Sid Ali Abdelbari, as special guest.
Zabana! was Algeria’s official entry to the Academy Awards (Oscars) for Best Foreign Film in 2013. The liberation of the African continent, and founding of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU)/ African Union (AU) is unthinkable without the anti-colonial struggle of the Algerian people, the contribution of its martyrs like Zabana and its theoretical discourse effecting the whole continent (e.g.Fanon). In June 2016, sixty years ago, on the morning of June 19, 1956, thirty-year-old Ahmed Zabana, an Algerian militant associated with the Front de Libération Nationale (FLN), was executed in Algiers by the French colonial administration as an example and a warning to other freedom fighters. Dragged into the prison courtyard, Zabana had his hands tied and was forced to kneel and lodge his neck inside the guillotine. Twice, the blade stopped in mid-descent, until the third attempt took his life. Zabana’s execution – the first of many that day – galvanized the capital city and made Zabana into a national hero. Six months later, the Battle of Algiers erupted, and the country was launched onto the path that would eventually see Algeria throw off its colonial yoke.