This week, Algeria lost one of its most insightful and courageous historians: Mohamed Harbi, who died on January 1, 2026, in Paris at the age of 92.
A former activist in the Revolution, an insider witness, and later a critical historian, Harbi chose the most difficult path: to think about Algerian history without complacency, without official myths, without hatred or idolatry.
Mohamed Harbi neither sanctified the actors of the Revolution nor demonised its adversaries. He rigorously reminded us that the struggle for independence did not absolve us of political responsibility or historical truth. His work remains an essential reference for understanding the divisions, silences, and deviations of post-independence Algeria.
His passing reminds us of one es
