At the médersa, the lessons were given in the Arabic language. They were courses that made accessible the national history of Algeria and religion, but also grammar, mathematics, and so on.
Most astonishing of all — did you know that these schools were mixed at a time when the “schools of the Republic” were not?
Alongside our schooling in the schools of the French Republic, my father gave us this education, which is the source and the foundation of our reason for being. My generation, which lived through this two-sided childhood, can understand the purpose of the character we acquired, and which remains indelible all our lives, whatever we may do.
Algiers, 1956 Facing our house, my father founded a médersa with Cheikh Ali, the master of our religious education.
My father belonged to the “جمعيّة العلماء المسلمين الجزائريّين, Jam‘iyyat al-‘Ulamā’ al-Muslimīn al-Jazā’iriyyīn ”. It is an association religious Algerian created in 1933 during the French colonisation. My father was a disciple of Ben Badis, who was accompanied by Cheikh Taleb Ibrahimi and other cheikhs, in particular my father’s great friend Abbas Bencheikh el Hocine, known as Cheikh El Abbas, whom I knew when I was very young.
This photograph was taken in 1954, on the eve of the outbreak of the Algerian revolution. That is why it is the first I present to you in the account of my childhood education, which saw one of the first meetings of our independence held in our home.
I am there, head bowed, at the feet of my brothers Dahmane and Mokhtar. Our upbringing is founded on respect.
The Prairie, 1955 I am on the car my father had just bought; the first Prairie models that Renault had produced.
With her brothers, 1956 That is still me in the centre; in the middle with my two big brothers and their friends:
On the left of the photo, my brother crouching, Aziz; behind him, standing, his friend Larbi; on the right of the photo, crouching with his head bowed, is Malik Haroun, Aziz’s second friend; and behind Malik, my big brother Messaoud.
Colonne Voirol school, 1959 
Dadda Photograph on the left, taken in 1959; I am the eldest, standing behind Nacéra, my niece, the daughter of my elder brother Dahmane. Beside her, seated on a stone, is my youngest brother Mohamed, the last-born of the Bouzid family.