Welcome to the Official Site of

Farida Sellal

In the midst of the Coronavirus fight and far from my country, forced into exile, I decided to design this site that brings the truth about Farida SELLAL.

With this Corona scourge that has affected all humanity, we do not know what our future,
yours, mine and that of the whole earth might hold.

All Men, whether in East or West, North or South, whether their skin is yellow, black or
white, the Corona shows us the true understanding of our existence on earth that the only truth in the world is the one in us.

Whatever what I am … or what I declare to you while writing, is not important, the essential is the ultimate truth which is in us. The knowledge that I have acquired, and which is part of me, this knowledge is my main wealth, the one that will never leave me is the one that I want to share with you.

You will find my biography with my background and especially what leads me to establish peace of mind and tranquillity. It was the desert that taught me to join this force, the one that is in us. When I was lost in Timissao at the bottom of the Algerian desert, I was alone for three days and three nights. I was only 28 years old, today I am 68 … It took me all these years to understand.

Yes, I finally understood. Today the Corona gives a lesson to the whole world: Peace in the world will only come with oneself peace. Peace comes only with truth. Truth is established in itself, when it becomes truth as a whole and not as an entity.

That is why, I present myself as a desert woman, through my experience, my writings, my conferences and my cultural commitment with the association “Save the Imzad” which I have chaired since 2003.

Thank you to all the people who do honour me by appreciating the information that I provide on this site. I have a special thought for all those who will leave me their impression because I am and will always be listening to you.

Farida SELLAL

“THE MOST BEAUTIFUL GIFT THAT MY HUSBAND HAS MADE TO ME DURING 46 YEARS OF MARRIAGE“

June 19, 1978, the late President Houari Boumédienne was supposed to inaugurate the trans-Saharan Algiers-Tamanrasset. It was then that my husband was called to join Tamanrasset as Chief of Daïra (District Officer). I was pregnant with our first child. This transfer turned our whole existence upside down. I was shocked, but thanks to my mother’s wisdom I changed my mind. She told me: “Heaven is in the land of your country, my daughter, join your husband, you will find the greatest happiness“. This is how I joined the desert. “Assouf N’Ténéré”; I wrote it as a hymn to our Sahara and in tribute to my parents, to the people of the desert and to this desert that I knew thanks to my husband. “Assouf” outlines this extreme situation where melancholy, joy and sadness twist toghether. Through this book and these photographs, I filled the void he left in me. A void yet brimming with happiness. This is Assouf, this inexpressible emotion that perhaps will be able to make the images still vivid in my memory. My husband followed my work from afar and discreetly. One day, he leaving for a mission, he left this preface on my desk. It was his greatest gift.

Preface by Abdelmalek Sellal ASSOUF N’Ténéré (Published with Casbah Editions - 2015)

I am concerned that I cannot find the right words to introduce this book, which is a mirror of a majestic land surrounded by history.

This exercise is for me doubly hard. First of all, the reservation that I have imposed on myself as a servant of the State for years, both in deeds and in words, is not compatible with the necessary developments of a text of which Marville said: “The Italians call the preface ” salsa del libro ”: the sauce of the book. If it is well seasoned, it serves to give the appetite, and make you ready to devour the book. “

Second, the author has been my wife and life partner for forty years. There is a real risk that I will drift towards the preface to our life as a couple instead of giving an objective point of view of the work she is offering to readers.

So should I, before writing the following lines, warn of an assumed subjectivity and apologize for a discretion that has become second nature to me?

Nevertheless, I would like to tell you the joy that is mine in remembering these years of simple and united happiness. No, this is not nostalgia but, quite simply, the reminiscence of moments spent in a distant land called the Sahara, and more precisely the Hoggar.

It is indisputable that the end of the seventies constituted for the author and myself the starting point of an intellectual enrichment and a knowledge flowering acquired by the grace of a nature made of mysticism and melancholy .

Having left Algiers in 1978, the white, the luminous, the lukewarm, the vibrant, the imperial, for an unknown region, seemingly inhospitable, seemed like a challenge, an adventure.

An inner force had decided our destiny. I had deliberately decided to change the course and join my new function as chief of daïra (District Officer) in Tamanrasset to fulfil my conscience and love duty towards the homeland.

Deep inside my heart, it was also a questioning of an unfair world, where humanism was disappearing.