The Order of the Companions of OR Tambo in Gold

Awarded to Ahmed Ben  Bella   (1916 - ) for

his lifetime contribution to the struggle against colonialism in Algeria and the decolonisation of the African continent, and unwavering commitment to African development and peace

Profile of Ahmed Ben  Bella

Ahmed Ben Bella, a key figure in the Algerian independence movement, was born in 1916 in Maghnia near the Moroccan border. He served in the
French Army during the Second World War as a Master Sergeant and was awarded the Croix de Guerre and the M.daille Militaire.

Upon his return to Algeria in 1945, Ben Bella refused a commission in the French Army when he heard of the harsh French reprisals to the uprisings
at Setif. Instead, he joined the Parti Populaire Alg.rein and went on to lead the party's military wing, the Organization de l'Armee Secrete.

Ben Bella was imprisoned in 1950 following an attack on a post office near his hometown, but escaped two years later to live underground in North
Africa and Europe. As an organiser of the Comite Revolutionair d'Unite et d' Action, later the Part du Front de Lib.ration Nationale, Ben Bella was
a founder-member of the Organisation of African Unity and instrumental in the subsequent armed revolt which eventually led to independence from
French rule.

Following six years of French imprisonment, Ben Bella was elected the first President of independent Algeria in 1962 and applied a Socialist agenda
focused on agricultural reform and education. After Ben Bella was deposed in a coup three years later, he was placed under house arrest for 15 years.

Following his release, Ben Bella went into exile in Switzerland, from where he founded the Mouvement pour la Democratie en Algerie.

Ben Bella was finally able to return to Algeria in 1990.

Ben Bella’s revolutionary politics and his unwavering belief in the equality of humankind have made him a liberation icon in the Third World.