Mouloud Feraoun

Mouloud Feraoun was a Kabyle teacher and writer, best known for his novel Le Fils du pauvre. He was born on 8 March 1913 in the village of Tizi Hibel, in the commune of Aït Mahmoud, near Tizi Ouzou. He died on 15 March 1962 at Château-Royal, in El Biar, in Algiers, 4 days before the ceasefire.

Feraoun's father was a farmer who also worked in France.

After the college in Tizi Ouzou, he trained at the École normale de Bouzaréah from 1932 to 1935. There he met the writer Emmanuel Roblès. From 1935 he taught in Kabylia, and in 1957 he became head of a school in Algiers.

Le Fils du pauvre appeared in 1950 at his own expense, and Seuil published a shorter version in 1954. La Terre et le Sang won the Prix populiste in 1953, and Les Chemins qui montent followed in 1957. He also exchanged letters with Albert Camus.

From October 1960 the writer was an inspector of the Centres sociaux éducatifs, founded by Germaine Tillion. 5 of his colleagues died with him.

His Journal, kept from 1955 to 1962, was published a few months after his death. Feraoun is buried in Tizi Hibel. On 15 March 2026 a conference in Algiers marked the 64th anniversary of his death.