إسهامات جمال قنان في الثورة التحريرية من خلال دوره في قاعدة تونس 1955-1957

Djamel Guennane's contributions to the liberation revolution through his role in the base of Tunisia 1955-1957

Abstract

Djamel Guennane is “one of the pillars of the Algerian historical school after the independence”. This phrase is famous among many researchers and those interested in the historical field, but was Djamel Guennane's role limited to his contribution to laying the first building block for the establishment of an Algerian historical school with a group of researchers after independence, or did he have contributions before and after independence, and this is what this article will try to dive into. The role of Djamel Guennane, a defender and a fighter during the Liberation Revolution, was an effective role that was almost forgotten or unknown and did not receive the most attention and research by scholars. This is particularly due to the fact that Djamel Guennane did not leave written traces about his struggle and djihad during the revolution and did not address it in his writings except in some recorded oral testimonies. Therefore, this article will address the issue of the role of Djamel Guennane in laying the foundations of the Algerian Revolution in Tunisia during the first phase through his role in framing Algerian students in Tunisia, as well as his contribution to the Algerian community in terms of organizing, framing and collecting donations for the Algerian Revolution. This article will also address an important issue, namely the issue of coordination between the external delegation (Ben Bella) and the base in Tunis led by Abdelhai El Said, in addition to his contribution in the issue of providing weapons and introducing them to the interior states. Through our study of this personality, we mainly rely on oral testimony in addition to personal memoirs and studies. We have divided our research into two parts. The first one studies the upbringing and educational path of Djamel Guennane in both Algeria and Tunisia, and the second part addresses the role of Djamel Guennane during the Revolution in the Base of Unit (1955-1957). After studying the contributions of Djamel Guennane during the Liberation Revolution, we reached several conclusions among which are the following:  Djamel Guennane is considered as one of the militants who laid the first foundations of the Base of Tunis. He was able to unite the Algerian community in Tunisia by supporting the revolution and providing hiding places, centers and buildings for the revolutionaries in addition to providing supplies and funding for the benefit of their compatriots at home. His activity within the Algerian students was crowned by enticing them to the revolution and recruiting many of them for the Revolution to be future administrators of the National Liberation Front and the National Liberation Army, with regard to armament. He was able, at the critical moments of the revolution's loss of communication, to succeed in linking coordination and communication between Tunisia and the eastern regions of the Algerian Revolution and between both the Tunis base and the foreign delegation, especially Ahmed Ben Bella. He was also characterized as a committed, patriotic and sincere fighter who served his country during the revolution and after independence, and contributed after independence in building independent Algeria during the rule of Ahmed Ben Bella and then dedicated himself to studying and teaching in Algerian universities.