Community Capacity Building

Algeria is rich. Its oil and natural gas reserves make it among the richest nations in Africa. However, the small villages of Kabylia show a different picture of the nation’s wealth. Many small villages in the Kabyle region of Algeria have been left to their own devices since the onset of the “black decade” (the Algerian term for the civil war of the 1990s). Unemployment is high (the national average is 30%, but in some areas, and among young people the rate is much higher, nearing 50%), and there is little integration into the infrastructure necessary for life in modern Algeria. The strength of the village throughout the history of Kabylia has been undermined, and continues to come under attack through its forgotten status vis-a-vis the Algerian state.

Kabylia is densely populated though it consists of few cities; many Kabyles live in tiny villages of closely knit families, and those who do live in the cities still feel a strong attachment to their ancestral village. The Algerian state has however put most of its energy into developing cities since much of the population has moved into urban areas since the 1980s. The trend toward urbanization is visible in Kabylia too, though not as strongly as in other parts of the country.

Marj Ouamane (which means field with water in it from the stream that runs through the fields that surround the village) is a typical lowland Kabyle village in the Soummam river valley. Marj Ouamane is nestled against the foot of the mountains and is surrounded by prime farmland. It is for this farmland, and the idyllic setting that the French chose the village as the site of a large winery during the colonial period (1830-1962). The inhabitants of the village no longer make wine, and the winery itself has fallen into ruin. As a result, there is little employment other than farming in the village. Most of the population works in the larger towns nearby or in Bejaia, the capital of Lower Kabylia and a major petroleum shipping port.

Some of the residents of Marj Ouamane; a group of 6 young men, working in Bejaia or studying at the University of Bejaia, started a local development association to pave the streets and extend the sewer system. These improvements are desperately needed as the only paved road is the highway that passes alongside the village, and the sewer system only serves about half of the buildings.