casbah - TZ.PLANET

It has been 22 years since the 23rd of February was declared National Day of the Casbah by Sherif Rahmani, then at the head of the ephemeral Governorate of Algiers. Each year, it is celebrated, mainly in Algiers, in a generally discreet, if not confidential, way often at the initiative of the few associations which dedicate themselves to this cause. Because The Casbah has become a cause. Lost for many who despair of seeing her relive after so many mistakes, false promises and successive plans whose late launches seem to have no other purpose than to decree them obsolete to adopt new ones.

And the years pass, punctuated by this date where nostalgic lamentations and wishful thinking come to accompany the cultural activities of circumstance. And every year, the collapse of houses, always faster than the restorations, come to increase the decrepitude of the site, digging caries in this urban dentition, while some old people come to mourn the lost immaculate whiteness by recounting the forgotten rites of liming of the facades .

This trivialization of the National Casbah Day, which has taken on the appearance of an episodic requiem, has added to the ordinary indifference that dominates it. Many speeches, statements and sighs. Few concrete actions although efforts were provided but without clarity and great effects. In the fog of this race against time, we even forgot why it was February 23rd that was chosen. The only date that we have found is that of February 23, 1957, the day of the arrest in Algiers Larbi Ben M'hidi, leader of the war of national liberation (?).

Celebrity

The Casbah remains a national and international celebrity, even if the historical diva has worsened, more under the effect of neglect than of old age, the whole world offering examples of older vestiges but doing well by the effort of the nations that shelter them. In 1992, at the time of the classification of La Casbah to the patrimony of the humanity, it is certain that its formidable notoriety played for her, in addition to the concrete arguments which made it eligible for this prestigious statute. For centuries, it has sparked so many fantasies, especially but not exclusively from the Race period.