Abdelkader Hadj Ali

Abdelkader Hadj Ali (1883–1957) was a Franco-Algerian communist militant, a member of the central committee of the French Communist Party and a co-founder and first president of the Étoile nord-africaine.¹²

He was born on 23 December 1883 at the douar Sidi Saada near Relizane in western Algeria, into a landowning family.¹² The Arabic article says his schooling was cut short at fourteen under colonial exclusion policies and that he worked at Mascara and married there before leaving for France in 1905; the French article, resting on the Maitron dictionary, says he emigrated at the age of eighteen and began work as a hardware salesman in Paris.²¹ He obtained French citizenship in 1911 and was mobilised in the First World War, reaching the rank of sergeant.¹

Hadj Ali joined the French Communist Party at its creation in December 1920 and became a leading figure of its colonial work through the Union Intercoloniale, which he directed alongside Ho Chi Minh.¹ He stood as a communist candidate in Paris in the legislative and municipal elections of 1924 and 1925.¹ In 1926 he combined membership of the PCF central committee with the presidency of the newly created Étoile nord-africaine; the Arabic article describes him as the party's first president, who then handed its leadership to Messali Hadj.¹²

He died in 1957 in the Paris region; Wikidata gives the exact date as 17 May 1957 and the place as Paris.¹³

• French Wikipedia, "Abdelkader Hadj Ali".¹
• Arabic Wikipedia, "عبد القادر الحاج علي".²
• Wikidata, Q19951589.³