Ten Years Later, Still Hooked on Algeria
A decade after my first visit to Algeria, I reflect on ten years of exploring one of the world’s most fascinating (and misunderstood) countries.
Andrew in Algiers, 2013
A decade ago today, then just 27 years old, I boarded a plane for my fateful first visit to Algeria. It was a trip that would change the course of my life, to say the least.
On the eve of that first journey, I had little idea what to expect, as I describe in the introduction of The Algerian Dream:
What awaited me there? I had heard little of Algeria during my time in Morocco; even from right next door, the country was a black box. In the US, I had hardly ever met anyone who could point out Algeria on a map, much less who had visited and could help set expectations as I prepared for that first trip. In the English-speaking world, little had been written about Algeria since the war of independence ended fifty years earlier, and its recent history was even more impenetrable. Algeria’s government offered none of the usual resources that might have helped inform and entice outsiders, and few bookstores or libraries in Washington carried volumes on the country. The latest travel guide I could find dated to 2007. Massive but mysterious, Algeria was largely unknown to the outside world, myself included. Yet what little I could dig up about the place only intrigued me more. And I already knew one thing for certain: their music rocked.
My mind awash with questions and thumping raï lyrics, I landed in Algiers hoping for the best.
I found a country every bit as intriguing as it was unknown: a country, I explain in the book,
... filled with twenty-somethings yet ruled exclusively by gray-haired geezers, with a thousand miles of pristine Mediterranean coastline but not a foreign tourist in sight, and where many cursed France for its brutal colonial past but aspired to emigrate to Paris or Marseille. Algerians spoke three languages but never seemed to complete a full sentence in a single one. Their capital, once known as the “Mecca of revolutionaries,” now outlawed public protest. And it was a nation where Islamists and barflies, feminists and mustachioed bureaucrats, Berber poets and Arab nationalists, Touareg nomads and avowed Trotskyists, soccer fans and sculptors, and many more all coexisted in a tense standoff. I was hooked.
My French and Arabic skills improved greatly over the course of my time there, but even at the beginning they sufficed to start navigating daily life and knitting friendships. From my first days in their country to the very last, my Algerian friends and colleagues showered me with hospitality. They offered food and shelter, protection and counsel, and most importantly, they helped slake my thirst for understanding as I grew obsessed with deciphering how the place worked.
When I first visited, Algeria was on the verge of celebrating 50 years of independence. Through extensive reading, I dug deep into the history of that period, the long colonial era, and the centuries that preceded it. But events around me in the years I spent there proved no less fascinating.
In total, I spent one year shuttling between Washington and Algiers, ever more convinced of my desire to live there. Once I moved, I spent seven years getting to know Algeria's young generations and implement projects to help them enter the workforce, engage in their communities, and shape their future. Along the way, I met and married my wife, translated a liberation heroine's memoir, contributed to travel guides and economic reports, featured in viral videos and newspaper profiles, and even hosted a reality TV show. Oh yes, and I collected a few dogs. Since leaving Algeria in 2020, I have remained in regular contact with friends, closely tracked the news, and worked to fill the information gap that surrounds Algeria in the English-speaking world. I wrote the book I wish I'd had in hand when I first traveled there, and today serve as a fellow at the Atlantic Council, contributing what I know to help global policymakers better understand dynamics in Algeria.
In the months ahead, I plan to share more reflections and retrospectives here on my decade of exploring all things Algeria. But first, this website, home to so many great memories from my Algeria years, needs an overhaul. Update (June 22): Well that took longer than expected, but at long last Ibn Ibn Battuta has a new and improved look. Now back to writing!
