El-Hachemi Chérif

He is the son of Smail Chérif and grandson of Cheikh El-Hocine Chérif, a great “faqīh” (specialist in Islamic jurisprudence), who lived at the beginning of the 20th century in Ihaddaden (Toudja) in a house converted provision by the Ihaddaden family to teach Arabic and the Koran to the children of Toudja and contribute as much as possible to their education. Following Cheikh El-Hocine, it was his son Larbi, a graduate of the Benbadis Institute in Constantine and member of the Association of Algerian Ulemas, who replaced him around the mid-thirties, in order to continue the mission started by his father. The latter married the sister of Aami Salah Oul-Mahdi (Mahdi Salah), from the town of Ibourdjiouen. El-Hachemi was raised in his early youth by his uncle Cheikh Larbi Ben Cheikh El-Hocine in Toudja where he received his primary education in both Arabic and French. His father Smail had emigrated to Algiers where he was recruited at the Hamma test garden in Belcourt as a gardener.

El-Hachemi joined his father in Algiers to continue his studies, which he completed at the Franco-Muslim high school of Ben-Aknoun, whose teaching was bilingual. Then, he worked as a scriptwriter and assistant director at RTF at the time from 1957 to 1960, when he joined the maquis in the historic Wilaya IV until independence. First appointed head of Daïra in Lakhdaria (Bouira), he wasted no time in joining the RTA as Secretary General from 1963 to 1967. Having opposed the coup d'état of June 19, 1965, he resolutely committed himself in opposition as an activist in the Organization of Popular Resistance (ORP), before finding himself a founding member of PAGS in 1966. Having abandoned all administrative functions, he led the Federation of Education and Culture Workers ( FTEC). He will direct numerous short and feature films and documentaries: “Ettarfa” (1971), “The History of Our Earth” (1970), “Centenary of Lenin” (1970), “The Dogs” (1969), “Algerian Painting " (1969), "Histoire d'Un Drand Peuple" (1969), "L'Émir Abdelkader" (1966), "Poussière De Juillet" (1967), taken from a poem by Kateb Yacine and illustrated by M'hamed Issiakhem...

From 1981, he devoted himself entirely to political activity at the head of PAGS from 1990, then ETAHADI, before creating the Democratic and Social Movement (MDS) in 1998. He had escaped a terrorist attack perpetrated against him on April 10, 1993. Endowed with a broad culture, perfectly bilingual, a man of principle and conviction, El-Hachemi Cherif often spoke of his native village Toudja with great nostalgia.

He died on August 2, 2005 at the age of 66 from lung cancer.