Algérie Presse Service (APS) - October 25, 2012

Hamou Amirouche, a former member of the National Liberation Army (NLA) will speak at a conference convened today by Oregon state University at Portland on his involvement in the war for national independence and his fight at the side of Col. (Aït Hamouda) Amirouche, who led the historic Wilaya III, the university reported on its Web site.

At this scientific gathering held on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of Algeria's independence under the theme "Memoirs of a Mujahid and Thoughts on Contemporary Algeria," Hamou Amirouche will discuss his participation in the liberation war.

He will also discuss his book "Akfadou: A Year with Colonel Amirouche", Casbah Editions, 2009, in which he revisited among other things the fight led by Colonel Amirouche for the country's independence.

Born in 1937 in Tazmalt, near Bejaïa, Algeria, Hamou Amirouche was a close aide to the historic leader of Wilaya III and served as his private secretary for a year (1957-1958). He lives in the United States and teaches at San Diego University in California.

Lindsay Benstead, who teaches political science at Portland University and who knows Algeria well and visited the country eight times, will also participate in the conference.

Nabil Boudraa, an Algerian-born professor of French literature and Francophone Studies at Oregon University, will speak about the policies of contemporary Algeria.

This gathering aims to "better understand the war for national liberation and its impact on current policies in Algeria," conference organizers said.

Moreover, Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore will host next Nov. 1 and 2 an international conference themed "1962-2012: The world after Algeria's Independence" and including several Algerian researchers.

Next Nov. 14, New York's Columbia University will hold a roundtable devoted to the fiftieth anniversary of Algeria's independence under the theme "Algeria, History and Historiography: 1962-2012." Participants include Algerian researchers, among whom the historian Dahou Djerbal, who wrote a book on the FLN's France Federation Special Organization, published in 2012 by Casbah Editions.