The Battle for Algeria. Jennifer Johnson

the May 1956 strike and the August 1956 Soummam Congress. These events contributed to transforming the FLN-ALN health-services division by increasing the number and visibility of doctors, nurses, and medical assistants committed to fighting for liberation. Furthermore, it helped the FLN gain legitimacy over competing political groups in Algeria.

      The domestic medical sector repeatedly encountered obstacles, including French officials’ seizure of medical supplies, Algerian doctors’ arrests, and limited skilled health-care professionals. These challenges are not surprising in an imperial context. However, the nationalists continually cast themselves as modern statesmen dedicated to managing public health. They did this by issuing detailed instructions and directives regarding medical protocol, surgical procedures, treatment plans, and hygienic practices, all of which presented a stark contrast and direct rebuttal of colonial representations of the FLN. Though not as extensive as the French health sector in Algeria, nationalists integrated the health-services division with its army and combined forces with international doctors to reach a large number of people across the country and documented their outreach in pamphlets and newspaper articles in a calculated attempt to bolster sovereignty claims. The FLN developed a medical sector before it had a fully functioning government, highlighting a vital component of the nationalists’ state-building project at home. Moreover, it demonstrates the leadership’s attention to the high stakes of being able to take care of the people’s welfare.

       FLN-ALN Medicine and Health Care, 1954–1956

      The FLN became the dominant mouthpiece of the anticolonial struggle but it did not start off that way nor did it enjoy uniform support. The lack of political consensus, especially during the first two years of the war, had far-reaching consequences on medical services in Algeria and hampered the kind of care the FLN was able to administer to soldiers and civilians.