Azeffoun

Azeffoun is the old village where my father grew up, it’s also the village that saw me growing and also that made me growing up. I’ve spent there a lot of time of my childhood, trekking and contemplating the landscape. Fishing and swimming during summer, getting inspired and being nostalgic in fall. Reading around the fireplace during winter.

Azeffoun is the perfect place where to spend holidays in all seasons; it’s having a special aura that makes you feel light and free. The air is still pure, and some kind of innocence is floating there. Mountains and forests are telling stories about generations of writers, singers and many other artists who made this area known. The centuries of civilizations invading but never making Azeffoun falling. Because of it’s geography and also because of the bravery of the inhabitant. Last example in date, the village of Igoujdhal, that saw women and men taking weapons to defend their liberty against Islamistes during the 90’s in Algeria.

My memories, those of my father, and those of my family are today a part of me.Through the pictures that I’ve done. Although I haven’t done a proper photographic work about Azeffoun, I’ve posted what I took, It’s not exactly what I wanted to show, but it’s a least authentic and raw. They are just a prelude of what is really Azeffoun. My pictures are not having the smell of the Mediterranean Sea, neither the feel nor the smell of the fresh air under the shadow of a fir tree in summer. They are not showing you, that sky full of stars that seem reachable, neither that rise of the moon on summer nights making you feel so small next to it. I’ve promised to myself to go to Algeria making a trip to Azeffoun, reconnecting with my roots taking pictures to put them on my words and sharing them here with you.

Down there’s some history about Azeffoun that you can read if you want to know more about it.

Azeffoun – Ruzasus

Azeffoun is a town and commune in Tizi Ouzou Province in northern Algeria, located 64 kilometres (40 mi) north-east of Tizi Ouzou. The area of the municipality of Azeffoun is 126.66 km2 and a population of 16,096 inhabitants (census of 1998) and 17 435 inhabitants in 2008. Azeffoun is bounded by the Mediterranean Sea on the north, the town of Aït Chafâa on the east, and the common Akerrou, Aghrib in the south and Iflissen in the west. The town is located 64 km north-east of Tizi Ouzou, and 83 km western of Bejaia.

In Roman times the town was called Ruzasus or Rusadus and was a strategic military base because of its location, bordered on the north by the Mediterranean Sea, on the south by mountains rising to 500 metres. The town’s bishopric, no longer a residential see, is included in the Catholic Church’s list of titular sees. The colonial city, called Port Gueydon in honour of Admiral Gueydon, wasbuilt by French settlers to the last third of the 19th century, it overlooks the sea from a hill that descends steeply from Mount Tamgout.

The fishing port is the first infrastructure to see the day according to the first settlers. The common of Port-mixed Gueydon was among the largest in the Kabylie time of the French administration. Dozens of villages occupied its geographical area bounded on the southeast by Ighil Tafraout Jehma and Zekri and south-west by the villages and AbizarTimizart N’sidi Mansour. It is the interface between the two Kabylies.

Villages in the commune of Azeffoun

Iagachene,Tiouidiouine, At Rhuna (Ait Rhouna), Cheurfa, At Lḥusin (Ait Lhocine), Iḥanucen (Ihanouchene), Tazaɣart (Tazaghart), Amriɣ (Amrigh), At Sidi Yeḥya (Ait Sidi Yahia), Nath Ouaissa (Ait Ouaissa), Mlaṭa Iɛeggacen (M’latta Iagachene), Mlaṭa (Mlatta cité),Isumaten (Issoumatene), Zituna (Zitouna), Tiza, Lxibya (El Khibia), At Yillul (Ait Illoul), KHANIS, Tala Ḥadid, Iɛbac (Iabache), Tagemunt n Yeɛbac (Taguemount Iâvache), Ɛcuba (Achouba), At Warẓiq (Ait Ouarzik), At Wandlus (Ait Ouandelous), Tifrest, At Naɛim (Ait Naiem), Ijanaten (Idjanaten), Qirya (Kiria), Azeffun, Bezerqa (Bezerka), Iḥemziwen (Ihamziouene), Iberhuten (Iberhoutene), Imuluden (Imouloudene), Tagemunt n Wedrar (Taguemount Boudrar), Lqelɛa (El Kelâa), Tidmimin, Ɣerru (Gherrou), Iɣil Leɣzel (Ighil Leghzel), Taẓebbujt n Tiza (Tazebojt n Tiza), Imidiqsen (Imidiksen), Laɛzib Saḥel (Lazib Sahel), Agni n Riḥan (Agouni n Rihane), Taɛinṣert (Taincert), Tifezwin (Tifezouine), Timluka (Timlouka), Aɣulid (Aghoulid), Sidi Qurci (Sidi Korchi), Cote Bitar, Ait chaffa, Tafraout, Ighil Mehni, Jemha, Tagarcifth.