Massacre of Saïda (1881)
{{Short description|Massacre of Spanish immigrant workers}}
{{Infobox civilian attack
| title = Khalfallah massacre
| partof = Mokrani Revolt
| image = Desembarque de españoles repatriados por el vapor Numancia.jpg
| image_size = 280px
| caption = Disembarkation of repatriated Spaniards in the port of Cartagena (published in July 1881 in La Ilustración Española y Americana).
| location = Khalfallah, Saïda, French Algeria
| target = Spanish immigrant workers
| date = 11 June 1881
| type = Massacre
| fatalities = ~190
| perpetrators = Insurgents led by Bou-Amama
| motive = Resistance against French occupation
}}
Around 190 immigrants of Spanish origin, most of them day labourers working in the esparto harvest, were killed on 11 June 1881 in French Algeria (in the countryside around Saïda) by members of the insurgent movement led by Bou-Amama.{{Refn|group=n.|The massacre has been both referred as "Massacre de Khalfallah" in French {{Harv|Vilar Ramírez|1983|p=279}} or as "matanza de Saida" ({{Harvnb|Montes Bernárdez|2011|p=129}}; {{Harvnb|Pérez Artés|2016|p=16}}) in Spanish.}}
Development
The Franco-Algerian Company hired day labourers across the impoverished Spanish South-East to work in the esparto harvest in Algeria offering passage and travel to their families,{{Sfn|Montes Bernárdez|2011|p=120}} although eventually day labourers were forced to pay for their travel and to buy their food at a company's store. Following the outbreak of a rebellion in Tunisia, the instability moved to Algeria in late April 1881, with Bou-Amama taking the lead of the movement against the French occupation.{{Sfn|Montes Bernárdez|2011|p=121}} Then, on 11 June 1881, following the seizure of Khalfallah by insurgents, around 190 Spanish esparto harvesters (most of them from Almería, and the rest from Murcia and Alicante) were put to the sword in Khalfallah, in the surroundings of Saïda (to the south of Oran),{{Sfn|Moisand|2015|pp=89–106}} whereas many of their wives were raped, while the attackers also made 600 hostages and set 100,000 quintals of esparto on fire.{{Sfn|Montes Bernárdez|2011|pp=120–123}} News about the event arrived to Oran (17 June) and then Spain (18 June).{{Sfn|Montes Bernárdez|2011|p=122}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.lavozdealmeria.com/noticia/12/almeria/88026/los-esparteros-almerienses-que-fueron-pasados-a-cuchillo|website=La Voz de Almería|title=Los esparteros almerienses que fueron pasados a cuchillo|date=7 August 2015|first=Manuel|last=León}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.laverdad.es/murcia/ciudad-murcia/murcianos-pasados-cuchillo-20171217004106-ntvo.html|website=La Verdad|title=Los murcianos que fueron pasados a cuchillo en Orán|date=17 December 2017|first=Antonio|last=Botías}} For the rest of June and July many naked and hungry Spaniards moved to Oran to get a passage back to Almería.{{Sfn|Montes Bernárdez|2011|p=123–124}} About 10,000 immigrants were repatriated to Spain.
Bibliography
;Notes
{{reflist|group=n.}}
;Citations
{{reflist}}
;Bibliography
- {{Cite journal|title=Migrant-e-s entre deux empires. Journaliers agricoles espagnols à Cuba et en Algérie dans les années 1880-1890|first=Jeanne|last=Moisand|pages=89–106|issue=51|doi=10.4000/rh19.4925|year=2015|journal=Revue d'histoire du XIXe siècle|volume=51|doi-access=free}}
- {{cite journal|url=https://dialnet.unirioja.es/descarga/articulo/3670846.pdf|title=La matanza de almerienses, murcianos y alicantinos en Khalfalah (Saida, Argelia), en 1881|first=Ricardo|last=Montes Bernárdez|journal=Murgetana|issn=0213-0939|issue=124|year=2011|pages=119–132|publisher=Real Academia Alfonso X el Sabio|location=Murcia}}
- {{Cite journal|url=https://www.aehe.es/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/dt-aehe-1606.pdf|title=El éxodo almeriense: entendiendo la emigración española finisecular|first=María del Carmen|last=Pérez Artés|year=2016|journal=Documentos de Trabajo|issn=2174-4912|publisher=Asociación Española de Historia Económica}}
- {{Cite journal|issn=2173-1306|url=https://www.persee.fr/docAsPDF/casa_0076-230x_1983_num_19_1_2396.pdf|journal=Mélanges de la Casa de Velázquez|publisher=Casa de Velázquez|title=Quelques conséquences en Espagne du soulèvement Algérien de 1881 (dans les courants migratoires hispano-algériens et dans relations hispano-françaises)|year=1983|volume=19|location=Madrid|first=Juan Bautista|last=Vilar Ramírez|author-link=|pages=275–291|doi=10.3406/casa.1983.2396 }}{{Dead link|date=January 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
{{coord missing|Algeria}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saïda massacre, 1881}}
Category:Algeria–Spain relations
Category:Immigration to Africa
Category:Spanish diaspora in Africa
Category:African resistance to colonialism
Category:Military history of French Algeria
Category:Anti-Spanish sentiment
Category:Violence against women in Algeria