Fatima Nitcha

Algerian resistance leader who organized armed rebellion against French colonial forces in 1881

Fatima Nitcha (1850-1927) became the first woman to lead a major armed uprising against French colonization in Kabylie, Algeria. When French troops seized her village's granaries during the 1881 famine, she rallied 2,000 fighters from multiple Berber tribes to attack French outposts. Though defeated at the Battle of Tachekirt, her revolt inspired decades of resistance movements. Captured and imprisoned, she famously declared: 'We are not rebels, we are a people defending our land.'

Her story is preserved in oral histories recorded by anthropologist Mohamed Issiakhem and in the National Museum of抗争 History. Contemporary Algerian feminists like Mounira Chenoufi cite her as a precursor to their movements. Recent scholarship connects her tactics to later FLN strategies during the 1954-1962 war. See this academic analysis for detailed battle maps and primary sources.