OMAR DAKHANE

Good evening wonderful people! This is to answer some of the questions that I receive through messages constantly:

- The content on “Humans of Algeria” is 100% original. I understand this question comes often since there are many pages under the same name that publishes generic images from the internet about Algeria. I photograph, edit and write the story of every image you see on this page.

- There is no team behind the page, it’s only one person doing the photography & writing while managing the website and social media accounts. This might explain why this page goes dark for weeks sometimes. I try my best to manage it while managing my other photography page and my work.

- I’m Algerian. Born and raised in Algeria but I spent a huge portion of my life abroad.

- I post only in English and Arabic because English is the language of the world and Arabic is the language of Algeria, and I believe that covers the majority of the audience worldwide.

- There will be more “Humans of Algeria” books in the future based on the content of the project.

- “Humans of Algeria” is also available on Twitter @humansofdzair and Instagram @humansofdzair

“I was without a job for many years. I had to drop out from school at an early age due to certain circumstances and life wasn’t exactly easy since that day.

The day I turned 24 years old I decided to change my life. I stopped looking for a job and decided to create my own job, even if small and even if I didn’t make any real profit in the beginning.

I started a small kiosk. Well, it wasn’t really a kiosk but more of a small metal box next to a busy cafe in our town.

The metal box grew by the day until I was able to rent a store and start an actual business selling all sorts of cosmetics and perfumes.

“I’m the gardener of this school. I’m always the first one to arrive and the last one to leave. I usually come directly after praying Al-Fajr prayer.

I was given specific working hours by the school management, but I’m always here even after working hours because this job became more of a hobby and a passion to me. I also started my own garden at home and whenever I’m done here I go to continue there.

I won’t lie to you, I wasn’t always into gardening and I didn’t know a thing about it when I started working here. But now I have the knowledge of a herbalist and the expertise of a farmer (laughs).

“Our traditional meals were simple and healthy. That was before all the processed food stormed into our lives making our people weaker. Nowadays we try to go back to our roots and prepare more of our traditional food and refuse anything we didn’t make ourselves.

That’s the only way we can insure that our families remain healthy and capable of living in this harsh environment.

The life is the Algerian Sahara is difficult even with a healthy lifestyle, so imagine living it while eating all these processed unhealthy foods.

“This is the first time I see the snow, and I am truly loving it. I have been begging my father to take me to the mountains near our town for weeks.

“I am approaching 76 years old but I am still doing all the work in the big farm I own. The young generation these days does not want to do any hard work; they only want to take some easy tasks and then go sit in the coffee place complaining about their lives.

If you want something for yourself, work for it and count on your arms. No one is just going to give it to you free.

I am constantly surprised to see young men complaining about not finding a job, where the lands are empty and the work opportunities in farming are endless. I guess they are looking only for comfortable jobs guarding a place or driving a car, you know, something that doesn’t require much of an effort”

“I bought her in 1979 when she was only 4 years old. Since then, she has crossed almost every territory in Northern Algeria. I used to drive all the way from Béchar to Oran to Algiers to M’sila to Annaba in a single trip. Now that she is older, she has less power but she still can go anywhere and at anytime.

“My father died and left us a small piece of land that we use to produce vegetables in order to sell them in the market. The income is low but we always thank Allah (God) no matter what.

Since this little lady wasn’t able to tell me her story by herself because she was extremely shy, the person who was with me told me the story of her and her family. They moved to Ghardaia many years ago. No one asked them if they were Algerians or from another country in Africa. They were welcomed and they became part of the society of Ghardaia. This young lady lives her life like any child in Ghardaia in one of the most ancient old towns in the region.

“I can’t say I had an easy childhood. I went through a lot as I was growing up, but I was determined to become better and not allow anything to affect me negatively.

“In our town we have a say, ‘the barber is an excellent talker and a story teller, who cuts hair every once in a while’. Talking to people and hearing their stories is a core part of our job as barbers. We like to build a rapport with our clients and hear their stories because it helps us forget the pain we feel in our legs from standing up for long hours every day.

“I was born without the ability to speak. Thanks to my parents, I never felt I was different from other boys in my age.

I am attending a special needs school in the city. My father is the one who always drives me from our village to the town and again back to the village. He has been doing this for years. He must really love me because he is always happy to do it.

The fact that I cannot talk will not stop me from becoming anything I want to be in the future. I’m going to make my father proud”

“Back in June 1982, I went to Algiers to pass my driving test. Before leaving our village, I made a pledge to my family that if I pass it successfully; I am going to get them something special from Algiers.

I passed the test successfully and got my license, so I headed to a friend of mine who was working in ENIM (The national company for manufacturing appliances) where they were making Television sets and I bought one through him. Their availability in the market was very limited those days.

When I got back to the village in the evening, it was quite the event. We spent two hours trying to install that thing, and one more hour trying to detect the signal of the national television broadcast.

During the next few days, my house turned into a shrine where people come all the time to see this weird thing. There were people coming from other villages too. We had to try to organize the visits for the people of the village so that they can all watch it for some time without having a stampede in the house. The broadcasting hours were very limited back then, but that did not stop people from coming just to see the magical box they hear about.