The Algerians of the Pacific ("Algerians of the Pacific

Pacific Ocean

The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...

") were a group of men and women deported

Deportation

Deportation means the expulsion of a person or group of people from a place or country. Today it often refers to the expulsion of foreign nationals whereas the expulsion of nationals is called banishment, exile, or penal transportation...

 by French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 authorities to labor camp

Labor camp

A labor camp is a simplified detention facility where inmates are forced to engage in penal labor. Labor camps have many common aspects with slavery and with prisons...

s on the island of New Caledonia

New Caledonia

New Caledonia is a special collectivity of France located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, east of Australia and about from Metropolitan France. The archipelago, part of the Melanesia subregion, includes the main island of Grande Terre, the Loyalty Islands, the Belep archipelago, the Isle of...

, after taking part in the 1870-1871 mainly Kabyle uprising against colonial rule in Algeria

French rule in Algeria

French Algeria lasted from 1830 to 1962, under a variety of governmental systems. From 1848 until independence, the whole Mediterranean region of Algeria was administered as an integral part of France, much like Corsica and Réunion are to this day. The vast arid interior of Algeria, like the rest...

.

Their arrest took place in 1871, and 212 persons were tried together in 1873, in the city of Constantine

Constantine, Algeria

Constantine is the capital of Constantine Province in north-eastern Algeria. It was the capital of the same-named French département until 1962. Slightly inland, it is about 80 kilometres from the Mediterranean coast, on the banks of Rhumel river...

. Most were sent over to prisons in metropolitan France - Oléron

Oléron

Île d'Oléron is an island off the Atlantic coast of France , on the southern side of the Pertuis d'Antioche strait....

 and Saint-Martin-de-Ré

Saint-Martin-de-Ré

Saint-Martin-de-Ré is a commune in the Charente-Maritime department in southwestern France.It is one of the 10 communes located on the Île de Ré.-History:Saint-Martin-de-Ré has extensive fortifications, reflecting the strategic importance of the Île de Ré...

 (on Île de Ré

Île de Ré

Île de Ré is an island off the west coast of France near La Rochelle, on the northern side of the Pertuis d'Antioche strait....

), then, as these were due to be closed, to Quélern

Quélern

Quélern is a hamlet in Roscanvel, in the department of Finistère , in western France.-Fortified lines:The Quélern lines defended the entrance to the goulet de Brest against capture from behind the defences of the Roscanvel peninsula. They are 1.22 km long and form the only surviving non-urban...

 (near Brest

Brest, France

Brest is a city in the Finistère department in Brittany in northwestern France. Located in a sheltered position not far from the western tip of the Breton peninsula, and the western extremity of metropolitan France, Brest is an important harbour and the second French military port after Toulon...

). At the same time, 29 of them were kept in Oran

Oran

Oran is a major city on the northwestern Mediterranean coast of Algeria, and the second largest city of the country.It is the capital of the Oran Province . The city has a population of 759,645 , while the metropolitan area has a population of approximately 1,500,000, making it the second largest...

 - Antoine Chanzy, the Governor-General

Colonial heads of Algeria

Beylerbey: Bey of beysKalifah: Governor acting in the absence of the BeylerbeyAga : Military CommanderFor continuation after independence, see: Presidents of Algeria-Sources:* http://www.rulers.org/rula1.html#algeria...

, attempted to have them removed from the public's eye by proposing they should be sent to the Marquesas Islands

Marquesas Islands

The Marquesas Islands enana and Te Fenua `Enata , both meaning "The Land of Men") are a group of volcanic islands in French Polynesia, an overseas collectivity of France in the southern Pacific Ocean. The Marquesas are located at 9° 00S, 139° 30W...

. They too were ultimately transported to Quélern, through Marseille

Marseille

Marseille , known in antiquity as Massalia , is the second largest city in France, after Paris, with a population of 852,395 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Marseille extends beyond the city limits with a population of over 1,420,000 on an area of...

. A third group was imprisoned together with former Communards

Paris Commune

The Paris Commune was a government that briefly ruled Paris from March 18 to May 28, 1871. It existed before the split between anarchists and Marxists had taken place, and it is hailed by both groups as the first assumption of power by the working class during the Industrial Revolution...

 in Thouars

Thouars

Thouars is a commune in the Deux-Sèvres department in western France.It is on the River Thouet. Its inhabitants are known as Thouarsais.-History:...

.

Due to malfunctions in the communication between ministries, the distinction made between sentences to transportation

Penal transportation

Transportation or penal transportation is the deporting of convicted criminals to a penal colony. Examples include transportation by France to Devil's Island and by the UK to its colonies in the Americas, from the 1610s through the American Revolution in the 1770s, and then to Australia between...

 (traditionally, to French Guyana) and deportation (to New Caledonia) was no longer made - all were sent to New Caledonia in the end.

Their arrival to the island coincided with transports of Communards, who were to leave precious testimonies of the Kabyles' presence. However, Kabyles were left behind when the Communards were granted an amnesty

Amnesty

Amnesty is a legislative or executive act by which a state restores those who may have been guilty of an offense against it to the positions of innocent people, without changing the laws defining the offense. It includes more than pardon, in as much as it obliterates all legal remembrance of the...

 in 1879, and remained in exile despite campaigns to raise the sympathy of French public opinion. An amnesty was awarded only in 1895, but they could return to Algeria only after 1904.

Some descendants of the deported Kabyles still live in New Caledonia. One of them, Taïeb Aïfa served as the mayor of Bourail

Bourail

Bourail is a commune in the South Province of New Caledonia, an overseas territory of France in the Pacific Ocean.- Geography :This is a rural town of Grande Terre . The municipality is located in both the mountains and along the sea beaches are tourist but remain wild, they are a place popular...

 from 1977 to 2001. In Nessadiou, south of Bourail, there is a Cimetière des Arabes, or "Arab

Arab

Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...

s' Cemetery" - a name that originates in confusion over the ethnicity of Kabyles.