Ahmad ibn Billah

Ahmed Ben Bella strikes me as a man who lived the full violence and idealism of the twentieth century. A footballer who became a revolutionary and then Algeria's first president, his sheer range of experience reads like fiction. Honored by both East and West, from the Croix de Guerre to Hero of the Soviet Union and the Lenin Peace Prize, he was clearly no ordinary figure. Even after being overthrown, he never softened his convictions. I am less interested in judging his record than in marveling at the weight and trajectory of such a life.

Name (English)

Ahmad ibn Billah

Name (Japanese)

ベン・ベラ

Reading

べん・べら

Born

December 25, 1916 – April 11, 2012

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Capricorn / Dragon

Origin

Maghnia, Tlemcen Province, Algeria

Occupation

politician / association football player

Awards & achievements

• Croix de guerre 1939–1945
• Hero of the Soviet Union
• Order of Lenin
• Al-Gaddafi International Prize for Human Rights
• Médaille militaire
• Lenin Peace Prize
• Order of the Companions of O. R. Tambo
• Croix de Guerre

• Wikipedia (English)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed%20Ben%20Bella
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%99%E3%83%B3%E3%83%BB%E3%83%99%E3%83%A9
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q179908

Tags

• Tlemcen Province
• politician
• association football player

Last updated

2026-06-21

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.