Nation and Naming: Algeria through the History of Its Proper Names

Book Presentation

By Farid BENRAMDANE

Wednesday, 12 February 2025

At the RASYD Unit Headquarters, University of Blida 2

Abstract:

This study aims to address the grievances of families and tribes whose identities have been, in a sense, "insulted" by unacceptable media portrayals. This accusation, levelled at both individuals and society, is not as innocent as it might seem. It seeks to establish and maintain a minimal level of fabricated cultural and onomastic (name-related) animosity, ideally suited to the re/fragmentation of national unity, territorial integrity, and social cohesion. The strategic importance of the human and social sciences, particularly in their applied forms, is clear when it comes to understanding the challenges of economic, identity-based, and territorial development. At regional and global levels, political, economic, and technological intelligence are crucial, but territorial intelligence is paramount. This involves a geodecisional perspective: positioning Algeria, as both a product and a process, as a historical constant; conceiving of it as a spatial whole to restore it as a unifying concept (Algerianity), encompassing the full diversity of its socio-cultural paths. Nothing expresses this individual and collective sense of belonging to a nation more powerfully than onomastics (proper names). One may deceive in many ways, but never with the name one bears.

 Biography:

Farid BENRAMDANE is a Professor of Higher Education in Language Sciences, specialising in onomastics (the study of proper names), and former Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Literatures. An expert in toponymy (the study of place names) and Algeria's representative at the United Nations International Conferences on the Standardisation of Geographical Names, he is also the founder of the Research Unit on Naming Systems in Algeria (RASYD/CRASC). Author and editor of numerous publications on naming systems in Algeria, he is also President of SASO (Société algérienne savante d'onomastique).