Algeria is a country I know embarrassingly little about. (I have a feeling I’m going to be writing this a lot over the coming months!)

The first thing which surprised me about Algeria is its size. It’s the largest African country and the 10th largest country in the world by landmass - making it larger than Mexico and Saudi Arabia. It also benefits from the highest Human Development Index of all non-island African countries. A large part of this is supported by Algeria’s oil industry which makes up a staggering 96% of Algeria’s exports.

Although I knew that Algeria was previously a French colony, I had no idea how integrated it was with France.  Between 1825 and 1847, 50,000 French people emigrated to Algeria. These people are known as Pied-Noir. Notable Pied-Noirs include Yves Saint Laurent and author and philosopher Albert Camus.

Independence from France only came in 1962 after a bloody war where hundreds of thousands of Algerians were killed. Since Algeria’s independence, the number of Pied-Noir living in Algeria has dwindled as the vast majority moved to France, where they earned a reputation for their ardent right-wing views.

More recently, Algeria partook in the Arab Spring in 2010, but unlike many of its neighbours, promised reforms averted a bloody revolution, even if many of these reforms never materialised. 

Anyway, this is more than I planned to write - it’s time to partake in Algerian culture and put my feet up with a cup of mint tea.