By CNES
The UCLA Center for Near Eastern Studies (CNES) mourns the death of Elaine Mokhtefi, a prominent anti-colonial activist, writer, artist, and friend of CNES, who participated in Algeria’s independence movement in the 1950s.
Born Elaine Klein on Long Island, Mokhtefi experienced the racism of the Jim Crow South after moving to Georgia for college at the age of 16, marking her early entry into activism. After returning to New York, she became involved with the United World Federalists. Soon thereafter, due to the surveillance pressures of the era, Mokhtefi moved to Paris, France, where she was first exposed to the Algerian struggle for independence. She began working for the cause in various roles in the mid-1950s.
Mokhtefi first visited Algeria in 1962, after the country’s liberation from French colonial rule. She ended up staying there until 1974, working as a journalist and a functionary in Algeria’s first post-independence government. Through her activist work, Mokhtefi became involved with leading anti-colonial thinkers, activists, and national liberation leaders throughout the developing world, including Frantz Fanon and Tran Hoai Nam. She also helped facilitate travel to Algeria for U.S. civil rights and Black Power activist Stokely Carmichael and assisted the Black Panther Party in establishing its international headquarters in Algeria. Mokhtefi’s account of her time in Algeria was published in her memoir, Algiers, Third World Capital: Freedom Fighters, Revolutionaries, Black Panthers, in 2018, followed by translations published in France and Algeria in 2019.
Mokhtefi returned to Paris in 1974 with Mokhtar Mokhtefi (d. 2015), a former National Liberation Front (FLN) revolutionary, who later became her husband. The couple moved to New York in 1994, where she died on September 11 at the age of 98.
“Elaine Mokhtefi was a dear friend, and I feel a profound sadness at her loss. If I were to describe the qualities that defined her remarkable life, I would choose courage, conviction, and commitment: the courage to undertake difficult and often dangerous activist work; an unwavering conviction in the pursuit of justice; and a lifelong commitment to the liberation of oppressed people across the world. Her passing is an immense loss, but the example she set and the legacy of her extraordinary life will endure,” said Ali Behdad, the Center’s former director.
In November 2024, the Center had the honor of hosting Elaine Mokhtefi on campus as part of a panel dedicated to her life and legacy.
Kevan Harris, interim director of the Center, added, “Mokhtefi was a true internationalist who played her part in formative events in the modern Middle East. During her visit to UCLA, our students and faculty were captivated by her insights and recollections, and by the warmth and candor with which she shared them. She brought an extraordinary history to campus while reminding us that solidarity is built through the choices people make and the relationships they sustain.”