We know that he came from a humble family of Souk Ahras (Tiffech). Like tens of thousands of young Algerians, he was mobilised by the French army from which he was released in 1936. He then emigrated to France where his sense of organisation led him to manage a home for emigrant workers in Boulogne-Billancourt, near the Renault factories. He would have started to organise small shows to relieve a little the difficult condition of the boarders. He established relations with the artists, often workers themselves, and thought of creating a place where they could express themselves. He marries a Lebanese woman. The beautiful Yamouth Nafissa, with whom he has had five children: Nadra, Hamidou and Kamel, Messaoud and Warda, the youngest of the siblings.