Arrested in 1956 by the colonial army, for his revolutionary activities, Farid Ali suffered the worst tortures throughout his detention.
[2] He sang the evocative Ayemma sver ur tsru (literally translated: mum, be patient and don't cry) written by Mustapha Sahnoun[3] and several other militant songs including Afus deg-gwfus (hand in hand) and Abrid ik-yerwan awi-t (take the path you want).
In Paris he sympathize with the founding members of the Berber Academy, Mohammed Arav Bessaoud, Taos Amrouche and Mohand Saïd Hanouz among others.
[5][6] He also helped after independence several singers to emerge from anonymity, through the radio show "chanteurs amateurs" that he animated on Alger Chaîne 2.
Farid Ali was so forgotten that his son received in 1996 (15.50 da) fifteen dinars and fifty cents of copyright on the dissemination of his songs by Radio stations.