 Born in Kabylie, French Algeria, Sail Mohamed served in the French Colonial Forces.He was arrested for insubordination and desertion during the First World War.He then moved to France, where he was an activist in the Union Anarchiste (UA) and the Confédération Générale du Travail-Syndicaliste Révolutionnaire (CGT-SR) and was founder (in 1923) with his friend Sliman Kiouane of the Committee for the Defence of Indigenous Algerians, one of the first national liberation movements in French North Africa.