The leader of the Algerian independence struggle was:

Ahmed Ben Bella was the leader of the Algerian independence struggle and became Algeria's first President after the country gained independence from France in 1962. He was one of the founding members of the Front de Liberation Nationale (FLN), the organisation that launched the Algerian War of Independence on 1 November 1954.

Ben Bella played a central role in organising the armed resistance against French colonial rule. He was arrested by the French in 1956 when the plane carrying him was intercepted, and he spent the remainder of the war in French detention. Despite his imprisonment, he remained a symbolic leader of the independence movement. After the war ended with the Evian Accords in March 1962 and Algeria gained independence in July 1962, Ben Bella was released and elected as the country's first President in 1963.

The other figures listed were leaders in different countries. Patrice Lumumba was the first Prime Minister of the Congo (Kinshasa). Leopold Senghor was the first President of Senegal and a leading figure in the Negritude literary and cultural movement. Houari Boumediene was Ben Bella's successor in Algeria - he overthrew Ben Bella in a coup in 1965 - but he was not the leader of the independence struggle itself. Ben Bella holds that distinction.