Aba was born in 1921 in the Algerian town of Sétif.[1] In his autobiographical work Le chant perdu au pays retrouve (The Lost Song of a Rediscovered Country, 1978), he described his childhood as an unhappy period, writing: "I had to envy children in some parts of the world who went through childhood with the frivolity of butterflies".[3] After completing his secondary education in Setif, he spent one year studying law at the University of Algiers. In the 1940s, he began writing some poetry, including his 1941 collection L'Aube de l'amour (The Dawn of Love).[4] In 1943, he was conscripted into the Algerian army, where he served for two years until the end of the Second World War.[1]