Boulifa was born around 1865 in Adni village in the Irjen tribe, within the
Kabyle tribal confederation of At Iraten in
Greater Kabylia. His family, the Aït Belkacem ou Amar (), are a modest
marabout family (hence the "Si" of his name). Boulifa is his patronymic name in the French Civil Register. His father, Amar, left him an orphan very young. But, lucky enough to be related by his mother to the At Ameur,
Tamazirt's powerful family of Caids. Si Moula, his maternal uncle, thus sent him to the first arabic-french school opened in
Kabylia (at Tamazirt, in 1873), for which candidates were then rare. This combination of circumstances will be decisive for the rest of his life since he quickly committed to the career of teacher, the only way of promotion that could then be offered to a young
Kabyle of modest origin. After some years, he was appointed as
moniteur adjoint at Tamazirt. From 1890, he started instructing Kabyle lessons at the
École Normale Supérieure de Bouzaréah, then after an internship in 1895 at the same institution he became an
instituteur adjoint. In 1901, he was appointed as a
répétiteur of kabyle at the School of Letters of
Algiers. In late 1904/1905, he took part in the
Segonzac mission in
Morocco from where he brought back his
Textes berbères de l’Atlas. In 1905, he participated in the 14th
International Congress of Orientalists in Algiers with a communication on the
Qanun of Adni. In his will, dated 20 October 1914, Boulifa presents himself as a "professor of Berber" at the École Normale and the Faculty of Letters of Algiers, which suggests that he was able to reach the rank of Lecturer of the University. He retired in 1929 and died on 8 June 1931 in
Mustapha Pacha hospital in Algiers. He is buried in the cemetery of Bab-el-Oued in Algiers. == Influence on Kabyle pedagogy ==