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The beauty of the Algerian's soul
My thesis on colonial Algeria: "Ah! It must be difficult. "No
Arthur Asseraf | Historian
"Ah! It must be very difficult. "When I explain my thesis on colonial Algeria, it is usually what we replied. In fact, no, it is not difficult.The Algerian history is not a taboo subject: it is a flourishing field of historical research, even downright industry. Records are generally open and regularly assailed by hordes of PhDs from France, Navarre and rich universities of the U.S. East Coast, who like to complain about coffee machines opening hours.
MAKING OF
Asseraf Arthur, 24, is a researcher in history of colonial Algeria at Oxford University. His current research focuses on the period from 1880 to 1939.
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And yet, my aunt still persists and always will pass me contacts for the archives of the army, because they imagine that all that
is hidden and difficult. So why the myth of a war in Algeria
suppressed by history?
Until relatively recently, the problems were real: the French government has acknowledged that there had been a "war" in Algeria and not only "events" in 1999.
The archives were opened
And has long ignored the link between the colonial past undigested
and the rise of the extreme right: when Benjamin Stora published "The
Gangrene and oblivion "for the first time in 1991, the book explained that the rise of FN, especially in Provence, was linked to a vote of returnees Blackfoot, racism against Arabs in Nice as they once were in Bab el-Oued.
But twenty years later, things have changed. Since the 90s, the archives were opened and closed and a generation of historians has done an enormous amount of research (thank you, by the way, the work of archivists profession that is rarely welcome).
In Algeria too, since the end of the black decade, the government has allowed
researchers to use its archives on the war of liberation, and if
there are any red tape, they are no worse than those
faced by numbers Algerians in their daily lives.
War in Algeria tray colonization to AGREG '
The controversy over the use of torture and even the
debate around the legislation
in 2005 calling for a positive teaching of the history of colonization
eventually undoubtedly had a positive effect by giving greater
publicity to the problem of history colonial.
After the fiftieth anniversary of the independence of Algeria in 2012 and its accompanying documentary films, exhibitions and conferences, we can be thankful of the work: the war in Algeria falls tray colonization aggregation.
Of course, such a process of percolation of a bustling university research to the general public is slow and not without a hitch, but can be seen as the history of the war in Algeria is being standardized Advanced. By controversy, we end up talking about the war, no peaceful way, but we talk. As recently noted historian Sylvie Thénault, forgetting the war is relative.
The "Algerian syndrome 'of French society
Yet the myth persists that never talks about the war in Algeria,
and historians are partly responsible. Diagnosing the company
as achieving a French Algerian syndrome as Henry Rousso said
that there was a Vichy syndrome, it is positioned as psychoanalysts, what makes us important, beautiful, courageous. Finally, they say, history is
something.
Having been myself attracted to Algerian history by memory problems, I understand this process. There are probably more work published or in the memory of the war in Algeria as the events themselves and we ended up talking more repression that really punishes. Worse, this process reduces any French colonization in the war from 1954 to 1962 alone, drowning the way, the terrible violence of the conquest of Algeria in the XIX th century, even, and then I walk too far, of repression in Indochina, Madagascar and Cameroon.
The words "suburban" and "immigration" whispering
But the fault does not only returns historians anxious to find
intellectual and social engagement. I often said, when I talk about
my thesis with my research I can understand the "problems
today, "the war in Algeria is thus always linked, whispering,
the words "suburban" and "immigration" .
The war in Algeria offers a hijacked to talk about current issues means, which explains the vehemence of the debates on his memory. In this context, it is the non-digestion of the colonial past that binds the multicultural French society today. It makes us feel good, because racism becomes someone else's problem, colonial, past, fascists.
But my generation has never experienced colonization, easily vote
for the FN in regions where not only is there no foot black
but where there is almost no Muslims either.
Do not consider new issues
The persistent myth of a memory problem related to the war in Algeria occult a more serious problem: the French might be racist now, this is a new phenomenon or at least rapidly changing, and that whether it is indeed a metropolitan problem and not a simple import of the colonial past.
The France faced in the years 2010, a rising tide of Islamophobia, which normalizes in political discourse and in law. The lack of social mobility that French citizens still characterized as "immigrant" two, three or more generations later indicates a problem here, now, in which the colonial legacy has heard his share on both sides, but also its innovative and disturbing aspects that remain to be studied.
In Algeria, not post-independence history
In Algeria, and this is perhaps the most serious consequence, the history of the war of independence is so pervasive that it is
almost impossible to write the history of Algeria after independence, frozen by a political system where the generation of mujahideen clings, panting, to power, the image of President Bouteflika, comatose candidate for reelection fourth.
When I explained that the archives are open and the history of the war of independence is relatively accessible, many young Algerians do not believe me: "The archives are closed, or when we do not show you the real. "In a system where power is opaque and where conspiracy theories abound, the truth always seems to be elsewhere.
Of course, the socio-economic inequalities are slowly changing, and racist thinking of colonization also continuing to train French and Algerian companies.Far be it from me to say that in 50 years, the legacy of colonization would have evaporated: otherwise I would not do this job. But as historians, our contribution to society is also to put the past in its proper place, and to identify the responsibilities of this.
The Islamophobia not reducible to this war
I understand very well that the memory of colonization and war plays an important role intimate difficult, because I faced silences and debate within my own family, as is the case for many French. I do not mean that the war in Algeria has no connection with the "identity" of the current crises France, only this link is overestimated.
The colonial past of course plays in this report, but for example the tension towards Muslim populations through Western Europe in recent years, including for example in Germany, Switzerland and Denmark, countries with no colonial past with Muslims, suggests that this phenomenon is not reducible to the memory of the war in Algeria.
War, as an event, happening, history is better known. The problem is not really that of historians is that of the larger society, which is struggling in his current relationship, and therefore can not create a consensual past.
Ma thèse sur l’Algérie coloniale : « Ah ! Ça doit être difficile. » Non - Le nouvel Observateur