Algerian War - Historiography

Historiography

Although the opening of the archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs after a 30-year lock-up has enabled some new historical research on the war, including Jean-Charles Jauffret's book, La Guerre d'Algérie par les documents ("The Algerian War According to the Documents"), many remain inaccessible. This is contrary to the engagement of Prime Minister Lionel Jospin's (Socialist Party, PS) on July 27, 1997. The recognition in 1999 by the National Assembly, in which the PS had obtained a majority during the 1997 legislative elections, permitted the Algerian War, at last, to enter the syllabi of French schools. The details of the Paris massacre of 1961 has only begun to emerge in the nation's memory, although access to the archives remains strongly restricted. The French state, which finally recognized 40 deaths, is a far way from giving free access to the archives. (In France, there is no such law such as the U.S.'s Freedom of Information Act.) However, it has been proved, including with David Assouline's limited access to the Paris archives, granted by Socialist Minister of Culture Catherine Trautmann), that at least 70 Algerians died during these events and 90 people by the second half of October 1961.

The Algerian War remains a contentious event today. According to historian Benjamin Stora — who holds a Ph.D. degree in history and sociology, teaches at Paris VII, and is one of the leading historians on the Algerian war — memories concerning the war remain fragmented, with no common ground to speak of, translated from French:

"There is no such thing as a history of the Algerian War; there is just a multitude of histories and personal paths through it. Everyone involved considers that they lived through it in their own way, and any attempt to understand the Algerian War globally is immediately rejected by protagonists."

Even though Stora has counted 3,000 publications in French on the Algerian war, there still is no work produced with a French person and an Algerian cooperating with one another. Even though, according to Stora there can "no longer be talk about a 'war without a name'....&nbsp, a number of problems remain, especially the absence of sites in France to commemorate" the war. Furthermore, conflicts have arisen on an exact commemoration date to end the war. Although many sources as well as the French state place it on March 19, 1962, the Evian agreements, others point out that the massacres of harkis and the kidnapping of pied-noirs took place afterwards.

Stora further points out: "The phase of memorial reconciliation between the two sides of the sea is still a long way off." This was recently illustrated by the Union for a Popular Movement's UMP vote of the February 23, 2005, the law on colonialism, which asserted that colonialism had globally been "positive." Thus, a teacher in one of the elite high schools of Paris has declared:

"Yes, colonization has had positive effects. After all, we did give to Algeria modern infrastructures, a system of education, libraries, social centers.... There were only 10% Algerian students in 1962? This is not much, of course, but it is not nothing either!"

Along side a heated debate in France, the February 23, 2005, law had the effect of jeopardizing the treaty of friendship that President Jacques Chirac was supposed to sign with President Abdelaziz Bouteflika — a treaty no longer on the agenda. Following this controversial law, Bouteflika has talked about a "cultural genocide", particularly referring to the 1945 Sétif massacre. Chirac finally had the law repealed through a complex institutional mechanism.

Another matter concerns the teaching of the war, as well as of colonialism and decolonization, in particular in French secondary schools Hence, there is only one reference to racism in a French textbook, one published by Bréal publishers for terminales students (those passing their baccalauréat). Thus, many are not surprised that the first to speak about the October 17, 1961, massacre were music bands, including, but not only, hip-hop bands such as the famous Suprême NTM ("les Arabes dans la Seine") or politically engaged La Rumeur. Indeed, the Algerian War is not even the subject of a specific chapter in textbook for terminales Henceforth, Benjamin Stora can state that:

"As Algerians do not appear in an "indigenous" condition, and their sub-citizens status, as the history of nationalist movement, is never evoked as their being one of great figures of the resistance, such as Messali Hadj and Ferhat Abbas. They neither emerge nor are being given attention. No one is explaining to students what colonization has been. We have prevented students from understanding why the decolonization took place."

The Algerian War and its consequences are thus fundamental to any understanding of the state of 21st-century France, as well as the social situation in the French suburbs, the conditions of which were brought to world attention during the civil unrest in autumn 2005. For the first time since the Algerian war, the head of state, President Chirac of the UMP party, proclaimed a state of emergency, which was confirmed a few weeks later by the National Assembly. (The only party to vote against its extension were the Communist Party and the Greens.)

In metropolitan France in 1963, 43% of French Algerians lived in bidonvilles (shanty towns). Thus, Azouz Begag, the delegate minister for Equal Opportunities in the government of Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin of the UMP party, wrote an autobiographic novel, Le Gone du Chaâba, about his experiences while living in a bidonville in the outskirts of Lyon. It is impossible to understand the third-generation of Algerian immigrants to France without recalling this bicultural experience. An official parliamentary report on the "prevention of criminality", commanded by then Interior Minister Villepin and made by member of parliament Jacques-Alain Bénisti, claimed that "Multilingualism (bilinguisme) was a factor of criminality." (sic). Following outcries from many NGOs and left-wing sectors, the definitive version of the Bénisti report finally made multilingualism an asset rather than a fault.

Thus, the stakes of the contemporary debate on torture clearly appear in full light. After having denied its use during 40 years, the French state has finally recognized it; although, there was never an official proclamation about it. Paul Aussaresses was sentenced following his justification of the use of torture for "apology of war crimes." But, the same as during the events of the time, the French state has claimed torture was an isolated act, instead of admitting its responsibility in the institutionalization of torture as a standard counter-insurgency method, which was used to break the population's morale and not, as Aussaresses has claimed, to "save lives" by gaining short-term information which would stop "terrorists"). The state now claims that it was a regrettable incident due to the context of the war. But various academic research has proved both theses false. "Torture in Algeria was engraved in the colonial act; it is a 'normal' illustration of an abnormal system", wrote Nicolas Bancel, Pascal Blanchard and Sandrine Lemaire, who discuss the phenomena of "human zoos." From the enfumades (smoking parlors) of the Darha caves in 1844 by Pélissier to the 1945 riots in Sétif, Guelma, and Kherrata, the repression in Algeria has used the same methods. Following the Sétif massacres, other riots against the European presence occurred in Guelma, Batna, Biskra, and Kherrata; they resulted in 103 deaths among the pied-noirs. The repression of these riots officially saw 1,500 other deaths, but N. Bancel, P. Blanchard and S. Lemaire estimate the number to be rather between 6,000 and 8,000.