Algeria was colonised by France in 1830, after they captured the territory from the Ottoman Empire. The occupation lasted until 1962 when the Front National de Libération (FLN) won the independence of Algeria after a seven-and-a-half year war. Algeria was seen by the colonial state as an extension of France. It was categorised as a 'departement' (small region) rather than a 'colony'. At school, learning about the Algerian War of Independence is optional alongside the 'israelo-palestinian conflict'. My grandparents are from the generation who fought against the FLN in 1962, a war experience that is still being deeply silenced. A history of violence runs through what is unsaid. Algeria and France share a history that is presented as something in the past, an optional 'event' to study in History class (to speak of an 'event' is a euphemism used in French media to describe raids in Selma and Guelma in 1945, and then to describe the War of Independence). The lack of knowledge that French citizens have about their own country's colonisations enables a legacy of violence to persist into the present-day. From a will to de-construct what I have learnt in History classes, and a desire to burst the blister of cultural silence, I want to open the door to narratives that have been, and are still being erased by decades of colonialism.
Algeria was colonised by France in 1830, after they captured the territory from the Ottoman Empire. The occupation lasted until 1962 when the Front National de Libération (FLN) won the independence of Algeria after a seven-and-a-half year war. Algeria was seen by the colonial state as an extension of France. It was categorised as a 'departement' (small region) rather than a 'colony'. At school, learning about the Algerian War of Independence is optional alongside the 'israelo-palestinian conflict'. My grandparents are from the generation who fought against the FLN in 1962, a war experience that is still being deeply silenced. A history of violence runs through what is unsaid. Algeria and France share a history that is presented as something in the past, an optional 'event' to study in History class (to speak of an 'event' is a euphemism used in French media to describe raids in Selma and Guelma in 1945, and then to describe the War of Independence). The lack of knowledge that French citizens have about their own country's colonisations enables a legacy of violence to persist into the present-day. From a will to de-construct what I have learnt in History classes, and a desire to burst the blister of cultural silence, I want to open the door to narratives that have been, and are still being erased by decades of colonialism.