Algeria: France's Undeclared War PDF
Preview Algeria: France's Undeclared War
ALGERIA THE MAKING OF THE MODERN WORLD This group of narrative histories focuses on key moments and events in the twentieth century to explore their wider significance for the development of the modernworld. PUBLISHED TheFallofFrance:TheNaziInvasionof1940,JulianJackson ABitterRevolution:China’sStrugglewiththeModernWorld,RanaMitter DynamicofDestruction:CultureandMassKillingintheFirstWorldWar,AlanKramer Sharpeville:AnApartheidMassacreanditsConsequences,TomLodge Algeria:France’sUndeclaredWar,MartinEvans SERIESADVISERS PROFESSORCHRISBAYLY,UniversityofCambridge PROFESSORRICHARDJ.EVANS,UniversityofCambridge PROFESSORDAVIDREYNOLDS,UniversityofCambridge ALGERIA: FRANCE’S UNDECLARED WAR MARTIN EVANS 1 3 GreatClarendonStreet,OxfordOX26DP OxfordUniversityPressisadepartmentoftheUniversityofOxford. ItfurtherstheUniversity’sobjectiveofexcellenceinresearch,scholarship, andeducationbypublishingworldwidein Oxford NewYork Auckland CapeTown DaresSalaam HongKong Karachi KualaLumpur Madrid Melbourne MexicoCity Nairobi NewDelhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto Withofficesin Argentina Austria Brazil Chile CzechRepublic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore SouthKorea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam OxfordisaregisteredtrademarkofOxfordUniversityPress intheUKandincertainothercountries PublishedintheUnitedStates byOxfordUniversityPressInc.,NewYork #MartinEvans2012 Themoralrightsoftheauthorhavebeenasserted DatabaserightOxfordUniversityPress(maker) Firstpublished2012 Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced, storedinaretrievalsystem,ortransmitted,inanyformorbyanymeans, withoutthepriorpermissioninwritingofOxfordUniversityPress, orasexpresslypermittedbylaw,orundertermsagreedwiththeappropriate reprographicsrightsorganization.Enquiriesconcerningreproduction outsidethescopeoftheaboveshouldbesenttotheRightsDepartment, OxfordUniversityPress,attheaddressabove Youmustnotcirculatethisbookinanyotherbindingorcover andyoumustimposethesameconditiononanyacquirer BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData Dataavailable LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationData Dataavailable TypesetbySPIPublisherServices,Pondicherry,India PrintedinGreatBritain onacid-freepaperby ClaysLtd,StIvesPlc ISBN 978–0–19–280350–4 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 To Abdul with love Dunkerque GERMANY Paris FRANCE Lyon ITALY Aix-en-Provence Marseille L A G U T SPAIN R O P Mediterranean Sea Algiers Constantine Oran Bordj Bou Arreridj MOROCCO TUNISIA ALGERIA LIBYA A NI A T RI U A MALI M Tamanrasset 400 miles NIGER ContemporaryAlgeriaandFrance Acknowledgements B ordj Bou Arreridj is a small city of 169,009 inhabitants in eastern Algeria. Well known for its food and hospitality, Bordj is situated in themidstofacountrysidethatproducesthebulkofthecountry’swheatand barley:hence thearea’snicknameas Algeria’sbreadbasket. Towalkdown thestreetsofBordjBouArreridj,asIdidinApril2010,istofeelthehandof history.Thereisamuseumdedicatedtotheveteranswhofoughtagainstthe Frenchbetween1954and1962;acemeteryforthefallenmartyrs;amonu- ment to the national liberation struggle; a statute commemorating Mo- hammedEl-MokraniwholedahugerevoltintheregionagainsttheFrench in 1871. In this manner Bordj Bou Arreridj is typical. Every village, town, andcityinAlgeriahasthesametypeofmonuments:anever-presentpublic memory that is encapsulated in the massive memorial—the 97-metre-high Riad-El-Feth—that dominates the Algiers skyline. Inaugurated on 5 July 1982,exactlytwentyyearsafterindependencefromtheFrench,atthebase of the abstract monument are three huge male bronze figures, proud and defiant, which represent ‘popular resistance to the French occupation’; the ‘National Liberation Army’; and the present ‘Popular National Army’. Underneaththemonument,theMuseumtotheNationalLiberationStrug- gle climaxes with a domed room, decorated in gilded verses from the Qu’ran, that contains a single illuminated stone: the symbol of the ‘unity of the Algerian people and its heroic resistance’. In contrast, across the Mediterranean in France, there is no equivalent public memory. Unlike World War One, or the World War Two Resis- tance,publicmonumentshavebeenlocal,piecemealaffairs.Thosethatexist are the result of pressure from below by specific communities who want recognition of how they suffered during the Algerian War. Significantly, too,thediversityofthesemonumentsistestamenttotheongoingmemory waroverAlgeriawithincontemporaryFrance.Thus,inPariswecanfinda PlaceMauriceAudindedicatedto thememoryof anAlgerian Communist Party member who disappeared at the hands of French paratroopers in viii acknowledgements Algiers in 1957 and a plaque on the Pont Saint Michel bridge to Algerians whoweremurderedbyFrenchpolicethereon17October1961.Whilein Aix-en-Provence there is Place Bachaga Boualam, marking the life of the most prominent pro-French Algerian from the late 1950s, and in Nice a memorial to the French settlers which also includes a plaque to fallen membersoftheextremistpro-FrenchAlgeriaorganizationtheOrganisation Arme´e Secre`te (OAS) who are called ‘the martyrs of French Algeria’. Two different patterns of remembering; measures of the enduring signifi- canceofthesubjectofthisbook,namelytheorigins,experienceandlegacyof theAlgerianWarofIndependence1954to1962—aseminaleventintwenti- eth-centuryworldhistory.Assuchthebookwillbedealingwithbroadissues— colonialism, nationalism, war, the impact of transnational ideals—but it will alsobeattunedtotheparticularitiesofAlgerianhistory:acombinationofthe genericandspecificthatisabsolutelyvitalinunderstandingtheArabworldas thisregionexperiencesthetumultuouseventsofthe‘ArabSpring’. In completing this book I must first thank the British Academy which awarded me a Leverhulme Senior Fellowship in 2007–8. In addition the BritishAcademyalsofinancedfieldworkinFrance,participationintheRude´ SeminaronFrenchHistoryinAdelaidein2006,andathree-yearprojecton anoralhistoryofAlgerianandSenegaleseveteransfromtheAlgerianWarof Independence(Oralhistoryacrossgenerations:aresearchprogrammewith the universities of Dakar and Algiers, <http://www.port.ac.uk/research/ africanoralhistory>). In the last case this facilitated workshops at the Uni- versities of Algiers and Dakar in 2010 and 2011 that produced fascinating insights into the complexities of memory and history in contemporary Africa. Equally I must thank the Arts and Humanities Research Council which financed the research leave that allowed me to write up the bulk of this book. And finally I must thank the Centre for European and Interna- tional Studies Research at the University of Portsmouth which generously financedresearchtripstoAlgeria,BelgiumandFrance. IntermsofcolleaguesImustthankMeganVaughnwhofirstapproached mewiththeideaforthisbookontheadviceofMarkMazower.ThereafterI could not have begun to trace the long and complex history of Algeria withouttheideasofstimulatingcolleaguesattheUniversityofPortsmouth, above all Walid Benkhaled, Tony Chafer, Emmanuel Godin, and Natalya Vince,eachofwhomcommentedonthemanuscript.Equally,writingthis book gives me a chance to thank a generation of graduate students at Portsmouth—Enrico Cernigoi, Marianne Durrand, Fiona Haig, Manus acknowledgements ix McGrogan,TobiasReckling,MonicaRiera,andJoWarson—eachofwhom hasbroughtnewunderstandingstothevitalrealismofcontemporaryhistory, as well as those final-year students in the School of Languages and Areas Studies who took my final-year option in Algerian history and participated in the annual Algeria workshops. Again this teaching experience has done somuchtodeepenmyknowledgeandunderstandingofthesubject. Beyond Portsmouth, in the rest of the UK, Algeria, Australia, Canada, Senegal,and theUSA,I mustalso thank Richard Evans, AlistairHorne,Jim House, Roderick Kedward, Sylvie The´nault, Martin Thomas, and Ryme Seferdjeli who read the manuscript. For their insights and suggestions I am sincerelygrateful.Aspecialmentionmustalsobemadeofthosewhowereso helpful at the Socialist Party Archive in Paris—Fre´de´ric Ce´pe`de, Denis Le- febvre,andGillesMorin.ThanksalsotoNaomiGraham,whosokindlygave memuchofherlatehusband’s(BruceGraham)personalarchiveontheFrench Socialist Party, which proved invaluable. Importantly, too, I have benefited fromconversationswithAttika-YasmineAbbes-Kara,RobertAldrich,Martin Alexander,RobertBaldock,CatherineBarry,ChristopherBayly,BadiaBen- belkacem, Raphae¨lle Branche, Michael Brett, Phoebe Clapham, Claire El- dridge,MohammedHarbi,JulianJackson,MalikaKebbas,CheikhAhmadou Bamba Khoule´, John King, Zineb Lalaouine, James McDougall, Margaret Majumdar,ClareMarynower,CheikhAntaMbaye,GilbertMeynier,Samia Mitchell,CliveMyrie, SabreaOughton,MalikaRahal,EugeneRogan,Lydia A¯ıtSaadi,Cherif KhaledSabeur,Me´zianeSa¯ıdi,SokhnaSane´,GavinSchaffer, Ibrahima Seck, Martin Shipway, Daniel Stone, Ibrahima Thioub, Stephen Tyre,andMichaelWillis.Significantly,too,Iwouldliketothanktheteamat themagazineofHistoryToday—SheilaCorr,CharlotteCrow,PeterFurtado, KathrynHadley,andPaulLay—whoinbringinginformed,well-researched historytoawideraudiencehavealwaysbeenopentoallthingsAlgerian.Then atOxfordUniversityPressMatthewCottonhasbeenasuperbeditorthrough- out,incrediblypatientandalwaysencouraging,whileJeremyLangworthydid a fine job of copy-editing, and Emma Barber and Clifford Willis played a crucialroleduringthefinalproductionprocess.EmmanuellePe´risucceeded admirablyintrackingdowntheillustrations.Finally,asregards,myfamily— Lucy,Hannah,CalumandSkye—Icannotbegintothankthemenoughfor theirlove,patience,andsupport. Martin Evans Algiers April 2011
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