Algeria is celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of its independence this year – one year after the start of the Arab Spring and just before the electoral deadlines on both sides of the Mediterranean. La Vie des Idées devotes a dossier to the period following the war and independence, in order to initiate a reflection on contemporary Algeria and the way it views its past.
Algeria has been independent for half a century. The year 1962 saw the end of the War of Independence, the collapse of French colonial rule and the birth of the Algerian state. This fiftieth anniversary therefore hides a plurality of commemorations. A plurality of events celebrated: from March to July, the anniversary of the Evian Accords, the anniversary of the various referendums which saw the French and Algerian populations vote for self-determination, and the declaration of independence take place. Plurality of actors, because each of these stages is interpreted differently by the groups carrying memory. A plurality of generations, finally, which nourish the complexity of a memory phenomenon perceptible on both shores of the Mediterranean.
This file aims to highlight the ambivalent uses of a history still in progress and memories still alive, but also to underline the diversity of political uses which are made of these commemorations in an international context marked by the first anniversary of Spring Arab and by French and Algerian electoral deadlines. More broadly, it is a question of initiating a reflection on the period after independence and on the political and ideological changes experienced by Algerian society and the State. Illuminating the plurality of commemorations, on both sides of the Mediterranean, allows us to initiate a broader reflection on contemporary Algeria and its history.
Summary
– “ How to make the history of independent Algeria ? », by Malika Rahal.
– “ The end of empire and the transnational system ”, by Julia Clancy-Smith. About: Matthew Connelly, The Secret Weapon of FLN : How de Gaulle lost the Algerian WarPayot, 2011.
– “ Disobey in the Republic. An editor in the Algerian war », interview with Anne Simonin, by Florent Guénard.
– “ The nation and its returnees: a Germany-France comparison », by Jan C. Jansen and Manuel Borutta.
– “ Beyond October 17, 1961 », by Muriel Cohen. About The Parisian police and the Algerians (1944-1962) by Emmanuel Blanchard, Nouveau Monde éditions, 2011, 447 p., €26 ; and movies October in Paris by Jacques Panijel and Here we drown the Algerians by Yasmina Adi.
– “ Before the War of Independence. Milestones for a history of Algeria XIXe century », by Annick Lacroix. About : “ Algeria in XIXe century “, History review of XIXe century and Julia Clancy-Smith, MediterraneansUniversity of California Press, 2011.
– “ Arabization, a myth ? », by Tristan Leperlier.
– “ Non-Muslim Algerians put to the test of independence. European and Jewish anti-colonialists in Algeria facing the construction of the independent state (1962-1965) », by Pierre-Jean Le Foll-Luciani.
– “ History and memory of the Algerian war. Interview with Raphaëlle Branche », by Augustin Jomier and Julie Champrenault.
– “ The Maghreb, beyond and below the colonial », by M’hamed Oualdi. About Abderrahmane Bouchène, Jean-Pierre Peyroulou, Ouanassa Siari Tengour, Sylvie Thénault (dir.), History of Algeria during the colonial period (1830-1962)Barzakh-La Découverte and Daniel Rivet, History of Morocco from Moulay Idrîs to Mohammed VIFayard.