Algeria was colonised from 1830 to 1962. The Algerian war of independence took place from 1954 – 1962. This presentation will give you a grater understanding of Algerian society, the impact colonisation had upon the lives of Algerians. Will give you an insight into the Algerian family unit. Finally it will beg questions relating to European Migration

1. COLONIAL INFLUENCES:
CASE OF MIGRATION FROM
ALGERIATO FRANCE.
Based on: Frantz Fanon

2. Aims of this session
■ To have a greater understanding of Algerian society.
■ To consider the impact colonisation had upon the lives ofAlgerians.
■ To understand the Algerian family unit.
■ To consider implications for European migration.

3. Terminology
■ Maghreb – A major region of northern Africa which Algeria is a part of.
■ Kabyle - A member of a Berber people inhabiting northern Algeria.
■ Haik - A large wrap, typically white, covering the face, worn by people from North Africa.
■ Fidai – One who sacrifices him/herself in the name of faith or an idea.
■ Douars – An Arabian village.
■ MTLD – Movement for the triumph of democratic liberties – Nationalist parties.
■ UDMA – Democratic Union of the Algerian Manifesto - Nationalist parties.
■ FLN – National Liberation Front – Main group (No ideological cause).
■ ALN – Army of National Liberation – Military wing.
■ Moudjahid – One who is engaged in Jihad (a holy war).
■ Mustaha – Chosen one.
■ Maquis – French resistance movement.
■ Djebel – Mountains and hills.

4. Where on earth is Algeria?
Algeria

5. Migration trends
■ Colonisation involved certain countries such as France, England,Germany and
Portugal building empires.
■ White Europeans have migrated themselves to various parts of the world and
exploited those countries for their resource.
■ Today, people who represent these countries are coming to Europe.
■ Does Europe owe them a historical debt?

6. Background information (l)
■ Algeria was colonised from 1830 to 1962 (cheap land, geopolitics, assimilation by
France).
■ Other French colonies regained independence after WW2.
■ During 1954 – 1962 the Algerian war of independence took place.
■ Historians generally agree that the war started with a series of bomb attacks across
Algeria on 1st November, which were conducted by the FLN/ALN.
■ Algeria had and still has today a big Muslim population, but during the colonisation the
French Catholics attempted to be dominant, causing tensions between the two people
groups.

7. Background information (ll)
■ It could be argued that the French were successful up until the end of the 19th century
but soon discontent rapidly increased for Muslims.
■ During this time 75% of Muslim Algerians were illiterate in Arabic.
■ Unemployment among Muslims in Algeria was over one million and twice as many
were underemployed.

8. Three main groups
■ French government (including the French army).
■ Pied Nois – Metropolitan France and many of the French Europeans who settled in
Algeria.
■ Algerians – Nationalist movement.

9. French authorities blowing up Algerian
house. 37:30.

10. The Algerian women
■ Historians, sociologists and Islam specialists depict the Algerian women as…
i. A man’s slave.
ii. The unchallenged sovereign at home.
iii. A woman who dreams of being free.
iv. Someone who wants to see an improvement in their status.
v. Someone one with a lack of importance and forced silence.
vi. Someone without personality.
The Algerian war tears up these preconceptions.

11. The Algerian women during the the war
(l)
■ TheAlgerian woman is at the heart of combat. Arrested, tortured, raped, shot down, she testifies to
the violence of the occupier and to his inhumanity.
■ The occupier endeavoured to unveil the women in order to make them an ally of cultural destruction.
■ TheAlgerian woman is not a secret agent, it is with apprenticeship, without briefing, without fuss,
that she goes into the street with three grenades in her handbag or the activity report of an area in
her bodice (knowing that if she is caught the punishment would be that of tortured to death).
■ TheAlgerian woman is the bearer of messages, of complicated verbal orders that she has learned by
heart.
■ The unveiled woman often is noticed by young men, she is treated unpleasantly with humiliating
remarks and she must grit her teeth, and becarful not to draw attention to herself.
■ TheAlgerian woman often carries money and medical supplies for the FLN and the Moudjahid.

12. The Algerian women during the war (ll)
■ The young women walk in front of the ‘Moudjahid’s’ and the ‘Fidai’ carrying their
weapons for them and, If things go wrong, recover the weapons immediately.
■ The younger women issue warnings in case of danger.
■ The Algerian women carry revolvers, grenades, hundreds of false identity cards.
■ The unveiled women moves like a fish in western waters. The French soldiers check
her out and don’t suspect a thing.
■ If their husband was killed they were left to find ways to stop their children from
starving to death.

13. The complexity of the war
■ The decision to kill innocent civilians was not an easy one for the Algerian
revolutionaries.
■ Political rationale dictated they should not to do certain things which could jeopardise
the chance of freedom.
■ Three considerations:
A. Not to pile up innocent victims.
B. Not to give false images of the Revolution.
C. The anxiety to have the French democrats on their side.

14. The European attitude towards
Algerians
■ There was an attitude that the Europeans could do whatever they wanted.
■ Europeans have views like ‘let’s take ten of them, bump them off and the problem will
be sorted in no time’.
■ ManyAlgerians were tortured, shot and killed; this led many Algerian women to be
wholly and deliberately emersed in the revolution.
■ They believe that men treat their women badly and force them to stay in doors and
wear the Haik.

15. The role of the veil (Haik) (l)
■ At first theVeil was worn because tradition demanded a rigid separation of sexes but
soon the veil was abandoned for the revolutionary cause.
■ The veil covers the body and disciplines, tempers, protects, reassures, isolates the
person who is wearing it.
■ Without it she has a feeling of being improperly dressed, even being naked.
■ She has to create for herself an attitude of an unveiled woman outside. She must
overcome all timidity, all awkwardness (for she must pass for a European).

16. The role of the veil (Haik) (ll)
■ The veil has been manipulated, transformed into a technique of camouflage, into a
means of struggle.
■ The Haik was often used to carry packages, but by this point the authorities were
aware of this, so new tactics had to be implemented.
■ When the French government realised Europeans were a part of the revolution they
had to change their tactics and search all people, and anyone with a package could be
searched.

17. Revolutionary's carrying guns and
grenades. 29:40.

18. The Algerian Family (l)
■ The war meant that the family unit had to evolve and let go of some of their traditions.
The Son and Father
■ The father lagged behind their son(s) in regards to national consciousness.
■ Although the father often wished for the end of French colonisation, they understood
that the French force was just too strong to be over throne.
■ Conflict and guidance –The militant would take the heart of the son.
■ The father would soon bury old values and join the cause.
■ At times the son would decide the fate of their father.

19. The Algerian Family (ll)
The Daughter and Father
■ The girls are a notch behind the boys.
■ The birth of a boy is celebrated to a greater extent than the birth of a girl.
■ The girl finds her place in the domestic traditions of Algerian society.
■ From her mother she learns about the high value of man.
■ The daughter learns to avoid discussions with men and not to aggravate them.
■ The young girl avoids appearing before her father.
■ During the time of puberty the father should never be alone with his daughter.
■ The girl who hits puberty must be ready for marriage.
■ The girl must marry so that when the father is dead, someone can look after the girl.

20. The Algerian Family (lll)
The Daughter and Father
Restrictions were lifted by the national liberation struggle.
■ Tomorrow this young girl would be carrying grenades, sub-machine gun chargers and
would risk being violated, tortured and raped (Impossible to go back to the old state of
mind).
■ Women would put on make up and be out until the early hours of morning for the first
time ever, for the purpose of this was national liberation.
■ Girls would leave the ‘dours’ and would move to the ‘djebel’; they would be dressed as
a men with guns in their hands and engage in Jihad.
■ The man’s word was no longer the law; women were no longer silent.
■ The daughter would sit with her father and look at him in the eyes; both parties would
feel no shame or embarrassment.
■ The father would feel no need to question his daughter’s moral judgements.

21. The Algerian Family (iv)
The brothers
■ The eldest brother is the father’s designated successor.
■ The older brother would always be right (even if he was wrong).
Changes during the national liberation movement.
■ Younger son could be the group leader and command authority over his own older
brother.
■ Each brother could define their own value.

22. The Algerian Family (v)
The Couple
■ During the liberation movement, wives had been liberated so much that they were
now at a place of calling their husband a coward if they did not take arms and commit
themselves to revolution.
■ The women whose husband’s were apart of the FLN andALN demanded to be kept
informed.
■ Childless couples would often fight side by side, rather than being apart.
■ The revolution caused couples to be more closely knit.
■ The couples rid themselves of ancient traditions.

23. The Algerian Family (vi)
Marriage
■ Typically marriage was decided by families. Husband’s did not see his wife for the until
their wedding day.
■ A contract between two families/tribes.
During the revolution
■ Registry offices were opened and marriage were now a voluntary union, and no longer
a contract between two families.

24. Planting of bombs and the unveiled
women – 43:00

25. Algeria dispersed –The aim?To break up
the will of the people
■ The tactics adopted by French colonialism since the beginning of the Revolution have
had the result of separating the people from each other with the aim of making
cohesion impossible.
■ At the start of the war over 10,000Algerian men were interned. This increased rapidly
in 1956-1957, when more centres were opened.
■ Men who were not found in the interns would be found in the Maquis.

26. Algerians European minority
■ The MTLD asked the European community whose side were they on.
■ For the F.L.N., in the new society that is being built, there are onlyAlgerians. From the
outset, therefore, every individual living in Algeria is an Algerian. In tomorrow's
independent Algeria it will be up to every Algerian to assume Algerian citizenship or to
reject it in favour of another.
■ “You are Algerians, just as we are, but if you want to leave the country you are free to
do so." And the Europeans would always answer, "We don' t want to leave and we
don't want to be strangers in this country."
■ On occasions the European minority would find themselves in armed conflicts in order
to rescue Algeria from its desperate situation.

27. Algerian Jews
■ The Algerian Jews represent one-fifth of the non-Muslim population of Algeria.Their
attitude toward the struggle of the Algerian people is obviously not a homogeneous
one.
■ Jewish tradesmen have a monopoly. If there is an independent Algeria, the Algerians
will take their hegemony.
■ The Algerian people addressed the Jewish community to find out their intentions.
■ The Jews see themselves as Algerians.
■ The Jewish people help to finance the struggle.
■ There remains a division between the Jews and Muslims, but they are racial brothers
and have a deep and lasting attachment to the fatherland.

28. Europeans in the Algerian cities
■ Algerians were hit by a pharmaceutical embargo and European doctors were forced by
the French government to report any wounded man who appeared suspect.
■ European doctors did not always follow this and would treat them without
discrimination
■ Highly placed civil servants would produce false ID cards for those in FLN cells.
■ Europeans who were caught were often tortured and killed.
■ What Algeria's Frenchmen were most worried about, in fact, was whether or not they
would be able to remain in Algeria.

29. Any questions?