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International

No Repentence

The relationship between France and Algeria is still scarred by the trauma of the 1954-1962 independence war but President Macron is trying to make amends.

By Syed Zain Abbas Rizvi | May 2021

The French colonization of Africa has been one of the most notorious atrocities inflicted on human rights in history. What started as a gruelling rule of torture and supremacy in the early 19th century culminated in the mid-20th century as Algeria gained independence from France in 1962. However, despite the liberation, the dissent never subsided and the piling resentment anchored in the past continues to sour relations.

Millions of Algerians were slaughtered in numerous battles fought to clench independence from French sovereignty. While over the years France never officially accepted the massacre of the Algerians, current French President Emmanuel Macron has set a precedent by recalling and recanting the long-held notion of French nobility: accepting the war crimes conducted by the French military whilst focusing on the remnants of the dark past in a reformed hue.

Last March, President Macron, in his effort to acknowledge the truths of the past, addressed the grandson of a renowned freedom fighter and war victim, Ali Boumendjel. He accepted the truth that lurked for decades: “At the heart of the battle of Algiers, he [Boumendjel] was arrested by the French army, placed in solitary confinement, tortured then assassinated on March 23rd, 1957. He did not commit suicide but was tortured and killed”.

Algeria, officially known as the ‘People’s Republic of Algeria’, is a North African country along the Mediterranean coastline. The country has Arabian descent that is apparent from its key geographical position in the African continent. It is surrounded by Muslim majority countries like Libya bordering on the east, Morocco in the west and Mali and Niger in the south. Unfortunately, the commonality does not cease at the congruence of religion and ethnicity. Most countries, including Algeria, that are former colonies of France, sit at the northern edge of the Mediterranean gully separating the continents of Africa and Europe. During the 19th and 20th centuries, France and Britain controlled almost 95% of the entire African continent; France held sovereignty over the expanse of North and Western chunks of Central Africa while Britain colonized South and Eastern Africa.

Françafrique I.e., French influence over Africa rapidly sprawled across 20 African states. In 1830, Algeria was systematically colonized by France over a course of almost 2 decades. Thehe French imperials prudently laid the rudiments of a draconian rule by decimating regional resistance. The conquests translated into a ruthless seizure that would propagate in subtle variations over the following century. While the initial agenda of colonization was the traditional approach to exploit the resource-rich land and extract labour from the natives, the process was intermittently interrupted by the Algerian freedom fighters. The consistent guerrilla warfare and constant resistance against the prospering French regime led to a spiral of violence and a grapple for autonomy between the French rulers and the barbaric Algerian freedom fighters. With a lack of proper negotiation, corrupted mediation and a God complex in French governors, the dissent only expanded with time. The growing French settlers also called ‘Colons’, were allowed esteem and privilege whilst the indigenous population suffered mediocrity. The fledgling democracy and the abysmal Algerian representation coupled with lack of dignity in their own country, fuelled Algerian resentment and kick-started campaigns for freedom.

As many as 3 major independence movements started during the French rule. With the participation of educated Algerians and intellectuals, the movements all but failed to gain the attention of the French rulers who defied the very existence of their right to exist in their own country. The peaceful struggles were all that could be mustered over the outgoing 19th century as the French overpowered the natives in every facet of armed retaliation. The dawn of the 20th century paved new avenues for the Algerian population. While the French still tightened the screws in Algerian democratic circles, the military was packed with Algerian soldiers. During World War I, as many as 200,000 Algerians fought for France in the hopes of earning a better position in Algeria. Instead, the Algerians were appeased by being given citizenship in France. Surprisingly, the majority of the Algerians rejoiced by the offering: more than a third of the young Algerian population - between 20 and 40 - was living in France by the end of World War I.

The cause of independence faltered yet did not die down. Small pockets of the Algerian army formed a think-tank as they used their combat experience to strategize against French domination. The group inferred that systematic and organized violence was the only option to make the French aware of the growing animosity in Algerian circles.

This stagnant process gave birth to nationalist groups over successive decades and eventually peddled resistance to the colonial regime under the banner of the National Liberation Front (FLN). The movement was stunted by World War II in the 1940s, over the expectation of peaceful French decolonization in exchange for the immense loyalty shown by the Algerians to the French. However, the gesture was again extended only to the offer of French citizenship to Algerian veterans with no expression of gratitude, nor revitalized respect. This led to the emergence of pent-up acrimony in the peaceful demonstrations by Algerian freedom fighters.

The demonstrations were welcomed with bullets by the French authorities, leading to a death toll of as many as 45,000 Algerians. While the French regime tried to curb the reported fatalities, the genocide served as the cornerstone of the Algerian War of Independence that commenced in 1954. The revolution, led by the freedom fighters of FLN, aimed to restore a sovereign Algerian state with a tightly-knit Islamic framework and even-handedness for all Algerian citizens while ousting the French tyrants from Algeria. The armed conflict surged over an eight-year campaign that engulfed Algeria altogether. While French troops left no stone unturned to increase the rancour, the ferocious Algerian fighters shook the very foundations of the 132-year French occupation. The armed conflicts in Algeria coupled with terrorist attacks by French-Algerians in France surged the possibility of a coup. The circumstances eventually forced France to negotiate with the Algerians which eventually led to an agreement and culminated in Algerian Independence in 1962.

Mr. Ali Boumendjel was one of the reported 1.5 million Algerian freedom fighters who were martyred at the hands of the French troops during the 8-year Algerian Revolutionary War. He was one of the forefront nationalists who actively defied French colonialism and acted as a moderator for the Algerian revolutionaries. While the Algerian war upscaled and regions started gaining freedom from French rule, Boumendjel went suspiciously off-the-radar in the aftermath of the battle of Algiers in 1957. His death was classified as a suicide even years after the Algerian Independence yet his devotees pushed to uncover the truth. In the early 2000s, the former head of French Intelligence in Algeria confessed on trial to have directed the French troops to massacre mounds of Algerian war prisoners, including Ali Boumendjel.

While President Macron has gradually built a narrative to accept the dark past and mistakes in an effort to reconcile relations with core African countries, his efforts have an underlying tone of domestic strategic objectives. Over the years, France has taken a brazen tone to curb the extremist Muslims in an effort to drown what they refer to as ‘Political Islam’. However, with the collective guilt approach of the Macron regime, the French government has harboured hostility from not only the Muslim factions within the peripheries of France but with many of the key Muslim nations. Therefore, the attempt to placate the archaic rivals could plausibly be a ruse to balance the anti-Islam image that has built up over the last decade.

President Macron was widely acclaimed for his comments over the bloodied chapters of history: acknowledging that the French colonisation of Algeria was a ‘Crime against Humanity’. While the comments were taken in good taste by the Algerian government, ties still hang from a lint as France treads carefully to accept what it could digest. Moreover, the Algerian regime still awaits an official apology for the war crimes, still demands acceptance of the staggering death toll of the Algerian freedom fighters which to date France significantly understates, and asks effective actions to be taken as dictated by President Macron’s own words: “No repentance nor apologies but symbolic acts”. All in all, the gestures are lined with the overture to reconcile the leftist Muslim fragments within France and beyond before they erupt to rewind history.

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