March 19, 2021
In this interview with Aswat Maghreb, Ali Abdellatif Ahmida, the head of the political science department and the colonial era expert at the University of New England, USA, responds to these questions.
The colonial memory file continues to poison Algerian-French relations, as Algerians demand an apology from Paris for the “crimes” of the colonial era, while French politicians are calling for a new page to be opened and looking to the future.
Recently, controversy over this file returned again after the issuance of a report completed by the French historian, Benjamin Stora, at the request of the Elysee Palace. The same questions have also returned. For example, why does France refuse to apologize to the Algerians? Has the file turned into an election card again in France? What is the best way to overcome the pain of the past?
France recently lifted the secrecy of documents related to the colonial era of Algeria (1830-1962), and the decision had different reactions between welcome and suspicious. As an expert studying the colonial era in North Africa, how do you view the Paris move?
We must understand that this issue is deeply rooted, and the French elite so far does not want to recognize other history, and the strange thing now is that some of the French archives on the Algerian war were only released a week ago, and this is strange because usually most of the archives are released after 30 years. .
The truth is that the French state – with the exception of the intelligentsia, politicians and militants who denounced colonialism in general – has yet to have a complex, which is Algeria.
We must understand that the Algerian war of liberation was never an Arab, African or Islamic issue, but rather a liberation war that won the sympathy of the world.
But we must also realize that the French did not view Algeria as a normal colony like Tunisia. Algeria was a settler colony, and France viewed it on the basis that it was part of it, in addition to that this colonialism is perhaps the oldest colonialism in the African continent, with the exception of the colonization of South Africa.