“The work of memory on colonization in Algeria is a possible element of leaving crisis with France” | EUROtoday

The work of reminiscence on Algeria and French colonization is ” essential “but it surely is not going to be sufficient in itself to resolve the disaster “Unpublished” That Paris and Algiers have been going by means of for nearly ten months, insists the historian Benjamin Stora in an interview with the France-Presse company.

This work is “A possible element of leaving crisis, in any case essential, in any case necessary, because we cannot (…) consider that this Algerian story is like all the other stories ”he judges, recalling the massacres committed by France between 1830 and 1880 during the colonization of Algeria, unknown by many French people.

But “We cannot settle by one speech, by a single gesture, reports which lasted 132 years. It’s very long, 132 years old. It’s on six generations “analyzes this specialist in Algeria, author of multiple works including a comic strip, Algerians in France.

“Flame of a painful memory”

The support, on July 30, 2024, of the president, Emmanuel Macron, to the plan of autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty of Western Sahara, precipitated the two countries in a deep crisis while this former Spanish colony, mainly controlled by Morocco, has been claimed for fifty years by the Sahraouis independentists of the Polisario Front, supported by Algeria.

“Perhaps it should have been discussed. It was not the case. »» “We unfortunately settled in this misunderstanding”explains the historian. From now on, “You have to be patient and advance step by step (…) with the political will to settle “ this crisis “In the long term”he continues, recalling that the relationship between France and Algeria has been “Standing dotted with disorders, cycles”,, “Going back and forth between tensions and thaw”.

This time, it’s “Totally unprecedented”he admits, because she “Settled in the duration”qualifying the current tensions of “The most important crisis since the independence of Algeria in 1962”. It is all the more dragged on in France, as in Algeria, there is “People, organizations, who have an interest in things not always going very well”he believes. And quote the French Minister of the Interior, Bruno Retailleau, who made “A large part of his campaign” for the presidency of the Les Républicains party by calling for“Extreme firmness” With regard to Algiers.

“On the Algerian side, there is also (…) people who believe that you have to break the link with France ” Even if they don’t seem to be within the majority, he says. “It is obvious that there is (…) political battles, where everyone (…) Find a bit of his account (…) By maintaining the flame of a painful memory. »» “We forestall the therapeutic of the wound”Who “Revives every time”.

He does not exclude Algeria can be a subject in the next presidential campaign, in two years, as had been the case in 2007. Nicolas Sarkozy “Had largely executed his marketing campaign on French Algeria”.

Continue the memory work

The memory of colonization and the Algerian war, it is “A bit like ghosts within the cabinets”. “It feels like we’ve closed everything. We have padlocked everything, but it escapes anyway, the memory comes back anyway. »»

If he does not see a exit from the crisis in brief maturity – Even if France would agree to new memorial gestures –he estimates “Very difficult to glimpse a diplomatic break in the classic sense of the term”with closure of the embassy on both sides, due to the deep interweaving of the two companies. “Hundreds of thousands of people (…) Cur up constantly between France and Algeria or between Algeria and France ”he argues.

The historian tirelessly advocates to proceed this work of reminiscence to result in appeasement. France has already acknowledged the assassination, by the French military, of Algerian leaders and French intellectuals, together with Maurice Audin, Ali Boumendjel and Larbi Ben M’hidi. But, in the meanwhile, she refuses to acknowledge her colonial crimes.

“It would take strong gestures, especially on the question of the XIX^e century “admits Benjamin Stora. But “Today, in my opinion, consider the possibility of memorial gestures [pour sortir de cette crise]it would be a kind of substitute for a resumption of political link ”essential to settle migration questions or that of visas. “In my opinion, the most important point will be the problem of the circulation of people between the two banks of the Mediterranean. »»