Benjamin Stora Set To Deliver His Memory Report Next Wednesday

The historian Benjamin Stora will officially hand Wednesday to French President Emmanuel Macron his report on “the memories of colonization and the Algerian war of independence”, with proposals to achieve a “necessary reconciliation” Franco-Algerian, almost 60 years after the end of the conflict, said Sunday the Elysée Palace.

The French historian “formulated in his report several recommendations aimed at achieving this necessary reconciliation of memories,” the presidency added.

Benjamin Stora, a recognized specialist in the contemporary history of Algeria, was commissioned in July by Emmanuel Macron to “draw up a fair and accurate inventory of the progress made in France on the memory of colonization and the Algerian war of independence.

“The aim of this mission was to draw up a precise inventory of the way these issues are viewed on both sides of the Mediterranean,” said the Elysée.

The French and Algerian presidents each appointed an expert – Abdelmadjid Chikhi for Algeria – to work on this still burning issue, as the 60th anniversary of Algerian independence (1962) approaches.
It is not a question of writing a common history of Algeria, but to consider cultural actions on specific subjects, to be determined, such as archives or the issue of the missing,” explained the historian in August.

Emmanuel Macron commissioned him to write this report as part of his initiatives to try to “finish the historical work on the Algerian war of independence” because, he explained in December, “we have heaps of memories of the Algerian war that are as many wounds”.

In the wake of the repatriation from France of the mortal remains of Algerian resistance fighters, last August President Abdelmadjid Tebboune had announced the creation of a joint commission between the two countries on memorial issues.

Indeed, as a reminder, the President of the Republic appointed Abdelmadjid Chikhi, adviser to the Presidency of the Republic, in charge of the National Archives and National Memory, as Algeria’s representative to lead the ongoing work with the French state on the files inherent to the national memory and the recovery of national archives.