The French Are At Odds Over Algeria’s Colonial Past

The forum organized by supporters of the so-called “French Algeria” in Perpignan over the last three days (24, 25 and 26 June) on the occasion of the celebration of the sixtieth anniversary of the signing of the Evian Accords, did not pass without controversy between the remnants of the Black Feet and their supporters from the extreme right, and other anti-colonial political parties, whose organizers tried to evoke the dream of “French Algeria” and glorify the practices of the hideous colonial occupation.
This forum, as is well known, was organized in order to commemorate the “migration” or the flight of the colonists (the centenarians), from Algeria in the wake of the cease-fire on March 19, 1962 towards France, for fear of reprisals from the Algerians due to the involvement of many of them in the terrorist acts carried out by an organization “The Secret Army” (OAS) helped them organize this activity, the mayor of Perpignon, near the Spanish-French border, Luis Alliot, of the National Rally Party, the far-right National Front led by Marine Le Pen.
Because the French are not on one position on the somber colonial past of their country, especially in Algeria, this forum provoked the ire of anti-colonialist and right-wing political and human rights circles, including the Freedom, Equality, Mediterranean Association, and SOS Discrimination, which accused the forum’s organizers of trying to revive a discussion of the past, by rewriting history differently.
The French region of Perpignan is the largest city in which “black feet” and “harkis” gathered after fleeing Algeria in the wake of independence, where 12,000 black feet and the same number of “harkis” were housed, while its original inhabitants did not exceed eight thousand, which made the mayor of this far-right municipality welcomes them again, honors their memory, and regrets the “cut out pages” in school history books about the French occupation of Algeria, according to Agence France-Presse.
And from what Louis Alliot, the fanatic of “Algeria is French”, said in the forum that wrapped up on Sunday: “We often forget the simple people who worked in Algeria (he means the harki and the black feet). We cannot accuse France alone (..) We must remember its contribution (in building Civilization of Algeria). It is enough just to look at its situation today, we cannot say that it is prosperous…”, in a blatant promotion of the thesis that colonialism has advantages in the former colonies, including Algeria, as stated in the law of February 23, 2005.
The far-right described what happened to the “black feet” and “harki” in the wake of independence as “a mass exodus towards the motherland (France), yes it is a mass exodus, they have abandoned everything … it is a great shock,” noting that this municipality held a special memorial for Lamourad Kouache, French MP of Algerian origin in the Jean Marie Le Pen party, between 1958 and 1962.
The response of the other party was not delayed, as the leftists and the “SOS Tamazight” organization decided to organize a counter-festival between June 27 and next July 3, which will witness lectures that respond to the first activity, and work to consolidate the culture of unity in the Mediterranean basin and provide a collective and positive vision for the relationship between the peoples bordering the Mediterranean, according to the historian and one of the organizers of this festival, Nicolas Leborg, a specialist of the extreme right movement.