The French Are Reviving Reconciliation Of Memory With Algeria

A group of French youth, including those of Algerian origin, responded to the desire of French President Emmanuel Macron to calm the wars of memory with Algeria, and decided to raise a set of demands to him, including proposals in this regard, based on the recommendations contained in the report worked out by French historian, Benjamin Stora.
According to the document published by the initiative’s owners in the French newspaper Le Monde, “Based on the report of Benjamin Stora, and with the assistance of Cecil Renaud, project manager at the Elysee Palace and those responsible for implementing the recommendations of this report, we have gathered as of June 2021 to reflect, discuss and present our vision on appeasing the French-Algerian memory crisis, and thereby we have decided to present our work in the form of letters addressed to the President of the Republic”.
The initiators are a group of fifteen young people, aged between 18 and 35, students and from different backgrounds, who say they “have a family connection to this story. Our grandparents or our great-grandparents were independence fighters, recruits, harkis, or returnees to France, or black feet, or Jews of Algerian origin, or French soldiers, or even members of the secret armed organization (OAS).”
This initiative comes after the meeting that brought together the French President with a group of French youth of Algerian origin, a meeting that witnessed irresponsible and unacceptable statements from Macron, reported by the newspaper “Le Monde” earlier, in which he questioned the existence of an Algerian nation before 1830, and caused a sharp diplomatic crisis between Algeria and Paris.
According to the document, its goal is to “work for reconciliation and build a common future for new generations”, by sharing and promoting some values, based on five themes, all linked to Benjamin Stora’s report, represented in “education, establishing a museum or institute of testimonies, places of memory, exchanges between young people, as well as symbolic figures and revelations.
The owners of the initiative say that many generations did not learn about the Algerian war, especially those born in the eighties, and those, according to the document, who “did not benefit from the lessons of history during this period of their school life, as is the case with the French who were born in the nineties and who will finish their studies.” without studying this war in school.”
Therefore, the owners of the initiative call for “teaching this history to all French youth by including it in the school curricula in a basic way, a step that would view the diversity of memories, as well as the creation of a website that effectively collects all available resources related to the colonization of Algeria, from archives and photos novels, films, documentaries, and museum resources.
The most sensitive of the demands made by the initiative’s owners to the French president, are those related to the movement of people between the two countries, to visit places of memory in both countries, in cooperation with the governments of the two countries. In this issue, the focus has been on facilitating the visit of the Harkis, the black feet, and the Jews to Algeria.
The owners of the initiative ask a number of questions, the answers to which are aimed at appeasing memories, “Do we need to treat only French society, or Algerian society? Or do we treat all those whose fate was turned upside down because of the Algerian war?”
But the most dangerous question that was asked, which is at the heart of all the crises that have been poisoning bilateral relations: “Does pacification and reconciliation require recognition of France’s actions (in Algeria), those for which it has not apologized? In reference to the horrendous French colonial crimes for which Algeria is demanding an official apology. The owners of the initiative did not provide any answer on this point.
And they stressed: “We would like words that are not necessarily based on excuses, but are directed towards the future,” a conclusion that could undermine this initiative from its foundation, because the Algerians do not want to give up the demand for an apology, which was the reason for the Algerian side’s failure to respond to the Benjamin Stora report.