Site icon The Journal of Africa

60 years of Independence of Algeria: optimism is the faith of revolutions

Algeria

60 years ago, Algeria became independent. An independence obtained in blood, which drew the Algeria of today, but also the relations of France with its former colonies, anti-colonial and Third World thought in Africa and in the world.

“Algeria is not a simple geographical expression but rather a program of action and a political philosophy”. A statement signed Houari Boumediene. This observation of the second Algerian head of state is not far from the truth.

Because Algeria has paid a high price for its independence from colonial France. With a figure fluctuating between 1 and 1,5 million martyrs. And it is in the blood of these martyrs, the Algerian Nation-State was born, and resists again and again to foreign interference. But not only, because it is also in Algeria that the pan-Africans of the first independences adopted Third Worldism, and that revolutionary thought, as a doctrine, planted its flag on the African continent.

Mecca of revolutionaries

Bissau-Guinean independence leader Amílcar Cabral was the first to call Algiers “the capital of revolutions”. “Muslims make the pilgrimage to Mecca, Christians to the Vatican and national liberation movements to Algiers,” Cabral summed up in 1969.

It was also in the midst of the war of independence in Algeria that the Martinican essayist - he considered himself Algerian, however - Frantz Fanon wrote "The Wretched of the Earth". Fanon also believed that “the violence of the colonized unifies the people. By its structure, colonialism is separatist and regionalist”.

Moreover, it is for this exact reason that the first two post-colonial decades in Algeria were devoted to three themes: the fight against desertification (the Green Dam), the nationalization of Algerian natural resources and the spread of Third World culture.

Three bets won, but whose model has penetrated very little into other African countries, or rather has disappeared elsewhere in Africa over time. Algerians, on the other hand, often praise the Algerian "identity" or "personality": a melting pot of passion and pride, which makes Algeria - some might dispute it - the country best prepared for autarky. and closest to self-reliance in Africa.

Algeria looks to the future with optimism

This continuity between the past and the present also explains the call of the Algerian Minister of the Mujahideen - to understand "the martyrs" - Laïd Rebiga to the Algerian youth "to make the oath of the mujahideen their own, in order to ensure its continuity. ".

On the sidelines of the commemoration of the 60th anniversary of Algeria's Independence, the government launched the "Glorious Algeria" platform, where the State will take charge of safeguarding the country's history. It would be, according to Prime Minister Aïmene Benabderrahmane, “the showcase of Algeria, historical and civilizational, (…) far from the smear campaigns carried out by the hateful enemies of Algeria”. One initiative among others during the July 5th celebrations. Indeed, the Algerian authorities also plan to organize a military parade in Algiers, the first for 33 years.

Algeria is also celebrating the diamond jubilee of its State in a particular context. On the one hand, it has been a little over three years since the Hirak demonstrations caused the fall of Abdelaziz Bouteflika. A series of constitutional, political and socio-economic reforms followed. However, the whole world went through crisis after crisis during the same period. In Algeria, the Covid-19 pandemic started in the midst of a recession due to the fall in the price of oil (dating from 2016).

More Since then, things have improved. The Russian-Ukrainian conflict has caused the price of gas and oil to skyrocket. This has enabled Algeria to launch several development projects: an Agricultural Plan including the creation of new cooperatives financed by the State, a megaproject with China in the production of fertilizers, and several agreements with Italy in particular in the gas.

Paris still refuses to apologize

Nothing, therefore, prevents Algerians from looking to the future with hope, as they celebrate the glorious struggle of their ancestors against colonialism. Admittedly, compared to recent years, relations between Algeria and France are warming up. However, the former colonizing state still refuses to clearly apologize for its abuses in Algeria.

Read: France-Algeria: regrets as an apology

Last October, French President Emmanuel Macron declared: “The post-1962 Algerian nation was built on a memory rent” based on “a hatred of France”. This had angered Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, who for months refused to take Macron on the phone. Algeria had also recalled its ambassador and banned French aircraft from flying over its territory. As a reminder, Algeria is also one of the few African countries to apply the principle of reciprocity in the granting of visas, and the French do not have easy access to it in general.

Nevertheless, for the past few months, Franco-Algerian diplomatic relations seem to be resuming. The opening of the colonization archives, the return of skulls of Algerian resistance fighters and even the declarations of the French government - in particular of the ministers Gérald Darmanin and Jean-Yves Le Drian - contributed to the return of good understanding between Algiers and Paris.

Algerians more resentful than their leaders

But if the States can discuss, the populations, they, decide more easily. As the Oran 2022 Mediterranean Games come to an end this Tuesday, their progress says a lot about relations between France and Algeria. Indeed, the French national anthem was whistled in the stadiums, and the athletes – with a few exceptions – booed. Since the opening ceremony, 40 spectators sang “long live Algeria” as the French delegation passed by.

Recent examples which show that Macron's "memory rent" is rather a painful story for the Algerian populations. The French media, for the past few days, have been inviting speakers hostile to Algeria, who are trying to put France's murderous colonialism into perspective.

This is the case, for example, of the French writer Karim Amellal, close to Macron, who believes that " there is an overflow of memory ". Or even the historian Amar Mohand-Amer, who says that "the instrumentalization of this relationship (between France and Algeria, editor's note) on one side as on the other does not escape anyone".

The choice of "specialists in Algeria" does not escape the Algerians. According to a poll by the Algerian daily El Watan, 84% of Algerians believe that “the harkis should not be forgiven”. A stigma that does not only affect those who served as auxiliaries to the French army during the Algerian war, the proof...

Exit the mobile version