Why does France refuse to ask forgiveness for colonization?

This Wednesday, in Le Point, French President Emmanuel Macron felt he did not have to apologize to Algeria for colonization and war.

In July 2020, the Nigerian magazine The Republic posed a question: “In Africa, what future do we have a right to without a fair recognition of the past? The newspaper then evoked British colonization. Admittedly, France never colonized Nigeria. But the same question arises for Africa. With the possibility of going even further: should Paris apologize to its former colonies? This question was strongly discussed during the discussions between Paris and Kigali. But it is especially on the side of Algeria that we would like, one day, to obtain a request for forgiveness from France.

Which won't happen. Not in the short term anyway. French President Emmanuel Macron has just declared that he "did not have to ask forgiveness" from Algeria for colonization. But according to the French Head of State, we must continue the work of memory and reconciliation between France and Algeria. A delicate position when Paris and Algiers have warmed their relations in recent months, and while Abdelmajid Tebboune should make an official visit to France this year.

Germany apologizes, not France

As for the Algerian colonization, France, in Rwanda, managed to ignore the request for forgiveness. In May, Emmanuel Macron had evoked the "responsibility" of France in the Rwandan genocide, without going any further. In the Algerian file, it would not be delusional to expect real excuses: in 1962, it took a bloody war for Algeria to finally obtain its independence. There, the French army engaged in torture and executions. But the request for forgiveness never intervened, from the Élysée.

Is it a purely French taboo? Germany, for example, with regard to the genocide in Namibia between 1904 and 1908, called "officially these events for what they are from today's point of view: a genocide" and the German Foreign Minister , Heiko Maas, said: "In light of Germany's historical and moral responsibility, we will ask for forgiveness from Namibia and the descendants of the victims".

Emmanuel Macron refuses to take the same approach as the Germans. “The worst would be to conclude: 'We apologize and everyone goes their own way'. There, the false answer is as violent as the denial. Because, in this case, it is not true recognition. It is the balance of any account”. When submitting his report on the acts committed in Algeria by the French army, the historian Benjamin Stora had himself judged that a request for an apology would not be effective.

Excuses that would be legitimate

Except that with 132 years of colonization and massacres like that of Sétif, with a death toll of 40, according to Algerian historians, Algeria has the right to ask for a real apology. In July 000, Abdelmajib Tebboune requested this from Paris. Especially since Emmanuel Macron has asked for forgiveness from the harkis. On colonization, he prefers to do historical work.

The duty of memory rather than excuses… And if the two were not incompatible? “In truth, France should apologize for its colonial past which haunts everyone it touches. It should begin an exercise in truth and reconciliation, examining the legacy of the colonial project and the terrible cultural theft,” believes Dominique Day, vice-president of the UN think tank on people of African descent. Especially, she continues, that “France must also analyze how its own wealth and stability are directly linked to the instability and exploitation of its former colonies”.

Opponents of the request for forgiveness prefer to rely on a declaration by Montalembert. In 1863, the French academician said: “To judge the past, one would have had to live there; to condemn him, it would be necessary to owe him nothing”.