NARRATIVE – The war of independence remains for Algiers an effective lever in the standoff with Paris. But official history no longer affects Algerians, 87% of whom were born after 1962.
Alger
This week, Nazim, a 7-year-old from Algeria, came home from school with an essay topic. The teacher asked her students : « What do you know about the revolution ? ». The Algerian revolution – in France, we call this historical sequence “Algerian War” – began on 1is November 1954 and therefore celebrates its 70th this yeare birthday. Without having a precise idea of what really happened, Nazim nevertheless knows that it is an important date because « Algeria expelled France ».
A summary that makes Nour, his mother, a French-speaking and Francophile Algerian, laugh. « He's the first to jump for joy as soon as I tell him we're going on vacation to Paris ! In France, we imagine that in Algerian schools, children are gathered in the courtyard to ask them to repeat in chorus : “France is your enemy, learn by heart the life of mujahideen (veterans, Editor’s note)”
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