A musical comedy brought to the fore, this week in Algeria, the many artists who participated and gave an international echo to the war of independence against France, on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of its outbreak, in 1954.
The Price of Freedom, performed for the first time Thursday, November 7 at the Algiers Opera in a packed house, commemorated in a manner “unpublished” the artists who took part in the insurrection, according to its designers. After an imposing military parade on November 1, the start of the insurrection against the colonial power (1830-1962), celebrations multiplied throughout the week.
The musical is “a tribute to the long list of artists” who left everything to join the National Liberation Front (FLN), explains to AFP the author of the booklet, Haroun Al Kilani, 54 years old. Performed by nearly 200 artists, The Price of Freedom includes four acts relating in particular the epic of the national anthem “Kassaman”, the lyrics of which were written by the poet Moufdi Zakaria.
The piece evokes artists who were the voice of Algeria, including outside its borders, including Ali Maâchi, known for his militant songs and hanged in the public square by the French army in June 1958 in Tiaret (north-west). ).
The show notably tells “the history of the national anthem, how it came to be and who wrote it”explains director Rabie Guechi, 52, emphasizing “the sacrifices” of “the army of artists” mobilized during the insurrection. The piece, which lasts 1 hour 20 minutes, brings together a range of disciplines, singing, music, dance, theater, video and animation. Its designers want it to be performed again, in Algiers or elsewhere in the country.
On November 1, the country commemorated with a two and a half hour military parade the night of 1954 during which around thirty FLN attacks targeting symbols of the colonial presence left ten people dead, marking the start of the conflict. Between 1954 and 1962, the war of independence killed one and a half million “martyrs” Algerians, according to Algiers, 500,000 dead including 400,000 Algerians according to French historians.
Relations between Algiers and Paris have since alternated between phases of rapprochement and estrangement, as since the end of July when France provided its support to Morocco on an autonomy plan for Western Sahara. This positioning provoked the anger of Algeria, which supports the separatists of the Polisario Front there.
