Algerian nationalism: Difference between revisions

'''Algerian nationalism''' is pride in the Algerian identity and culture. It has been shapedhistorically influenced by Algerian-French dichotomies;the tensionsconflicts between the French[[Deylik of Algiers]] and European countries, the [[Berbers|BerberFrench conquest of Algeria]] and the Arabicsubsequent language[[French andcolonial culture;rule]] in Algeria, the [[DemocraticAlgerian socialism|socialistWar]], asand wellsince asindependence by [[IslamicArab democracy|Islamicsocialism]], ideologies;[[Islamism]] and gendered[[Arab symbolsnationalism]].<ref>{{Cite ofbook nationhood—and|last=Shatzmiller continues|first=Maya to|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=apVov0sqrfUC&pg=PA201 |title=Nationalism and Minority evolveIdentities in theIslamic presentSocieties manifestations|date=2005-04-29 taking|publisher=McGill-Queen's placePress in- [[Algeria]].MQUP |isbn=978-0-7735-7254-6 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="autogenerated1">James McDougall. ''History and the Culture of Nationalism in Algeria''. Cambridge, England, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2006. Pp. 25.</ref> It was inspired by people such as [[Abdelhamid Ben Badis|Ben Badis]] and [[Djamila Bouhired]], who were two of the many opposing French colonial rule in Algeria.

== Early 1900smanifestations ==

<ref name="web.archive.org">Original text from: Library of Congress, 1994. ‘A'A Country Study: Algeria’Algeria', in Library of Congress Call Number DT275 .A5771 1994 Available at: https://web.archive.org/web/20130115052428/http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/dztoc.html</ref> A new generation of [[Muslim]]s emerged in Algeria at the time of World War I and grew to maturity during the 1920s and 1930s. It consisted of a small but influential class of ''[[évolué]]s'', other Algerians whose perception of themselves and their country had been shaped by wartime experiences, and a body of religious reformers and teachers. Some of these people were members of the few wealthy Muslim families that had managed to insinuate themselves into the colonial system in the 1890s and had with difficulty succeeded in obtaining for their sons the French education coveted by progressive Algerians. Others were among the about 173,000 Algerians who had served in the [[French army]] during World War I or the several hundred thousand more who had assisted the French war effort by working in factories. Many Algerians stayed in France after 1918, and sent the money they earned there to their relatives in Algeria. In France they became aware of a standard of living higher than any they had known at home and of democratic political concepts, taken for granted by Frenchmen in France, which ''[[colon (Algeria)|colons]]'', soldiers, and bureaucrats had refused to apply to the Muslim majority in Algeria. Some Algerians also became acquainted with the [[pan-Arab nationalism]] growing in the Middle East.

Between March and October 1954, the CRUA organised a military network in Algeria comprising six military regions (referred to at the time as ''[[wilayat]]''; singular: ''wilaya''). The leaders of these regions and their followers became known as the "internals". [[Ben Bella]], [[Mohammed Khider]], and [[Hocine Aït Ahmed]] formed the [[External Delegation in Cairo]].<ref>Library of Congress, 1994. ‘A'A Country Study: Algeria’Algeria', in Library of Congress Call Number DT275 .A5771 1994 Available at: https://web.archive.org/web/20130115052428/http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/dztoc.html</ref> Encouraged by i.e. Egypt's President [[Gamal Abdul Nasser]] (r. 1954–71), their role was to gain foreign support for the rebellion and to acquire arms, supplies, and funds for the wilaya commanders. In October the CRUA renamed itself the [[National Liberation Front (Algeria)|National Liberation Front]] (''Front de Libération Nationale'', FLN), which assumed responsibility for the political direction of the revolution. The National Liberation Army (''Armée de Libération Nationale'', ALN), the FLN's military arm, was to conduct the War of Independence within Algeria. FLN and ALN diffused the civil-military relations, and the army remained present throughout the end of the war and beyond, although in the end the victory would in the end be a political one rather than a military.<ref name="Phillips, John 2007. p.64">Phillips, John, and Martin Evans. Algeria: Anger of the Dispossessed. Yale University Press, 2007. p.64</ref> The FLN resorted to populist rhetorics and used symbolic slogans such as for example “one"one sole hero: the people”people", however, they remained somewhat distanced from the population during the war. This was partly a consequence of the inability of a class strong enough to emerge and articulate a credible and overarching consensus about revolutionary resistance strategies under the oppression of the colonial system. The FLN was a complex organisation, entailing much more than what perceived at first glance, they were characterised by an anti-intellectualism and a conviction that the country (and thereby also the abstract masses) had to be liberated by a violent group of dedicated revolutionaries.<ref name="Phillips, John 2007. p.64"/> Simultaneously, their leadership struggled with intra-elite ideological conflicts and throughout history, FLN has simultaneously contained [[Liberalism|Liberals]], [[Marxists]] as well as [[Islamists]].<ref>Ruedy, John. Modern Algeria: The Origins and Development of a Nation. 2nd Revised edition. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2005.</ref>

The FLN was after some time more or less the predominant organisation in the national struggle against France, however support of the national liberation rested partly on a cornerstone of intimidation, aimed at promoting compliance from the native population. To be seen as a pro-French Muslim - a “"[[béni-oui-oui]]”" could cause immediate retribution.<ref name="Phillips, John 2007. p.58"/> Spurred by i.e. internal political turmoil partly caused by an enormous presence of the French army, an effect of a vote in of special powers by the National Assembly, FLN was under severe pressure in the late 50s. The nation was torn between an extremely aggressive coloniser and an FLN who claimed to embody the struggle of the people.<ref name="Phillips, John 2007">Phillips, John, and Martin Evans. Algeria: Anger of the Dispossessed. Yale University Press, 2007.</ref> Before, during, and after the Algerian war Algerian nationalism was heavily influenced by [[Pan-Arabism]] and [[Arab nationalism]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Berger |first=Anne-Emmanuelle |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=29ZurQz7EtUC&pg=PA35 |title=Algeria in Others' Languages |date=2002 |publisher=Cornell University Press |isbn=978-0-8014-3919-3 |language=en}}</ref> These ideologies spread from the Middle East, and were promoted by popular foreign Arab nationalist figures like [[Gamal Abdel Nasser]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Vatikiotis |first=P. J. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TICUEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT192 |title=Nasser and His Generation |date=2022-09-30 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-1-000-72639-8 |language=en}}</ref> The FLN, especially after independence, espoused Arabism and began the Arabization process of the country as a way to combat "colonial divides" created by France, which however led to the estrangement of Berber areas, and unrest.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Platteau |first=Jean-Philippe |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7BriDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA224 |title=Islam Instrumentalized |date=2017-06-06 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-107-15544-2 |language=en}}</ref>

Women played a major yet diverse role in the war of independence in Algeria (see [[Women in the Algerian War]]), as physical participants but also as symbolic contestation. The war could in one way be seen as a battle to win hearts and minds of the people, and the body and idea of the Muslim woman was an arena of major confrontation between the French and the FLN. On the one hand, French rule was justified (as in many other conflicts and contexts) by pointing to the Islamic family regulations as problematic and backwards and something that needed to be corrected and governed, an issue that only the “emancipatory"emancipatory power of French values”values" could solve.<ref name="Vince, Natalya 2012. p.73">Vince, Natalya. Our Fighting Sisters: Nation, Memory and Gender in Algeria, 1954-2012. Manchester University Press, 2015. p.73.</ref> Moreover, it was thought that appealing to the Muslim woman was the only way to “win"win the hearts and minds of the family as a whole”whole". As a response, the (often rural) Veiled Muslim Woman became a symbol of Algerian resistance, an allegory of purity and the impenetrability of Religion.<ref name="Vince, Natalya 2012. p.73"/>

However, the FLN's nationalistic discourse on women was constructed in a similar fashion to the French one, and was to some extent maybe directed to an international audience rather than the (rural) females who were subjects of the propaganda.<ref name="Vince, Natalya p.73">Vince, Natalya. Our Fighting Sisters: Nation, Memory and Gender in Algeria, 1954-2012. Manchester University Press, 2015. p.73</ref> They made sure to diffuse images of women who were bearing weapons and who were participating in the war, and argued that only emancipation from colonial rule would lead to this absolute liberation of women. Abbas once said, inspired by the works of Fanon, that “Women"Women are the symbol of the new society and shall part-take in shaping new societies.”".<ref name="Vince, Natalya p.73"/> This image of the liberated Algerian Woman counteracted racial stereotypes and made it harder for France to justify continued coloniality.

On 30 September 1956, three female FLN members, [[Zora Drif]], [[Djamila Bouhired]] and [[Samia Lakhdari]] placed bombs in two cafés in the French settler neighbourhoods as a response to an earlier bomb placed by units of the French police in a Muslim quarter.<ref name="Phillips, John 2007. p.58"/> They had managed to trespass the French checkpoint by simulating “french"french appearance”appearance" - later it has however been noted that many women who were part of the urban FLN bomb networks were often students who already dressed in a western fashion, what was disguised was thereby their political engagement rather than their physical identity.<ref>Vince, Natalya. Our Fighting Sisters: Nation, Memory and Gender in Algeria, 1954-2012. Manchester University Press, 2015. p.82</ref> The event is said to have sparked the [[Battle of Algiers (1956–57)]] significantly. Djamila and the political engagement of women in the independence war was depicted in the Egyptian film [[Jamila, the Algerian]] (1958)- a movie that managed to mobilise huge support for the Algerian resistance movement throughout the Arab world. Later the trio also played an important part in [[The Battle of Algiers]] produced in 1966. Popular culture enforced the idealised image of the emancipated Algerian ''mujahadinat''. These three women, together with for example ''the three Djamilas'' ([[Djamila Bouhired]](again), [[Djamila Bouazza]] and [[Djamila Boupacha]]) became important figures to resort to in the construction of the Algerian self.

The [[Battle of Algiers (1956-57)]] was a phase of the war that could be described as militarily won by the French but politically won by FLN.<ref name="Phillips, John 2007. p.58"/> The French strategy, led by [[Charles de Gaulle]] and General [[Maurice Challe]], alienated the population and resulted in international condemnation of the brutality of the French method. The first time Algerians’Algerians' right to self-determination was recognised was in a speech by de Gaule on 16 September 1959.<ref name="Phillips, John 2007. p.62">Phillips, John, and Martin Evans. Algeria: Anger of the Dispossessed. Yale University Press, 2007. p.62</ref> Whereas French policies changed over time, and in addition was highly fragmented due to the ideological fractions between the settler population, the mainland French government and the OAS ([[Organisation armée secrète]]), the outspoken political objective of FLN remained national independence. This allowed them some extent to create an image of unity and common purpose, somehow managing to embody the voice of the people in their official discourse. Even though they failed to articulate broad-based national goals and strategies to achieve them, they remained a symbol of national liberation, something that until this day might be what has contributed largely to their legitimacy.<ref name="Phillips, John 2007. p.62"/>

In 1962, [[Ben Bella]] was after a turbulent couple of months named president of the independent Algeria, and drawing upon a largely mythical and invented past tried to ambitiously govern the post-colonial reality.<ref name="Phillips, John 2007. p. 74">Phillips, John, and Martin Evans. ''Algeria: Anger of the Dispossessed''. Yale University Press, 2007. p. 74</ref> The relationship between leaders and ordinary people was under the first years of independence a seemingly egalitarian one, building upon the social levelling present in Algerian nationalism even since [[Messali Hadj]].<ref name="Phillips, John 2007. p. 74"/> [[Ben Bella]] contributed to the mapping of Algeria as a model country in the fight against colonial and imperial rule, and the portrayal of Algeria as a new form of socialist society. Shortly after independence, Algeria's borders were opened up to “brothers"brothers of arms”arms" from contemporary liberation movements in i.e. Namibia, Rhodesia, Brittany, Congo and Mozambique. Most prominent maybe the refuge offered to [[Nelson Mandela]] and the [[ANC]] movement in South Africa. His travels to Cuba, where he met with both [[Fidel Castro]] and [[Che Guevara]] to discuss the communist revolutions further amplified the socialist affiliation of the government were important signifiers of the nature of the Algerian self. The inspiration as well as support that was offered by multiple Eastern European countries as well as diplomatic relations with Russia, China, a number of countries in the North Africa and Middle East and even the USAUnited States also emphasised that Algeria was no longer going to be dependent on one single imperial State. Algeria and more specifically Algiers become the incarnation of [[pan-arabism]] and [[pan-Africanism]], a central point - and was transformed into a “”Mecca""Mecca of the revolutionaries”revolutionaries".<ref name="Phillips, John 2007"/>

The epitome of the socialist and revolutionary Algerian nation-building project was the PANAF ([[Festival panafricain d'Alger]]), the first pan-African cultural festival of enormous size, that took place in 1969.{{Opinion|date=April 2019}} Under the leadership of Boumediene, the city continued to play its role of a capital of liberation movements, although denunciation of the anti-Islamic “communist"communist influences”influences" Ben Bella was accused of having susceptible to.<ref name="Phillips, John 2007. p.74">Phillips, John, and Martin Evans. Algeria: Anger of the Dispossessed. Yale University Press, 2007. p.74</ref> The festival was an important event in the continued construction of the national identity and partly contributed to restore some of its appeal to the youths of Algeria.The festival took the shape of a huge two-day carnival where performances, expositions as well as intellectual conferences merged. It hosted important figures from the entire African continent as well as from the African diaspora, such as [[Miriam Makeba]], [[Archie Shepp]], [[Nina Simone]], [[Maya Angelou]], members from the [[Black Panthers]], and members from [[Patrice Lumumba]]’s's Congolese independence movement. In many ways, the first PANAF was a subversive and temporary space which had never been seen before and might never occur again.{{Opinion|date=April 2019}} During a grand synopsium, [[Houari Boumediène|Boumediene]] addressed three main questions that to a large extent shaped the discourse surrounding the festival and pointed to the role of culture in the construction of national as well as panafricain identities.<ref>Festival culturel panafricain, La Culture africaine&nbsp;: le symposium d'Alger, 21 juillet-1er août 1969&nbsp;: premier festival culturel panafricain., Alger, S.N.E.D. [Société nationale d'édition et de diffusion], 1969</ref> Firstly the reality of the African culture, secondly the role African culture in national liberation struggles and in the consolidation of an African unity, and thirdly the role of African culture in the future social development of Africa. The nationalist project of Boumediène was is a way articulated as a dual one, in the sens that it aimed to go back to traditional values and norms, but at the same time to progress and develop in the modern world of science and technology.<ref name="Phillips, John 2007. p.74"/>

During the 1970s and 80s, much happened in the Algerian society. Early on, Boumedienne made efforts to strengthen the national image, independence from the outside world was emphasised and oil and gas was nationalised. Even though the idea of a collective independence remained present, multiple identities increasingly competed to patent what it was to be Algerian. The cultural battle between French, Berber and Arabic boomed - and the political elite favoured [[Arabisation]] on the expense of for example Berber culture and what could be deemed as western.<ref>Hafid, Gafaiti. Language and de/reconstruction of National Identity in Postcolonial Algeria (in ed. Berger. Algeria - in others' language.</ref> One of the consequences of arabisation was the introduction of the [[Algerian Family Code]], a law informed by a reading of Islamic law which highly compromised the rights of women. The “liberation”"liberation" some women had experienced during the war of independence was step by step halted or withdrawn. The ''mujahadinat'' past of some women could however still legitimise some activist's campaigns on women's rights issues in the 80s and forward, since their proved belonging to the nation could (at least partly) provide proof that their ideas were not simply a consequence of westernisation.<ref name="Vince, Natalya 2012. p.66"/>

==="Black Decade”Decade" and the tearing apart of the collective Algerian self===

In the shift from 1980 to 1990 the political culture in Algeria was steaming. Internationally, the communist eastern bloc had just fallen and Islamism was on the rise. Meanwhile, the country was ongoing democratisation and was planning its first multi party election, which the FIS ([[Islamic Salvation Front]]) seemed to win.<ref>Malika Rahal. Multipartism, Islamism and the descent into civil war, in Algeria: Nation, Culture and Transnationalism, 1988-2015, edited by Patrick Crowley, Liverpool University Press, 2017.</ref> In this context, polarisation bloomed, the political climate toughened and materialised in violence and it got increasingly hard to debate differences verbally. The situation culminated in the [[Algerian civil war]] between multiple Islamist groups and the military, who had taken control over the government when the FLN seemed to face defeat. Once again the Algerian society experienced extensive and ruthless violence, which culminated in the late 1990s.<ref>[https://ucdp.uu.se/#country/615 UCDP (Uppsala Conflict Data Program). Algeria. 2019.]</ref> In essence, the Algerian entre-soi was torn apart.<ref>Malika Rahal. ''Multipartism, Islamism and the descent into civil war, in Algeria: Nation, Culture and Transnationalism, 1988-2015'', edited by Patrick Crowley, Liverpool University Press, 2017.</ref> In 1999 [[Abdelaziz Bouteflika]], a member of the FLN, was elected president and a number of amnesty laws allowed many former Islamists to lay down arms, simultaneously launching extensive counter-terrorist attacks which forced a large number of insurgents out of the country.<ref>William Thornberry and Jaclyn Levy, 2011, Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, Homeland Security & Counterterrorism Program Transnational Threats Project, Case Study Number 4</ref> The violence continued but slowly changed form, and by 2006 the only Islamist splinter group that was still in place, GSPC, joined Al-Qaeda and internationalised their goal. Having before stated that they wanted to "build an Islamic state with sharia law in Algeria", they later proclaimed that they had moved ideologically towards Al-Qaeda's global jihad and aspired to establish an Islamic state in the entire Maghreb.<ref>[http://www.ag.gov.au/agd/WWW/nationalsecurity.nsf/Page/What_Governments_are_doing_Listing_of_ Terrorism_Organisations_Al-Qaida_in_the_Lands_of_the_Is- lamic_Maghreb_-_AQIM. Australian National Security. ”Al"Al-Qa’idaQa'ida in the Islamic Maghreb”Maghreb". 2017.]</ref>

The current anti-Bouteflika demonstrations in Algeria ([[Manifestations de 2019 en Algérie]] or [[2019 Algerian protests]]) were, especially in the beginning, extremely careful not to be identified with the Islamist civil war of the 1990s or with the Arab spring of early 2010. The protests have been enormous and reoccurred every Friday – but remained peaceful for a long time. Later protests have seen increased presence of the military, which has a long history of intervening in Algerian politics.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20190426122906/https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/africa/10th-week-of-algeria-protests-aim-for-ex-presidents-brother/2019/04/26/53117e2c-680c-11e9-a698-2a8f808c9cfb_story.html Aomar Ouali, Algeria’sAlgeria's army chief a top target in 10th week of protests, ''Washington Post'']</ref>

Some important symbols stemming from earlier times of Algerian history have however appeared later in the movement. For example, the slogan “one"one sole hero, the people”people" is once again visible on the streets.<ref name="Mediapart 2019">Malika Rahal in "Présence du Passé". Malika Rahal revisite l'affranchissement algérien, Mediapart. 2019.</ref> The movement has also referred to the independence in 62 as the "liberation of the state", thus pointing to the current manifestations as a way to obtain "liberation of the people". Moreover, partly as a consequence of one of the earlier Fridays of demonstrations coinciding with the International Women's Day, women very quickly took part in the demonstrations as well.<ref name="Mediapart 2019"/>

During the French era, ''algérianisme'' was a literary genre with political overtones, born among French Algerian writers (see ''[[Algerian literature]]'') who hoped for a common Algerian future culture, uniting French settlers and native Algerians. The term ''algérianiste'' was used for the first time in a 1911 novel by Robert Randau, "Les Algérianistes".<ref>reedited by Tchou éditeur, coll. « L’AlgérieL'Algérie heureuse », 1979 {{ISBN|2-7107-0195-2}}</ref> A ''Cercle algérianiste'' was created in France in 1973 by [[Pied-Noir|Pieds-Noirs]], with several local chapters. It has for "purpose to safeguard the cultural heritage born from the French presence in Algeria."<ref>{{Lang-fr|Le Cercle algérianiste, créé en 1973, a pour objectif de sauvegarder le patrimoine culturel né de la présence française en Algérie.}}, [http://www.cerclealgerianiste.asso.fr/ Site du Cercle Algérianiste, Sauver une culture en péril] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121130113933/http://www.cerclealgerianiste.asso.fr/ |date=2012-11-30 }}</ref>

[[Category:Background and causes of the Algerian War]]