In our sequence of letters from African journalists, Algerian-Canadian journalist Maher Mezahi displays on the latest strikes by France to restore relations with its former colony Algeria, particularly regarding the bitter conflict of independence.
Does French President Emmanuel Macron, actually perceive the legacy of colonialism?
I ask this within the wake of his latest admission – after 60 years of official denial – that the French military tortured and murdered the Algerian nationalist hero Ali Boumendjel.
This recognition got here as a part of a sequence of measures geared toward reconciling France and Algeria after greater than a century of colonisation that led to 1962, following an eight-year conflict.
The response to Mr Macron’s assertion right here in Algeria was tepid.
Which may be due to the combined messages he is despatched concerning the impression of the previous.
The primary time most Algerians had heard of Mr Macron was when he visited the nation in February 2017 when he was working for president.
In an interview he went additional than any French president ever had and described colonisation as a “crime in opposition to humanity”.
The braveness of his remarks took most Algerians without warning. And so they had ramifications for the political combat with the right-wing candidate, Marine Le Pen
For the primary time in my life, I felt there was the potential of a French president sincerely analyzing French-Algerian historical past, thus setting a brand new stage for relations between the 2 nations.
But since turning into president, Mr Macron has blown cold and hot on the Algeria difficulty.
The French in Algeria – key dates
1830: France occupies Algiers
1848: After an rebellion led by insurgent chief Abd-el-Kader, Paris declares Algeria to be an integral a part of France
1940: France falls to Germany in World Struggle Two
1942: Allied landings in Algeria
1945: Allied forces defeat Germany. 1000’s are killed in pro-independence demonstrations in Sétif
1954-62: Algerian Struggle
1962: Algeria turns into an impartial state
The admission over the loss of life of Boumendjel elicited little response right here as a result of, as historians and intellectuals wrote, it appeared futile to say sure victims and omit numerous others.
One went so far as to say that this was a “Franco-French” difficulty, indicating that Mr Macron’s assertion was not a revelation for Algerians.
Moreover, his workplace has mentioned an official apology isn’t within the works.
Lower than a yr after visiting Algeria as a candidate, Mr Macron returned as president.
Buttressed by a delegation of politicians, historians and a heavy safety element, the charismatic chief strolled via downtown Algiers.
He shook arms and took selfies with onlookers earlier than being accosted by a younger man who mentioned: “France should come to phrases with its colonial previous in Algeria”.
After a fast change, Mr Macron replied: “However you’ve by no means identified colonisation!
“Why are you bothering me with that? Your technology has to look in direction of the longer term.”
After listening to these temporary sentences, I shortly realised that regardless of his obvious progressive insurance policies in direction of Algeria, Mr Macron had not solely understood the problem he was attempting to deal with.
In a number of West African nations, he repeated the identical sentiment.
“Three-quarters of your nation has by no means identified colonisation,” he mentioned in Ivory Coast.
In Burkina Faso he informed college students that neither they nor he had been from a technology that had identified colonisation.
Such observations might solely be made by somebody who has not lived in a post-colonial state.
Each single Algerian is instantly linked to the trauma brought on by French colonisation.
Our faculties, streets and stadiums are named after well-known revolutionary figures and dates.
Our structure, meals and language are all closely influenced by the 132-year presence of 1,000,000 European residents.
You may additionally be thinking about:
I don’t come from a revolutionary household, but my grandfather’s brother was certainly one of hundreds of Algerian victims of the Ligne Morice – a minefield laid by the French alongside Algeria’s jap border.
As a boy rising up in Tebessa, he fiddled with a booby entice which exploded in his face.
I consider him each time I name my father, who was named after him.
The French authorities didn’t formally share the maps of the minefields it laid out throughout Algeria’s jap border till 2007.
All through the Sixties the French military examined 17 atomic bombs within the Algerian Sahara.
Tens of hundreds of native inhabitants have suffered as a consequence, both start defects or varied cancers.
The French authorities is but handy over the maps revealing the placement of nuclear waste.
Historian Alastair Horne’s description of the Algerian conflict of independence all the time appeared essentially the most pertinent to me.
Within the preface to A Savage Struggle of Peace, Horne wrote: “Above all, the conflict was marked by an unholy marriage of revolutionary terror and state torture.”
If the conflict itself was an unholy union then what might be mentioned about its divorce?
Most of us younger Algerians are usually not holding our breath for an official apology or reparations.
We’re merely asking Mr Macron’s authorities to drop its condescension and inform the reality concerning the crimes dedicated in Algeria and throughout the continent.
A couple of weeks in the past, it was reported that sturdy winds carrying radioactive mud left over from French nuclear testing within the Sahara desert blew throughout the Mediterranean, contaminating the French environment.
For me it was nature’s approach of reminding Mr Macron that the impression of colonial crimes isn’t contained within the historical past books.
Extra Letters from Africa:
Observe us on Twitter @BBCAfrica, on Fb at BBC Africa or on Instagram at bbcafrica
