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Dr Arthur Asseraf - Themes and Sources

Fighting for Algeria, Fighting for France: 1945-1962

[French sources]

Cover of Paris-Match magazine 31 May 1958, depicting pro-French demonstrations in Algiers.

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How did a small band of determined men in North Africa manage to topple one

of the most powerful European states? The insurrection of the Front de Libération Nationale (FLN) against French rule triggered a multi-sided conflict that ended with the creation of two new states: the French Fifth Republic in Europe and the People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria in North Africa. Without ever gaining control of Algerian territory, the FLN managed to win the war on the terrain of public opinion in Algeria, in the French metropole and on the world stage. This was a new kind of war that involved staging spectacular acts of violence to gain media presence and international legitimacy. This option delves into how participants in the Algerian War of Independence tried to capture the public’s attention. It allows students the opportunity to closely study one of the most iconic conflicts of the 20th century using a wide range sources in the original French, including propaganda films, radio broadcasts, manifestoes, posters and public speeches. The course follows a roughly chronological outline to allow students to focus on delving into the sources, pausing for thematic sessions in week 4 and 5 to examine pivotal controversies that changed the course of the war.

A prior knowledge of French is required for this course, and students will take additional language classes to work with the sources. The option is designed to bring students with A2 or AS-level French up to a level where they will be able to work with a range of audio, visual and written primary and secondary source material in French. Primary source material will be in French, and secondary reading will draw on recent cutting-edge research in both French and English.

Most of the sources will be made available to students online. The following indicates compulsory reading for each session, as well as additional resources for the long essay. Students will be able to make use of the University Library’s French periodical collections, as well as the considerable online resources of the Institut National Audiovisuel (INA) and the Établissement de Communication et de Production Audiovisuelle de la Défense (ECPAD).

Introductory reading:

*Please buy your own copy of Sylvie Thénault, Histoire de la guerre d’indépendance algérienne (Paris, 2005), as we will be using it for every session. Todd Shepard, The Invention of Decolonization: The Algerian War and the Remaking of France, Ithaca, 2006. James McDougall, A History of Algeria, Cambridge, 2017. Robert Gildea, France since 1945, Oxford, 2002. Matthew Connelly, A Diplomatic Revolution: Algeria’s Fight for Independence and the Origins of the Post-Cold War Era, Oxford, 2002. Martin Evans, Algeria: France’s Undeclared War, Oxford, 2011. Thénault, Peyroulou, Bouchène and Siari Tengour (eds.), Histoire de l’Algérie à la période coloniale, Paris/Algiers, 2012. Mohammed Harbi, Le FLN, mirage et réalité des origines à la prise du pouvoir (1945-1962), Paris, 1980. Benjamin Stora, La gangrène et l’oubli: la mémoire de la guerre d’Algérie, Paris, 1998. Alistair Horne, A Savage War of Peace: Algeria 1954-1962, London, 1977.

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Week 1: A Part of France? c.1945-1954 This class establishes the background to the war by looking back at France’s long colonial rule in Algeria, which was declared part of French territory in 1848. Using official proclamations, maps and other documents we will examine how the French government made claims to all of Algeria, and then how this claim was contested by Algerian nationalist movements, especially from 1945 onwards following massacres at Sétif and Guelma. Primary sources: - Victor Levasseur, Map of Algeria and accompanying notice, 1856 (2p.). - Anonymous history of the conquest, ‘Informations curieuses sur ce qu’aura lieu entre Musulmans et Français, en fait de perfidies, de mépris et d’anéantissement’, c.1916, Archives Nationales d’Outre-Mer, 9H5 (1p.) - Albert Camus, ‘Crise en Algérie’ (1945) pp.93-98 and ‘Le Malaise Politique’, pp.108-122 in Chroniques algériennes 1939-1958, (Gallimard, 1958). In class : - Selection of posters for celebration of Algerian centenary, 1930 Secondary reading:

- Sylvie Thénault, Histoire de la guerre d’indépendance algérienne (Paris, 2005), pp.21-40. - Ouanassa Siari-Tengour Histoire de l’Algérie à la période coloniale, Paris/Algiers,

Barzakh, 2012, 465-479. Further reading: Primary ‘Manifeste du peuple algérien’, 1 February 1943. Messali Hadj, Mémoires 1898-1938, Paris, 1982. Fadhma Aït Mansour Amrouche, Histoire de ma vie, Paris, 1968. Albert Camus, Le premier homme (1994). Mouloud Feraoun, Le fils du pauvre (1950). Secondary Jennifer Sessions, By Sword and Plow: France and the Conquest of Algeria, Ithaca, 2011. David Prochaska Making Algeria French: Colonialism in Bône 1870-1920, Cambridge, 1990. James McDougall, A History of Algeria, Cambridge, 2017. Mahfoud Kaddache, Histoire du nationalisme algérien, Algiers, 1993. Charles-Robert Ageron, Histoire de l’Algérie contemporaine vol. 2: de l’insurrection de 1871 au déclenchement de la guerre de libération (1954), Paris, 1979. Week 2: Revolution! The FLN’s Insurrection 1954-58 This session will focus on how the FLN launched an insurrection by projecting the image of an effective, united revolutionary movement. Starting with the attacks on 1 November 1954, the FLN was able in a few years to impress, scare or cajole a wide swathe of the Algerian population into supporting it, defeating rival nationalist movements and gaining widespread international recognition as the legitimate representative of the Algerian people. We will look at how the FLN deployed spectacular

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acts of violence as well as careful propaganda to grab attention and spread its revolutionary agenda. Primary sources: - ‘Déclaration du FLN du 1er novembre 1954’, pp.101-104 in Mohammed Harbi, Les archives de la révolution algérienne, Paris, 1981. - René Vautier, ‘L’Algérie en flammes’, 1958, 22 mins. - Frantz Fanon, ‘De la violence’ in Les damnés de la terre, 1961, pp.39-43. - Mouloud Feraoun, Journal 1955-1962, Seuil: 1962, pp.41-53 (November-December 1955). Secondary reading: - Sylvie Thénault, Histoire de la guerre d’indépendance algérienne, pp.83-103. - Mohammed Harbi, Le FLN : Mirage et réalité, des origines a la prise de pouvoir, Paris, 1980, pp.121-129. - Jeffrey James Byrne, Mecca of Revolution: Algeria, Decolonization and the Third World Order, pp.36-54.

Further reading: Primary Mohammed Harbi, Les archives de la révolution algérienne, Paris, 1981. Frantz Fanon, ‘La famille algérienne’, Chapter 3 of L’An V de la révolution algérienne. (20p.) El Moudjahid, official newspaper of the FLN Mehenna Mahfoufi, Chants kabyles de la guerre d’indépendance, Paris, 2002. Richard and Joan Brace, Algerian Voices, Princeton, 1965. Charles-Henri Favrod, La révolution algérienne, 1959. Secondary Gilbert Meynier, Histoire intérieure du FLN 1954-1962, Paris, 2002. Benjamin Stora and Mohammed Harbi, La guerre d’Algérie, Paris, 2005. Mohammed Harbi, Le FLN : Mirage et réalité, des origines à la prise du pouvoir (1945 – 1962), Paris, 1980. Jennifer Johnson, The Battle for Algeria: Sovereignty, Healthcare and Decolonization, Philadelphia, 2016. Dalila Aït-El-Djoudi, La Guerre d’Algérie vue par l’ALN (1954-1962) L’Armée française sous le regard des combattants algériens, Paris, 2007. Week 3: Counter-Insurgency, 1956-1960 This session examines the French response to the FLN’s insurrection. From 1956, successive governments oversaw a massive escalation of the French presence in Algeria that combined military action with the increased provision of social services. At the core of this policy lay a theory of ‘psychological warfare’ that asserted that the war would be won inside Algerian minds through effective propaganda. How did French governments try to gain the support of the majority of the Algerian population, as well as convincing the rest of the world that French rule in North Africa was legitimate? Primary sources - TV Clip, ‘Opérations militaires dans les Aurès en novembre 1954’, (1min.), ina.fr

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- Service cinématographique des armées, ‘Képi bleu’, 1957 (24 mins.), ECPAD. - Selection of propaganda posters for SAS from ANOM. - Report, ‘La pacification dans le groupe de secteurs nord-oranais’, February 1959, ANOM 92.5042 (5 pages) Secondary reading: Sylvie Thénault, pp.104-127. Jacques Frémeaux, ‘Les SAS’, Guerres mondiales et conflits contemporains, 208, 4, 2002, pp.55-68. Fabien Sacriste, ‘Surveiller et moderniser. Les camps de “regroupement” de ruraux pendant la guerre d’indépendance algérienne’, métropolitiques.eu, 15/02/2012 Further Reading: Primary [ECPAD is particularly useful here for film footage and photography of army activities] Germaine Tillion, L’Algérie en 1957, Paris, 1957. Georges Oudinot, Un béret rouge en... képi bleu ! : Mission en Kabylie 1956-1961, Carnets d'un chef de SAS, Beni-Douala, 2007. Charles Lacheroy, De Saint-Cyr à l’action psychologique, mémoire d’un siècle, 2003. Secondary Denis Leroux, ‘La “doctrine de la guerre révolutionnaire”: théories et pratiques’, in Histoire de l’Algérie à la période coloniale, pp.526-532. Jennifer Johnson, Battle for Algeria: Sovereignty, Health Care and Humanitarianism, Philadelphia, 2016, pp.38-62. See also: Decolonization, Health Care, and Humanitarianism in Algeria on Ottoman History Podcast http://www.ottomanhistorypodcast.com/2016/10/humanitarianism-algerian-war.html Grégor Mathias, Les sections administratives spécialisées en Algérie: entre idéal et réalité (1955-1962), L’Harmattan, 1998. Nicolas Kayanakis, Algérie 1960: La victoire trahie, guerre psychologique en Algérie, Lyon, 2000. Marie-Catherine et Paul Villatoux, ‘Aux origines de la “guerre révolutionnaire”: le colonel Lacheroy parle’, Revue historique des armées, 268, 2012, pp.45-53 Week 4: Affairs and Controversies This session looks at the changing nature of metropolitan public opinion on the war. It focuses on a number of high-profile controversies that splashed the covers of the French press, from the French army’s use of torture to investigations into conditions in detention camps. Looking at the dynamic between government censorship and new forms of publication and intellectual engagement, we will look at how media revelations affected the legitimacy of French actions in Algeria. Primary sources: - Henri Alleg, La Question, Paris, 1958, pp.7-11, 13-18, 31-34, 110-112. - Le Figaro, 22 July 1959 on the ‘camps de regroupement’ - Vérité-Liberté, ‘Le Manifeste des 121’, 6 September 1960. Secondary reading: - Sylvie Thénault, Histoire de la guerre d’indépendance algérienne, 153-170.

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- Malika El Korso, ‘Témoignage chrétien et le dossier Jean Müller’, Carnet des Glycines, 25 May 2013, https://glycines.hypotheses.org/195#sdfootnote7sym - Martin Harrison, ‘Government and Press in France during the Algerian War’, The American Political Science Review, 58:2, 1964, pp.273-285 Further reading: Primary [Here, press coverage is especially useful, including other affairs not covered in the compulsory reading, for instance the Sakiet Sidi Youssef bombardment of 8 February 1958] L’Humanité, 8 November 1954, ‘Des tortures dignes de la Gestapo’. Pierre Vidal-Naquet, L’Affaire Audin, 1958. Pierre Vidal-Naquet, La Torture dans la République : essai d'histoire et de politique contemporaine (1954-1962), Minuit, 1972 Secondary Raphaëlle Branche & Sylvie Thénault (eds), La France en guerre, 1954-1962 : Expériences métropolitaines de la guerre d’indépendance algérienne (Paris, Autrement, 2008). Roland Rappaport, ‘La question histoire d’un manuscrit’, Le Monde, 24 July 2013. Malika Rahal, Ali Boumendjel, une affaire française, une histoire algérienne, Paris, 2010. Jean-François Sirinelli et Jean-Pierre Rioux, La guerre d’Algérie et les intellectuels français, Paris, 1988. Raphaëlle Branche, La torture et l’armée pendant la guerre d’Algérie, Paris, 2001. Michel Cornaton, Les regroupements de la décolonisation en Algérie, Paris, 1967. James D. Le Sueur, Uncivil War: Intellectuals and Identity Politics During the Decolonization of Algeria, Nebraska, 2001. Week 5: Symbols of Liberation – Women in the War: This session explores why gendered representation were so important to both sides’ propaganda. While the French government argued that France was emancipating Algerian women from a retrograde Islamist movement, the FLN put its revolutionary mujahidat at the forefront of its international image. Neither the French government nor the FLN gave Algerian women much effective political power, but both used images of women extensively to claim that they represented all of Algeria. Primary sources - Frantz Fanon, ‘L’Algérie se dévoile’, from L’An V de la révolution algérienne [1959], pp. 16-50. - Gillo Pontecorvo, The Battle of Algiers, 1966, [120 minutes, specific extracts will be analysed in class] - Simone de Beauvoir, Pour Djamila Boupacha, Paris, 1962, pp.11-13, 3 June 1960. In class: - Youssef Chahine, Jamila al-jaza’iriyya [Jamila the Algerian] 1958. Secondary reading - Ryme Seferdjeli, ‘French “Reforms” and Muslim Women’s Emancipation during the Algerian War’, Journal of North African Studies, vol. 9, 4, 2004, pp.19-61. - Neil McMaster, Burning the Veil: the Algerian War and the ‘emancipation’ of Muslim women, 1954-1962 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2009), 152-177.

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Further reading: Primary Zohra Drif, La mort de mes frères, Paris, 1960. Gisèle Halimi and Simone de Beauvoir, Djamila Boupacha, Paris, 1962. Louisette Ighilahriz and Anne Nivat, Algérienne, Paris, 2001. Secondary Diane Sambron, Femmes musulmanes, guerre d’Algérie. Natalya Vince, Our Fighting Sisters: Nation, Memory and Gender in Algeria, Manchester, 2015. Marnia Lazreg, The Eloquence of Silence: Algerian Women in Question, New York, 1994. Judith Surkis, ‘Ethics and Violence: Simone de Beauvoir, Djamila Boupacha, and the Algerian War.’ French Politics, Culture & Society 28, No. 2 (2010): 38-55 Natalya Vince, ‘Transgressing Boundaries: Gender, Race, Religion, and ‘Françaises Musulmanes’ during the Algerian War of Independence.’ French Historical Studies, 33, No. 3 (2010): 445-474. Lee Whitfield, “The French Military Under Female Fire: The Public Opinion Campaign and Justice in the Case of Djamila Boupacha, 1960-62.” Contemporary French Civilization 20, No. 1 (1996): 76-90. Danièle Djamila Amrane Minne, Femmes au combat : la guerre d’Algérie (1954-1962), Algiers/Paris, 1993. Andrée Dore-Audibert, Des Françaises d’Algérie dans la guerre de libération, Paris, 2001. Week 6: The French Civil War and The OAS, 1958-1962 This session looks at the changing nature of the war after 1958, and the emergence of a new player: militant settler organisation. Looking at demonstrations, propaganda and acts of violence staged by French settlers and their allies, this session examines how they mobilised the attention of the metropole; at first successfully, in the May 1958 that ended the Fourth Republic, and then unsuccessfully, through the failed coup of 1961 and the formation of the violent Organisation Armée Secrète (OAS). Primary sources: - André Debatty, Le 13 mai et la presse, pp.54-67, Paris, 1960. - Charles De Gaulle, ‘Discours du 4 juin 1958 au Forum d’Alger’ [18 mins.], ina.fr - Intervention of De Gaulle against the generals’ putsch, 23 April 1961, (6 mins.), ina.fr - OAS, ‘Instruction 29’, 23 February 1962, (3p.). Secondary reading: Thénault, 223-247. Jean-Pierre Rioux, The Fourth Republic 1944-1958, Cambridge, 1987, 285-313. Further reading: Primary Alain de Sérigny, La révolution du 13 mai Jean-Jacques Susini, Histoire de l’OAS, Paris, 1964. Pierre Lagaillarde, On a triché avec l’honneur : texte intégral de l’interrogatoire et de la plaidoirie des audiences des 15 et 16 novembre 1960 du procès des Barricades, Paris, 1961. Vitalis Cros, Le temps de la violence. Alger, 1954-1962, Paris, 1971. Secondary Alexander Harrison, Challenging de Gaulle: the OAS and the Counterrevolution in Algeria, New York, 1989.

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Michel Winock, 13 mai 1958, l’agonie de la IVe République, Paris, 2006. Sylvie Thénault, ‘L’OAS à Alger en 1962’, Annales, 2008, 5, 977-1001. Anne-Marie Duranton-Crabol, Le temps de l’OAS, Brussels/Paris, 1995. Julian Jackson, ‘General de Gaulle and his enemies: Anti-Gaullism in France since 1940’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 9, 1999, pp.43-65. Week 7: 1962 - A Very Violent Peace This session examines the cataclysmic ‘end’ of the conflict in 1962. Why was that it was after the French government and the FLN signed a peace agreement in March 1962 that some of the worst violence erupted? We will look at how both sides tried to project images of peace and negotiation in spite of mounting violence and displacement, as the triumphant independence of Algeria in July 1962 was set against the backdrop of mass settler exodus and civil war among the FLN leadership. Primary sources: - ‘Accord de cessez-le-feu’ et ‘Déclaration générale des accords d’Evian’, pp.327-328 and pp.359-365 in Rédha Malek, L’Algérie à Evian, histoire des négociations secrètes 1956-1962, Paris, 1995. - TV clip, ‘La fin de la conférence d’Evian’, 21 March 1962, [2 mins], ina.fr - TV clip, ‘Les rapatriés d’Algérie’, [2 mins.], ina.fr - Ahmed Ben Bella’s inaugural speech at UN [2 mins.], 10 October 1962, ina.fr - ‘Lettre de démission du groupe FLN de l’exécutif provisoire, 27 juin 1962’, pp.340-342 in Harbi, Les archives de la revolution algérienne. In class - Images of fusillade de la rue d’Isly in Paris-Match, March 1962. Secondary reading: Sylvie Thénault, 272-298 Todd Shepard, The Invention of Decolonization, chapter 8. Byrne, Mecca of Revolution, 129-139 and 153-155 Further reading: Primary Médecins de l’hôpital Mustapha, Le Massacre d’Alger, 1962. Saïd Boualem, Mon pays la France, Paris, 1962. Ferhat Abbas, L’indépendance confisquée, Paris, 1984. Secondary Jean Monneret, La phase finale de la guerre d’Algérie, Paris, 2001 (extracts) Maurice Vaïsse, Vers la paix en Algérie, les négociations d’Evian dans les archives diplomatiques françaises, Bruxelles, 2003. (extracts). Ali Haroun, L’été de la discorde, Algiers, 2000. Jean-Jacques Jordi, L’arrivée des pieds-noirs, Paris, 1995. Maud Mandel, Muslims and Jews in France: History of a Conflict, Princeton, 2016, pp.35-59. Sung-Eun Choi, Decolonization and the French of Algeria: Bringing the Settler Colony Home, London, 2015. Week 8: Memory Wars

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Did the war to control public opinion ever really end? Issues of legitimacy and representation of the conflict are still very much up for grabs among both historians and politicians. This session looks at enduring controversies over the war years on both sides of the Mediterranean up to the present day, from controversies over the role of torture that resurfaced in 1990s France to lasting debates about the role of the FLN as the founder of the Algerian nation. Primary sources: - Preamble to Algerian constitution of 2016 [2p.] - Dossier on Paul Aussaresses’ revelations on torture in 2000 in Le Monde: Interview of Louisette Ighilahriz on 20 June 2000, Interview of General Massu on 22 June 2000, and finally Le Monde 23 November 2000, ‘Comment Le Monde a relancé le débat sur la torture en Algérie’ - Enrico Macias, ‘Non je n’ai pas oublié’, 1966. [song] - Serge Lama, ‘L’Algérie’, from the album L’Enfant au piano, 1977. [song] - Médine, ‘17 Octobre’, from the album Table d’écoute, 2006. [song] Secondary reading: - Benjamin Stora, La gangrène et l’oubli: la mémoire de la guerre d’Algérie, Paris, 1998, 256-268, 281-292, 302-321 - Neil McMaster, ‘The torture controversy (1998-2002) : Towards a “new history” of the Algerian war?’, Modern and contemporary France 10, 4 (2002), 449-459 - Hassan Remaoun, ‘L’enseignement de la guerre de libération nationale (1954-1962), dans les anciens et les nouveaux manuels algériens d’histoire. Un enjeu pour l’affirmation d’une culture de la citoyenneté’, Tréma, 29, 2008, pp.5-19. Further reading: Primary Jacques Soustelle, La page n’est pas tournée, Paris, 1965. Paul Aussaresses, Services spéciaux, Algérie 1955-57: mon témoignage sur la torture, Paris, 2001. ‘Loi du 23 février 2005 portant reconnaissance de la nation et contribution nationale en faveur des Français rapatriés’, legifrance.fr Florent Emilio Siri, L’Ennemi Intime, (2007). Michael Haneke, Caché (2005). Malek Bensmaïl, La Chine est encore loin, (documentary, 2010). Secondary Malika Rahal, ‘Fused Together and Torn Apart: Stories and Violence in Contemporary Algeria’, History & Memory, 24:1, 2012, 118-151. Mohand Hamoumou & Jean-Jacques Jordi, Les Harkis, une mémoire enfouie, Paris, 1999. Vincent Crapanzano, The harkis : The wound that never heals, Chicago, 2011. Pierre Daum, ‘Les harkis restés en Algérie : tabous et non-dits’, Ottoman History Podcast #302, (http://www.ottomanhistorypodcast.com/2017/03/harkis.html) Guy Pervillé, ‘L’historien et les mémoires de la guerre d’Algérie’, Historiens et géographes, 420, 2012, pp.287-294. Giulia Fabbiano, Hériter 1962. Harkis et immigrés algériens à l’épreuve des appartenances nationales, Paris, 2016. Natalya Vince, Our Fighting Sisters: Nation, Memory and Gender in Algeria, Manchester, 2015. Richard J. Golsan, ‘Memory's bombes à retardement: Maurice Papon, Crimes Against Humanity, and 17 October 1961’, in Journal of European Studies, 28, 1998, pp. 153-172. Eric Savarèse, Algérie, la guerre des mémoires, Paris, 2007.

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Todd Shepard, Mâle décolonisation : L’ « homme arabe » et la France, de l’indépendance algérienne a la révolution iranienne, Payot, 2017.