Dynamic Africa

Photo from French photographer Luc Choquer’s Potraits de Français.

mediterraneenne:

Hocine Hassina remembers family members who disappeared during the Paris massacre of 1961, as she stands next to the Saint Michel Bridge by the Seine river in Paris. (Photo: Reuters)

The Paris massacre occured on october 17, 1961. As Algeria’s battle for independence spilled into France, Paris police chief Maurice Papon ordered police to crack down on thousands of Algerian protesters who defied a curfew. At least 300 algerians were killed (bodies were later pulled from the River Seine)

Hocine Hassina remembers family members who disappeared during the Paris massacre of 1961, as she stands next to the Saint Michel Bridge by the Seine river in Paris. (Photo: Reuters)

The Paris massacre occured on october 17, 1961. As Algeria’s battle for independence spilled into France, Paris police chief Maurice Papon ordered police to crack down on thousands of Algerian protesters who defied a curfew. At least 300 algerians were killed (bodies were later pulled from the River Seine)

(via fuckyeahalgeria)

FRANCE. Marseille. September 1984.Northern district. “Cité Bassens”. Algerian wedding.
© Patrick Zachmann/Magnum Photos

FRANCE. Marseille. September 1984.
Northern district. “Cité Bassens”. Algerian wedding.

© Patrick Zachmann/Magnum Photos

(via fyeahnorthafricanwomen)

The 1945 French Massacre in Setif & Guelma Algeria

TW: Savagery, brutality, violence, horrific images.

Despite the fact that most of the fighting against the Axis forces and Vichy France in North Africa had been conducted with honour and dispatch by Algerian troops the French decided to celebrate the victory of the Allies (a small part of whom were French) by committing an act of barbarism and genocide that echoes to this day. In one weekend of violence they murdered 45,000 Algerians.

Peaceful demonstrations had been taking place across Algeria for some months against the unfair treatment of indigenous Algerians (an oft-mentioned example was the reservation of bread for Europeans, the others only having the right to barley) and 15,000 people had protested in the streets of Mostaganem earlier without any incidents.

On May 8, 1945, a day chosen by the allies to celebrate their victory over Nazi Germany, thousands of Algerians gathered near the Abou Dher El-Ghafari mosque in Setif for a peaceful march - for which the sous-prefet had given permission. It was a market day.

At 9am, led by a young scout Saal Bouzid, whose name had been drawn for the honor of carrying the national flag, the demonstrators set off. A few minutes later the crowd, chanting ‘vive l’independance’ and other nationalist slogans, came under fire from troops commanded by General Duval and brought in from Constantine.

Saal Bouzid fell dead, becoming a national martyr. The scene soon turned into a massacre - the streets and houses being littered with dead bodies. Witnesses claim terrible scenes, that legionnaires seized babies by their feet and dashed their heads against rocks, that pregnant mothers were disemboweled, that soldiers dropped grenades down chimneys to kill the occupants of homes, that mourners were machine gunned while taking the dead to the cemetery.

A public record states that the European inhabitants were so frightened by the events that they asked that all those responsible for the protest movement should be shot. The carnage spread and, during the days that followed, some 45,000 Algerians were killed. Villages were shelled by artillery and remote hamlets were bombed with aircraft.

A Colonel in charge of burials being criticized for slowness told another officer ‘You are killing them faster than I can bury them.’ These incidents led to the upsurge of the PPA and ultimately, 17 years later to the country’s independence. In the retaliatory violence that immediately followed 104 Europeans were assassinated, but by the end several thousands were to die.

These incidents were particularly hard for Algerians who had fought the Nazis alongside the French forces, some of whom came home to find that their families had been decimated by the troops of General de Gaulle.

Led by the FLN (the national liberation front) the independence struggle caused France to draft in thousands of troops. In spite of opposition by Europeans living in the country a cease-fire was agreed to in March 1962. An extremist wing of the Army, the OAS, expanded its campaign of murder, torture and destruction, carrying on despite the cease-fire.

Survivors say that to this day France as a colonial power ‘has not had the courage to recognized its crimes. carried out in its former colonies and that it pretends to be a champion of human rights’.

Ending the liberation war, the Evian Agreement declared that extremist French soldiers (both regular, OAS and pieds noir irregulars, would not be prosecuted for crimes carried out in Algeria.

Both Chirac and Le Pen served in Algeria in the French Army.

(source)

Further reading:

Wikipedia entry
Massacre in Algeria
Setif 1945
Battle of Philippeville
Viewing: Rachid Bouchareb’s film Hors-la-loi

Football Rebels: Mekhloufi and the FLN (Front de Libération Nationale) team

In this second installment of Al Jazeera’s football and politics miniseries, the program looks at the life of Algerian football legend and anti-colonialism political activist Rachid Mekhloufi who left the French national team to play for FLN’s football team in the 1958 World Cup.

The historical formation of the FLN team and their appearance at the World Cup drew a significant amount of attention towards Algeria’s fight for independence against French colonial forces occupying the country.

“I was a bit like the spoilt child of football and of Saint-Etienne. But I saw and heard things. All Algerians, even the most spoilt, in Algeria or in France, had to think of Algeria. Algerians were never thought of as French…” - Mekloufi

NOTABLE AFRICANS: DJAMILA BOUHIRED

Currently in her late 70s, Algerian nationalist, activist and revolutionary Djamila Bouhired is a freedom fighter best known for her contributions to the fight against French colonial rule in Algeria as a member of the Front de Libération Nationale (FLN).

Born in 1935 to a middle-class family, Bouhired was educated in French schools. However, the colonial system of education did not have the desired effect on Bouhired as she she joined the anti-colonial revolutionary movement of the FLN working as a student activist and soon began working as a liaison officer and personal assistant to FLN commander Yacef Saadi in Algiers. Her brothers were also involved in the underground struggle.

Due to her good looks and slightly European appearance, Bouhired was able to seamlessly move around the Algiers and pass through road blocks set up by French authorities, which proved to be a critical asset in the militant operations of the FLN. Bouhired was one of three FLN female bombers depicted in the 1966 film The Battle of Algiers, and was also the subject of Egyptian director Youssef Chahine’s 1958 film Jamila the Algerian.

During a raid in June 1957, Bouhired was captured, arrested and accused of planting bombs in French restaurants around the capital, Algiers. Although not much is known about her imprisonment, Bouhired has said that both her and her siblings were subjected to torture under French authorities, claiming also that one of her brothers was tortured in front of their mother.

Bouhired was tried, convicted and sentenced to death by guillotine in July 1957. However, Jacques Vergès, a French lawyer who heard of her case and was against France’s occupation of Algeria waged a public relations campaign that resulted in immense pressure being put on France by international governments and human rights organizations. As a result, Djamila Bouhired was released.

She would eventually go on to marry Vergès with whom she had two children. The couple also established Révolution africaine, a publication that focused on Pan-Africanism and African nationalism movements.

Djamila Bouhired currently resides in Algiers and continues to be an active figure in many human rights and feminist politics in the country.

blackandindependents:

StereoTypes Paris - French African vs. African American? (by iamOTHER)

What’s it like to be a black person in France? What’s the immigrant experience for people of African descent? StereoTypes host Ryan Hall hits the streets of Paris to find out.

I talked about the persecution of Algerians, and told about racism in my childhood,” she said. ”And it was as if, after that, I wasn’t French anymore.

French-Algerian actress Isabelle Adjani (x)

From March 8-21, the Brooklyn Academy of Music will be celebrating the screen presence of French-Algerian actress Isabelle Adjani, winner of a record five César Awards and an outspoken champion of immigrant rights, by screening 12 of her greatest film roles from The Story of Adele H. to Nosferatu the Vampyre.

Born Isabelle Yasmine Adjani on June 27th, 1955, in the immigrant neighbourhood of Gennevilliers, Hauts-de-Seine, a suburb of Paris, Adjani’s father, Mohammed Cherif Adjani, was a soldier in the French Army of WWII who hailed from Constantine, Algeria. Adjani’s mother, Augusta, was German.

During a 1985 interview, Adjani said that her mother Augusta was ashamed of her father’s Algerian origin and would say that he was of Turkish ancestry. Her mother had also asked him to change his first name to Cherif as it sounded more “American”. Adjani has also spoken out against some of the backlash she’s received from the French media after speaking up against racial prejudice against Algerians in France, and upon revealing that her father was Algerian.

Adjani has began acting in amateur at the age of 12 after winning a recital contest and at 14, she landed her first film role in Le Petit bougnat. In 1975, she received her first César Award nomination for
The Story of Adèle H., a role she landed at age 19, and one her first of five César Awards in 1981 for Possession.

AFRICANS OF NOTE: Battling Siki

Battling Siki (September 16, 1897 – December 15, 1925), aka Louis Mbarick Fall, was a French light heavyweight boxer born in Senegal who fought from 1912–1925, and briefly reigned as the lineal light heavyweight champion after knocking out Georges Carpentier.

He was born Baye Fall in the port city of Saint-Louis, Senegal. While still a teenager, Siki changed his name, and moved to metropolitan France, where, by the age of 15, he began his professional boxing career. Siki’s early years were inauspicious. From 1912 to 1914 he compiled a record of just 8 wins, 6 losses and 2 draws.

When World War I erupted, Siki joined the French army. During the war he was decorated for bravery in battle, and honorably discharged.

After his discharge from the military, Siki resumed his boxing career. In October and November 1920 Siki boxed two matches in the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. He dated and married a Dutch woman and stayed in Amsterdam for a while. In this period he taught boxing at the amateur boxing club De Jonge Bokser (The Young Boxer).

From November 1, 1919, until he faced Georges Carpentier for the world’s light heavyweight championship in 1922, Siki compiled the impressive record of 43 wins in 46 bouts (21 KOS), suffering just 1 loss (on a decision) and 2 draws. Carpentier, the reigning World and European champion, agreed to fight Siki for the title, and they met in Paris, France on September 24, 1922.

Siki claimed that he had agreed to take a dive, but when Carpentier, dropped Siki, the outraged African decided to get up and fight. Although he had agreed to throw the fight, he did not intend to get beat up doing so.

In the sixth round Siki hit Carpentier with a powerful right uppercut that appeared to put Carpentier down and out for the count. The referee, however, claimed Siki had tripped Carpentier, and awarded the bout to the unconscious champion on a foul. Fearing a riot from the aroused crowd, the three ringside judges overruled the referee, and Siki was eventually declared the champion.

Siki then embarked on a well publicized rampage of partying and carousing. He would walk his pet lion down the Champs-Élysées while wearing his top hat and tuxedo. Siki was known to fire his revolvers in the air in public as a means of prompting his two great danes to do tricks. He was constantly reported drinking champagne in night clubs, and spent freely on flashy clothes and partying. He was fond of white women, and both his wives were white (his second-wife may have been mixed-race and white-passing).

During this time offers poured in from the United States for Siki to meet the leading heavyweight contender Harry Wills, middleweight champion Johnny Wilson, and the legendary Harry Greb. Attempts were even made to match Siki with the then reigning heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey.

Instead, Siki signed to defend his title against Irish light heavyweight Mike McTigue on Saint Patrick’s Day in Dublin. The bout was controversial and Siki lost his belt on decision and lost the title.

After losing his European title on a foul, Siki moved to the United States. His record in the States was poor and he failed to defeat any top-notch fighters. His failure to train properly was evident; his record after winning the title was a dismal 11 wins (7 KOS), 17 losses, 1 draw and 2 No Contests. It was during this time period that he suffered the only two knockout defeats of his career.

Even in the States Siki continued to carouse and train on booze and street brawls. Often, he would get drunk in speakeasies, refuse to pay the tab, and fight his way out.

On December 15, 1925, his reckless lifestyle caught up with him. He was stopped by a policeman who saw him staggering drunk on 42nd Street, not far from his apartment in New York City. Siki stated that he was on his way home, and walked off. Later he was found lying face down, shot twice in the back at close range, dead at the age of 28.

The Rev. Adam Clayton Powell, the father of Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., presided over his funeral, which was held in Harlem New York.

In 1993, his remains were repatriated to his home city of Saint-Louis, Senegal. His record was 64-25-5 with 35 knockouts.

AFRICA AT THE OSCARS #6: Rachid Bouchareb

Born in Paris, France, but of Algerian descent, Rachid Bouchareb is perhaps Africa’s most nominated director in the history of the Academy Awards having had three of his films nominated for the ‘Best Foreign Language Film’ category.

Having previously worked behind-the-scenes for notable France television stations, Bouchareb began making films in the late 70s and released his first feature film, Bâton Rouge, in 1985.

A little over a decade later, in 1996, Bouchareb received his first Academy Award nomination for his film Poussières de vie (Dust of Life) which was submitted into this category on behalf of Algeria.

Again, another ten years passed before he received his second nomination for the same category with his Cannes Award-winning drama Indigènes (Days of Glory) which can be seen here in full.

His most recent film to receive an Oscar nomination was his 2010 drama
Hors-la-loi (Outside the Law).

AFRICA AT THE OSCARS #3: “Days of Glory” (French: ‘Indigènes’, ‘natives’) directed by Rachid Bouchareb (Algeria)

Through the eyes of four Algerian men who enlist to fight for a country they’ve never set foot in, we see the very nature of the discriminatory and racist ideologies enacted by French colonial forces with World War II providing the backdrop of this transformative period, as well as the complex and varied relationships that existed between France’s African colonies, France as a ‘mother country’ and the Arab-North African cultural identity.

While each has his own motives, these native Africans have enlisted to fight for a France they have never seen. In the words of Le Chant des Africains the four actors sing within the film, “we come from the colonies to save the motherland, we come from afar to die, we are the men of Africa.”

The film shows a complex depiction of their treatment in an army organisation prejudiced in favour of the European French.

(source)

The film was nominated for the 2006 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film which it didn’t win. However, actors Jamel Debbouze, Samy Naceri, Roschdy Zem, Sami Bouajila and Bernard Blancan won the Prix d’interprétation masculine at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival.

View the full movie above.

Author Marie NDiaye, who is the first black woman to win France’s Prix Goncourt, has been named a finalist for the Man Booker International Prize.
She is nominated alongside such international superstars as Lydia Davis, Marilynne Robinson, and Peter Stamm, as well as past winners like Philip Roth, Alice Munro, and Chinua Achebe.

more. via thesmithian

Author Marie NDiaye, who is the first black woman to win France’s Prix Goncourt, has been named a finalist for the Man Booker International Prize.

She is nominated alongside such international superstars as Lydia Davis, Marilynne Robinson, and Peter Stamm, as well as past winners like Philip Roth, Alice Munro, and Chinua Achebe.

more. via thesmithian

French charity workers jailed for trying to smuggle 'orphans' out of Chad →

A former fireman and a circus performer have been sentenced to two years in prison for attempting to smuggle 103 children out of Chad claiming they were Darfur war orphans and then hand them to would-be adoptive parents in France who had paid large sums to “save” children in crisis.

Eric Bréteau, who founded the charity Arche de Zoé (Zoe’s Ark), and his partner Emilie Lelouch were described by a Paris judge as “megalomaniacs”, which caused them to laugh as they sat in court.

They had not been present at their trial in December, preferring to stay in South Africa where they ran a guest house, tourist flight tours and a circus troop. But they unexpectedly arrived in court for sentencing amid speculation that an international arrest warrant would have been issued.

Bréteau and Lelouch were arrested with 13 others in October 2007 at Abéché airport, on Chad’s eastern border with Sudan. Local authorities had become suspicious after a charter plane with a Spanish airline crew landed at the remote airport.

Police pounced when the French charity workers arrived and tried to board with a crowd of children ranging from toddlers to 10-year-olds who were wearing fake bandages to make them look ill and who had not been declared to officials.

Dozens of families, mainly French, had paid between €2,800 and €6,000 to the charity to house a child from wartorn Darfur. The would-be parents, recruited on online adoption forums, waited at an airport east of Paris with warm clothing for the children, having prepared bedrooms and new lives for them.

An investigation by Unicef and the Red Cross found that at least 85% of the children still had living parents and were from Chad, not Sudan. The charity workers were arrested and sentenced to eight years’ forced labour in Chad, before being transferred to a Paris jail and then pardoned by Chad’s president, opening the way for a French trial.

The saga, which embarrassed France and led an NGO to warn against “humanitarian mercenaries”, was described by one nurse as “surrealist from the start” and is being made into a film. During the trial, Isabelle Rile, a doctor who visited the charity’s camp in Abéché, said she had realised that the children were almost all from the local region in Chad.

She said one day the children started crying and a girl asked for her mother. The children had thought they had been brought to Abéché to go to school, she said. When she confronted Bréteau and another doctor, she told the court, “they told me the children were unhappy, that they were in Africa”.

She said the children were in good health, “there was no medical catastrophe at all”, they were “psychologically well” but found themselves “without their families”. Another nurse described the children as “wanting to go home”.

Bréteau, a father of three who set up the charity in 2005 to help tsunami victims, claimed he wanted to highlight international inaction on Sudan and “save Darfur”.

He was described in court by one nurse as an “all-powerful manipulator” and accused of “playing on the [adoptive] families’ desires for children”. One lawyer described Bréteau’s hold over the other charity workers as “the almost messianic message by a veritable guru”. A witness said Bréteau was an “idealist prepared to dump everyone in the shit”.

Bréteau and Lelouch were found guilty of acting illegally as an adoption intermediary, facilitating illegal entry into France, and fraud with regard to the families who paid them. They were taken into custody, and said they would appeal.

Four other defendants, including three charity workers and a journalist who accompanied them on the Chad trip, were given suspended sentences. One defence lawyer argued they had been “blinded by kind sentiment”.

I have no words for how incredibly heinous the actions these people took to exploit these Chadian families are, nevermind the French would-be adoptive ‘parents’. And a two year prison sentence? Only?! For human trafficking across international borders, illegal border crossing, fraud, kidnapping and child smuggling (I’m no legal expert so forgive me if I’m just using colloquial synonyms). They didn’t even have the decency to attend their trial and I see nothing about their behaviour that indicates an ounce of remorse. Just goes to show how little the worth of African lives are. Even if there are 103 of them.

White saviorism once again rears its ugly head in a situation which I’m sure is far from unique and gets a mere slap on the wrist. I mean, the president of Chad actually pardoned them. This man has been president since 1990. He needs to take a lesson from the current Pope’s book and move on. He clearly does not know how to use his power effectively.

Oh and, this situation is being made into a film. Not sure by who but I can’t wait to see who they cast as the French couple since it’s probably going to focus mostly on their lives.

DOCUMENTARY: Les Pieds Verts ou Les Français qui n’ont Jamais Quitté l’Algerie 1965

On connaît les Pieds Noirs, ces Européens qui fuirent l’Algérie dans les derniers mois précédant l’Indépendance de 1962, mais le terme Pieds Verts (ou Pieds Rouges) est plus méconnu. Il définit les Européens restés en Algérie et ceux qui rejoignirent l’Algérie après 62 pour aider à sa reconstruction.
Dans ce splendide reportage de 1965, le reporter réalise une galerie de portraits assez fascinants où l’on croise notamment le dernier boucher de Bab-el-Oued (l’ancien quartier populaire européen).

A 1965 French documentary that profiles various European emigrants, mostly French, that stayed on to permanently reside in Algeria after the Algerian revolution.

[FRENCH, NO SUBTITLES]