When history slaps back: Algeria designates French colonization a state crime

Algerian public and drawing considerable interest, the bill also included a detailed list of crimes against humanity committed during French colonial rule between 1830 and 1962: nuclear tests, environmental and climate disasters, extrajudicial executions, massacres, rapes, physical and psychological torture, and the systematic destruction of the country’s resources.

For a full 132 years, France exploited and plundered Algeria to the marrow, leaving behind, quite literally, a wreckage. Beyond the horrific crimes against humanity, hundreds of thousands of people also lost their lives during Algeria’s war of independence (1954–1962), fought to rid the country of its colonizers. While official Algerian sources put the death toll as high as 1.5 million, French historians insist on keeping the figure around 500,000. Another kind of “war” continues today between Algeria and France—this time at the level of historians. Amid archival documents, testimonies, painful memories, and competing claims, the Algerian side is striving to underline the truth.

In recent years, Algeria has consistently applied diplomatic pressure on the Paris administration to confront its crimes during the colonial period and has achieved some tangible gains. For instance, French President Emmanuel Macron was forced to officially acknowledge that the colonization of Algeria constituted a “crime against humanity.” However, Macron has also avoided issuing an official apology on behalf of the state. As for the recent vote in Algeria, the French Foreign Ministry limited itself to saying, “We do not intervene in domestic political debates taking place in foreign countries.” Yet the decision taken by the Algerian Parliament was not a “domestic political debate,” but a matter that directly concerns France.

Attentive readers may recall that I have from time to time referred in this column to the phenomenon of “French-style colonialism.” It is a form of colonialism that is crude and brutal, leaves destruction in its wake, is hated everywhere it goes, and, rather than building systems, demolishes even those that already exist. But today the world is changing very rapidly. As seen in the Algerian case, France is increasingly turning into an unwanted burden everywhere it once seized and exploited. There are other countries following Algeria’s lead. France continues to be struck by the slap of history.

The greatest handicap facing Algeria in shedding its colonial past is undoubtedly the effort to redirect generations raised within a French logic and worldview toward an Arab and Muslim perspective. It is obvious that this will not be easy. Significant steps have been taken—and continue to be taken—in recent years. Gradually removing French as a language of instruction and thoroughly overhauling curricula, especially in history classes, are perhaps the most important of these steps.

The Islamic world has lessons to learn from Algeria, which is trying to escape the dead ends it has been pushed into. Likewise, there are important lessons to be drawn from France’s predicament for those countries in today’s Islamic geography that persist in “French-style colonialism.” History gives everyone the lesson they deserve. Sooner or later.