Historical Anthropology of Violence in a Colonial Context

The historiography of the post-1962 period has focused on studying the various armed resistances undertaken by Algerian society against the French colonial occupation, particularly during the 19th century. We revisited this theme by narrowing the scope to resistances of the post-war period (1939–1945), including the National Liberation War within the framework of our previous research project (Algerian Resistance between History and Memory). Since resistance -or resistances- cannot be separated from the specific context of the colonial situation, this project aims to reflect on the colonial experience and its violent episodes in light of historiographical innovations. Only by considering the process of historicizing violence can we reveal its stages, modalities, and meanings, as well as its inscription in both bodies and consciousness.

Building on Georges Balandier’s foundational text on the colonial situation[1], and without neglecting the stimulating perspectives offered by Anglo-Saxon[2] historiography (Frederick Cooper, Raphaëlle Branche, etc.) and the Subaltern Studies[3] approach, our ambition is to contribute to the critical debate - not by opposing the theses defended, but by revisiting colonial practices. Broadly speaking, these practices manifested in a series of violences that must be identified, not to compile an inventory, but to critically examine the modes of domination and coercion exercised by the French colonial[4] exploitation system, revealing their underlying logics and objectives.

The impetus for reopening this line of inquiry came from the numerous controversies that arose in the wake of contexts involving the mobilization of collective memory, combined with the disruptions provoked by the emergence of a culture of nostalgia for the colonial empire.

However, this return to the past and its inevitable instrumentalization for political purposes (including distortions of historical realities or tendentious, even negationist interpretations of events) was accompanied by positive effects on the writing of history. Indeed, it coincided, in France, with the opening of archival collections[5], and in Algeria, with the publication of numerous testimonies, primarily relating to the National Liberation War. This opened new research perspectives and raised new questions. Hence the interest in the colonial moment among many contemporary historians and political scientists, such as Romain Bertrand (Politics of the Colonial Moment, 2008), Nicolas Bancel, Pierre Blanchard, and Sandrine Lemaire (The Colonial Fracture, 2005), Raphaëlle Branche (Colonial Violence, 2012), and Sylvie Thénault (Ordinary Violence, 2012). In all these works, significant historiographical clarifications were made, enriching knowledge of this period. It is only natural, then, to reconsider this past -both recent and distant- under the impulse of commemoration frenzies in France and Algeria alike[6].

By privileging the long term, that is, by considering the entire colonial period, we propose to examine certain cases of violence. In addition to those related to colonial conquest and the various uprisings of the Algerian population, it is important to consider other forms of violence: those introduced by colonial institutions in Algeria (land laws that enshrined the dispossession of peasants and the economic exploitation of the country; exceptional laws, such as the Indigénat Code; the exercise of repression, including camps, prisons, and sequestration; ethnic discrimination; socio-political discrimination; educational discrimination, etc.). Symbolic violence is also present. What place should be given to the notion of a process of brutalization and its normalization, as analyzed by Georges L. Mosse[7], in the specific case of violence experienced by Algerians?

Yet the violence observed during this long period did not concern only the colonizer-colonized relationship. Its prevalence is evident in the light of social tensions and upheavals of sensibilities that permeated Algerian society. The seeds of discord, arising from the rupture of bonds of solidarity, made social relations more complex and placed the interests of various groups in competition, if not outright rivalry. Internal antagonisms shook Algerian society-particularly regarding control over land- and their intensification grew alongside the amplification of the social crisis, which spared no segment of society. Undeniably, the depth of these transformations profoundly affected the restructuring of social identities. In an article (Peasant Requests, 1989)[8], we demonstrated the significance of conflicts specific to Algerian social groups, which were partly caused by the brutal enforcement of land legislation. In this way, colonial violence led to the disruption of family relations and undermined the traditional solidarities that had, until then, preserved the integrity of property through collective ownership and inalienability.

These aspects escape both the “colonial library,” which adhered to the logics of colonial knowledge, and nationalist counter-readings, which neglected the totality of contradictions and violences they entail. Now more than ever, recourse to historical anthropology opens the way to understanding social and cultural worlds and highlights the importance of directing research toward the field and the local scale[9], in order to grasp the drama of “dispossession” in its broadest sense (and not exclusively land dispossession), the continuities and sociopolitical ruptures, to move beyond “narrative history,” and finally to consider the meaning that “the wretched of the earth” attribute to these events.

In truth, understanding what is at play in a colonial situation is not simple; it requires a multiplicity of transdisciplinary approaches to grasp the complexity and coherence of value systems, religious representations among others, and norms within a fragmented environment. Therefore, a critical rereading of the usual sources is urgently required, from a dual perspective aimed at the “construction” of archival fragments that will allow for the documentation, interpretation, and understanding of the restructuring processes at work within Algerian society.

In this attempt to study violence in a colonial context, the aim is to describe, periodize, and locate the different forms of violence, including revolutionary violence and its cultural references.

It is based on these general considerations that we plan to reread or revisit the methods of writing contemporary Algerian history within the context of the colonial situation. At the same time, we will not neglect comparisons with other colonial contexts, which is why the title has been deliberately left open, allowing for the participation of researchers working on other cultural regions.

[1] Georges Balandier, “The Colonial Situation: A Theoretical Approach”, Cahiers internationaux de sociologie, no. 51, 1951, pp. 44–79.

[2] Frederick Cooper, “Greatness, Decline… and Renewed Greatness of Colonial Studies since the 1950s”, in Politix, Vol. 17, No. 66, Second Quarter 2004, pp. 17–48.

[3] For an overview: Mamadou Diouf and Isabelle Merle, “Subaltern Studies: Revisiting the Founding Principles of a Historiographical Project on Colonial India”, Genèses, 2004/3, no. 56, pp. 131–147.

[4] This is an opportunity to revisit Jean-Paul Sartre’s text entitled “Colonialism Is a System”, Les Temps Modernes, March 1956.

[5] The National Overseas Archives (ANOM) have organized significant collections, particularly from the former department of Constantine. For example, it should be noted that the collection concerning Annaba (formerly Bône) is currently being cataloged and extends over 100 linear meters.

[6] As an example, one can cite the ongoing work on the First World War, which includes historiographical clarifications that have enriched knowledge on the subject, cf. Antoine Prost, Penser la Grande Guerre, Paris, 2004, or the book by Annette Becker and Stéphane Rouzeau, 14-18: Retrouver la guerre, Paris.

[7] From the Great War to Totalitarianism: The Brutalization of European Societies [Fallen Soldiers: Reshaping the Memory of the World Wars] (translated by Edith Magyar), Paris, Hachette Littératures, 1999, 291 pp.

[8] “Peasant Requests and Cultural Resistance”, in Cultural Practices and Resistance in the Maghreb, Paris, CNRS, 1992.

[9] Jacques Revel (ed.), Games of Scale: Microanalysis in Practice, Paris, Le Seuil–Gallimard, 1996.