Algeria: May 8th is a day of celebration and commemoration
May 8th is a day of both celebration and commemoration in Algeria. It is a day to commemorate the lives lost during the colonial massacres, and a celebration of the independence movement birthed by it.
May 8th, 1945, was a day of celebration in Europe too as Germany finally surrendered to the Allied powers. But, simultaneously, an eruption of violence in Algeria saw the lives of over 45,000 Algerians lost at the hands of the French.
In the town of Setif, in northern Algeria, 4,000 protestors took to the streets to press new demands for independence from the colonial government and greater rights, particularly after assisting the French in WWII. Many held up placards including “End the Occupation” and “We want equality”.
Instead, French colonial forces resorted to shooting on the protestors. Panic ensued and the French launched an air and ground offensive against several eastern cities of Algeria. There are documentations of lynching operations and summary executions committed by the French.
As thousands died, the ability to bury them dwindled and many were dumped in wells and surrounding ravines. The day therefore marks the injustice suffered by the Algerians by their former colonial power.
Yet many Algerians, and scholars of the Franco-Algerian colonization, point to the May 8th massacre as the impetus for the organization of a formal independence movement which, nine years later, would culminate in the War of Independence in 1954 – a war which would claim the lives of 1.5 million Algerians until independence was declared in 1962.
To mark the anniversary, 30 French parliamentary officials have travelled to Algeria to join in the commemoration. However, not all French parliamentarians agree with the move.
” It is important, on this symbolic date, to have a French delegation present to also show that in France, there are not only enemies of Algeria as we have seen in recent months with all the heated debates we have witnessed,” according to Green Party MP Sabrina Sebaihi.
But the leader of the Republican MPs, Laurent Wauquiez said: “On this day of May 8, which is a day of national pride, there are French elected officials who will go to Algeria to engage in a session of self-flagellation and humiliation.”
Many scholars have argued that France has found it particularly difficult to reconcile their colonial past in comparison to other large imperial powers. Historian Nils Anderson has argued that “Algerian independence remains a trauma in French public opinion. We see that there is anti-Algerian resentment in France, the colonizing country,” and noted the history remains very little taught in schools.
The irreconcilability of French and Algerian memory has served as a constant wedge between the two nations which have suffered increasingly poor relations in recent months.
The two have engaged in a tit-for-tat diplomatic row which has seen both France and Algeria expel diplomats from their respective countries in continued escalations.
France also recently arrested an Algerian consular official and indicted him on charged of abducting an Algerian influencer living in a Parisian suburb.
RFI, MEM, Maghrebi
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