pied noir identity

le bateau du retour: the return vessel

2012-01-26T19:18:00.000-08:00

One of the most startling aspects of Pied-Noir narratives is the near absence of the actual voyage away from Algeria. All eyes were fixed on Algeria as the boat slowly tugged them away. Marie Cardinal's photo-documentary book Les Pieds-Noirs, for example, ends abruptly with vague references to the departure coupled with ads for vacation in France and a photo of a large liner.

There is often a large disconnect between the process of leaving Algeria and the vessel that took them away. Certainly, their minds were elsewhere at the time - needs for lodging, the new life before them, the traumas of what had just transpired before the departure. Conditions were poor for most the Pieds-Noirs during the departure, the voyage, and upon arrival. Maybe there isn't much to remember about the relatively short voyage that would entirely change the course of their lives.

Today, however, I stumbled upon a website with a page dedicated to these ships, specifically the Kairouan. The Popodoran blog's bi-line is, "Je viens d'un pays qui n'existe plus: Oran pour ne jamais oublier..." 'I come from a country that no longer exists: Oran, so we never forget...' Although some of the photo inscriptions recount other voyages than the exodus, one remarks, "tu m'as ramené en France quand j'avais 10 ans en 1962. Jamais je ne t'oublierais" 'you brought me back to France when I was 10 years old in 1962. I will never forget you.' The collection concludes with images of the Port d'Oran upon which was painted the inscription, "Ici la France" 'This is France.' The contributors recount the pain of their departure.

CDHA collecting testimonials

2012-01-15T19:58:00.000-08:00

The Centre de Documentation Historique sur l'Algérie (CDHA) in Aix-en-Provence contacted me last week with the following call for participation (my translation follows):

Nous avons un groupe « témoignages » (Histoire de Paroles) qui enregistre les récits de la vie quotidienne en Algérie, de l’exode et de l’accueil en France et dans les différents pays d’ailleurs. Si dans votre entourage des Français d’Algérie veulent également raconter leurs souvenirs, leur vécu, leurs émotions afin que leur mémoire, leur histoire soit conservée et transmise aux générations futures, pouvez-vous leur demander de prendre contact avec nous.

We have a group "témoignages" 'testimonials' (Histoire de Paroles) that is recording stories of daily life in Algeria, of the exodus and the welcome in France and in various other countries. If there are Français d'Algérie you know who would like to talk about their memories, what they lived, and their emotions so that their memory and their history can be preserved and transmitted to future generations, could you please ask them to contact us?

If you would like to participate, please contact the CDHA directly at contact@cdha.fr. This promises to be a useful resource for those of us researching the Pied-Noir community and memory.

Quand la Madelon

2011-12-20T21:40:00.000-08:00

One of the blogs I follow, Manifestation Pieds Noirs 2012 blog, wrote a piece on 4 December that plunged me into the minutiae of Pied-Noir history. In their article "La Madelon était pied-noire," the author contends that the heroine of the World War I song, "Quand la Madelon" was from Batna, Algeria.

According to Wikipedia.fr, the singer Bach (Charles-Joseph Pasquier) created it in Paris in 1914. The words were written by Louis Bousquet (1870-1941) and the music by Camille Robert who was born in Batna in 1878.

The song was not immediately popular. According to Manifestation who cite the following letter from Jean Bayol printed in the Algérianiste (number 3, 15 June 1985, pp. 71-72, my translation):

"I possess numerous documents and testimonies of great interest. Four years ago while following the roots of 'La Madelon,' I was able to go back to her father's birth.
Several Madeleines were born between 1873 and 1876 in Batna (because Batna is his birth town), (for example, Jeanne Madeleine Bretin born January 6, 1875 to Annette Bretin and an unknown father.)
It would have been too easy to pick whichever Madeleine among them.
But the information that I obtained from various sources allowed me to go back to her father.
We can thus respond to Monsieur Robert that Madelon was born in Batna and that it's there that Luis Bousquet [sic], who was originally from Perrignargues (Manifestation interjects - Parignargues, a town in the Gard) knew her and that it's in memory of her that he wrote this song.
The author of the song was not a soldier from Algeria.
He was in the 3rd division of Zouaves from Constantine.
When the three supplementary bataillons were created, he was moved to the 6th bataillon in Batna.
He says it himself, "I wrote this song in memory of a girl I met in Batna."

original text:

« Je possède de nombreux documents et témoignages d'un grand intérêt. Il y a 4 ans que je suis "La Madelon" à la trace et j'ai pu remonter jusqu'à la naissance de son père. Plusieurs Madeleine sont nées entre 1873 et 1876 à Batna (car Batna est bien son lieu de naissance), (par exemple Jeanne Madeleine Bretin née le 6 janvier 1875 de Annette Bretin et de père inconnu.) Il était trop facile de choisir parmi elles une quelconque Madeleine. Mais les renseignements que j'ai obtenus de sources diverses m'ont permis de remonter jusqu'à son père. C'est en me renseignant à la mairie que j'ai retrouvé celui qui allait devenir le père de Madeleine. Nous pouvons donc répondre à M. Robert que Madelon est née à Batna, que c'est là que Luis Bousquet originaire de Perrignargues (c’est Parignargues, village du Gard) l'a connue et que c'est en souvenir d'elle qu'il a écrit sa chanson. L'auteur de cette chanson n'est pas un militaire originaire d'Algérie. Il s'était engagé au 3^ème Zouaves de Constantine. A la création de 3 bataillons supplémentaires, il fut affecté au 6^ème bataillon à Batna. Il le dit lui-même : « J'ai écrit cette chanson en souvenir d'une fille que j'ai connue à Batna. »

Why does any of this matter to me? I have been working on a book chapter entitled "Fixing the Past: Marie Cardinal's La Mule de corbillard" which analyzes the 1963 novel as an attempt to stop time for the Pieds-Noirs. While Cardinal is extraordinarily careful not to reveal the location of the novel, there are numerous hints at Algeria. The main character, Madeleine, lives alone on five hectares of land and hosts a French engineer named Pierre Landrieux. The two fall in love and begin to build a life together, but when her lover suddenly disappears, Madeleine (nicknamed Madelon by Pierre) begins the obsessive construction of a model cathedral. When World War II begins, Madeline loses control of her vineyards and begins a long spiral into vengeance, old age, and reconstructing memories.

The song's origins anchor La Mule de corbillard further to Algeria while the lyrics tell a similar tale to the love between Pierre and Madeleine:

Pour le repos, le plaisir du militaire,

Il est là-bas à deux pas de la forêt

Une maison aux murs tout couverts de lierre

"Aux Tourlourous" c'est le nom du cabaret.

La servante est jeune et gentille,

Légère comme un papillon.

Comme son vin son œil pétille,

Nous l'appelons la Madelon

Nous en rêvons la nuit, nous y pensons le jour,

Ce n'est que Madelon mais pour nous c'est l'amour

{Refrain:}

Quand Madelon vient nous servir à boire

Sous la tonnelle on frôle son jupon

Et chacun lui raconte une histoire

Une histoire à sa façon

La Madelon pour nous n'est pas sévère

Quand on lui prend la taille ou le menton

Elle rit, c'est tout le mal qu'elle sait faire

Madelon, Madelon, Madelon !

Nous avons tous au pays une payse

Qui nous attend et que l'on épousera

Mais elle est loin, bien trop loin pour qu'on lui dise

Ce qu'on fera quand la classe rentrera

En comptant les jours on soupire

Et quand le temps nous semble long

Tout ce qu'on ne peut pas lui dire

On va le dire à Madelon

On l'embrasse dans les coins. Elle dit "veux-tu finir..."

On s'figure que c'est l'autre, ça nous fait bien plaisir.

{au Refrain}

Un caporal en képi de fantaisie

S'en fut trouver Madelon un beau matin

Et, fou d'amour, lui dit qu'elle était jolie

Et qu'il venait pour lui demander sa main

La Madelon, pas bête, en somme,

Lui répondit en souriant :

Et pourquoi prendrais-je un seul homme

Quand j'aime tout un régiment ?

Tes amis vont venir. Tu n'auras pas ma main

J'en ai bien trop besoin pour leur verser du vin

{au Refrain}

Lledo's Algerias, my phantoms

2011-12-12T17:42:00.000-08:00

Jean-Pierre Lledo sent me all of his films on DVD in 2007 after a Pied-Noir writer, Marie-Claude San Juan put us in contact. I had been trying to get a copy of Algéries, mes fantômes (2003) for years but couldn't get it shipped to the States. I finally (shamefully only) finished watching it today.

Yvette Teurlait remembering the massacre of 17 October 1961

Lledo's search for his own ghosts of Algeria in France began in 1998 on March 19 at the commemoration of the end of the Algerian war. His film ends with images just after France won the World Cup in 1998. His camera lingers on two celebrating fans waving flags, one Algerian, one French. The flags intertwine and overlap. Lledo expresses in the final scenes:

"Seul un jeune de cette génération peut faire ce geste-là. Un geste qui allait rester dans la gorge de tous les nationalistes et tous les intégristes. Qu’ils étouffent ! Mes fantômes pouvaient retourner dans leur patrie. Et moi, quand retournerais-je dans la mienne ? A moins que la mienne ne soit la patrie des gens de passage."

"Only a youth of this generation could make that gesture. A gesture that would remain caught in the throats of all the nationalists and all the fundamentalists. Let them choke! My ghosts could return to their homeland. And me? When would I return to mine? Unless mine is a homeland of transients."*

Lledo's search for his country, Algeria, where he remained until 1993, is complex and moving. His opening scene at the Port of Marseille with his daughter Naouel explaining nostalgia as a "manque" 'lack' frames Lledo's movement as he travels all around France to talk about his films on Algeria. His encounters with multiple memories of Algeria -- from soldiers who admit to having tortured during the war, to Pieds-Noirs and Algerians who suffer from their exile, to the child of Harkis who struggles to understand her father's shame -- do not evoke nostalgic reunions. They demonstrate what Fiona Barclay's Writing Postcolonial France: haunting, literature and the Maghreb (Lexington Books, 2011) affirms, "France is haunted" (xi). Algeria and the Algerian war have long haunted France and the array of those who have been touched by the two countries still struggles to put that ghost to rest, whether by returning or simply remembering the influence one has on the other.

* My translation differs from the English subtitles on the DVD.

Interview with Marc Laffineur, "The Memory of the Algerian War must be Appeased"

2011-12-11T16:45:00.000-08:00

Translated excerpts from the interview in La Croix with Minister of Veteran Affairs, Marc Laffineur (5 December 2011)

La Croix: Isn't it also time to work out the truth about the Algerian War?
ML: The Algerian War was a tragedy. We must have the courage to bring all aspects of this conflict to light. The vast majority of the French military were exemplary in carrying out their duty. The truth should not work in only one direction. It has to reflect all aspects, even the mistakes on both sides, and it has to be wanted from both sides of the Mediterranean. Created in October 2010 and presided by Claude Bébéar, the Foundation for the Memory of the Algerian War and the battles in Morocco and Tunisia is working towards this.

La Croix: Can France and Algeria strengthen their ties during this fiftieth anniversary?
ML: I am obviously in favor of a dispassionate exchange regarding the commemoration of the end of the Algerian War with respect to the veterans' associations on both sides of the Mediterranean. A greater connection between the two countries is desirable. The Algerian War was a huge mess. We have to admit that it's time to turn the page. What was done with Germany in terms of reconciliation should be able to happen with Algeria.

Coordinator chosen to organize the 50th anniversary commemorations

2011-12-10T20:06:00.000-08:00

Translated and edited from Lignes de Défense blog by Philippe Chapleau, 6 December 2011

"Next year will mark the fiftieth anniversary of the end of the Algerian war. As such, the French President has given Hubert Colin de Verdière, formerly ambassador to Algeria for two mandates, the task of coordinating the multiple initiatives related to the anniversary. Marc Laffineur, Minister of Veteren Affairs, gave this information to La Croix who published an interview with him on Monday." (Title of this interview in English: The Memory of the Algerian War Must be Appeased)

Chapleau says he had been unaware of this nomination that was made on October 23. However, Colin de Verdière has already taken up his post at the Quay d'Orsay and is currently building his team. His appointment comes after the creation in 2010 of the Foundation for the Memory of the Algerian War and the battles in Morocco and Tunisia. This organization's mission is "to facilitate public access to archives, to support scientific research in France and abroad, and to transmit the memory of a period which has often remained unknown." Directed by Hubert Falco, the foundation also wishes to "accomplish the important task of collecting testimonials. It will support the publication or reprinting of these works."

Leïla Sebbar: Voyage en Algéries autour de ma chambre

2011-12-07T17:59:00.000-08:00

While I work on my chapter, "Leïla Sebbar's Review of Algerias Past," I've been catching up on her blog (thanks to Laura Reeck's Writerly Identities which references it), and I see she has continued her Voyage en Algéries autour de ma chambre, published in 2008. Of particular interest, Sebbar includes images of the fabled Jardin d'Essai in Algiers (see Cixous's Si près, among many other post-Algerian memory works that reference it) and a painting of another Algerian cemetery, Cimetière d’El Hamma Sidi M’Hamed, Alger by Catherine Rossi, 2010. The ruins of the past keep coming to the fore, both visually and textually.

bibliography on pieds-noirs

2011-11-24T15:46:00.000-08:00

No, I haven't been blogging much about the Pieds-Noirs, but I am indeed writing and editing to tidy up my manuscript over our "summer" holiday in Australia. To help those of you interested in my writing on Pied-Noir literature, I'm including a few references here. Please email me if I can provide you with any further resources.

Book in progress:

Rewriting Home: How the Pieds-Noirs Remember Algeria. This book examines the written recreation of Algeria in the literature from the Pied-Noir community from 1962 to present. Through an examination of nostalgic returns, both real and imagined, I demonstrate colonial identity as being worked through and sustained in the motion of return and in the act of repetition.

Book Chapters:

“Viewing the Past through a ‘Nostalgeric’ Lens: Pied-Noir Photo-documentaries” in Textual and Visual Selves: Photography, Film and Comic Art in French Autobiography. Ed. Natalie Edwards, Amy L. Hubbell and Ann Miller. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2011.

“Dual, Divided, and Doubled Selves: Three Women Writing between France and Algeria.” This “Self” which is not One: Women’s Life-Writing in French. Ed. Natalie Edwards and Christopher Hogarth. Newcastle, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2010. 35-46.

“Returning to the Baobab fou: (Dis)integrating Roots in Ken Bugul’s and Marie Cardinal’s Autobiographies.” Emergent Perspectives on Ken Bugul: From Alternative Choices to Oppositional Practices. Ed. Jeanne-Sarah De Larquier and Ada Uzoamaka Azodo. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 2009. 81-99.

“Slipping Home in Marie Cardinal’s Écoutez la mer.” Gender and Displacement: Home in Contemporary Francophone Women's Autobiography. Ed. Natalie Edwards and Christopher Hogarth. Newcastle, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2008. 34-45.

Essays:

“Separation and Return in the Intellectual Work of the Pieds-Noirs.” International Journal of Francophone Studies. Special Issue: The African Intellectual. Guest Ed. Natalie Edwards and Christopher Hogarth. Forthcoming 2012.

“L’Algérie recurrente et l’Algérie errante dans l’écriture des Françaises d’Algérie.” L’écriture migrante au féminin: entre temporalités et spatialités multiples. Ed. Névine El-Nossery and Anna Rocca. Forthcoming.

“The Past is Present: Pied-Noir Returns to Algeria.” Ed. Jacqueline Dutton. Nottingham French Studies. Forthcoming 2012.

“(Re)turning to Ruins: Pied-Noir Visual Returns to Algeria.” Ed. Joseph McGonagle and Edward Welch. Special issue, “Visualizing the Franco-Algerian Relationship since 1954” in Modern and Contemporary France 19.2 (May 2011): 147-61.

“« La valise ou le cercueil » : un aller-retour dans la mémoire des Pieds-Noirs.” Revue Diasporas: histoire et sociétés 12 (October 2008): 199-207.

“The Wounds of Algeria in Pied-Noir Autobiography.” Dalhousie French Studies 81 (Winter 2007): 59-68.

“An Amputated Elsewhere: Sustaining and Relieving the Phantom Limb of Algeria.” Life Writing 4.2 (October 2007): 247-62.

“Looking Back: Deconstructing Postcolonial Blindness in Nostalgérie.” Revue CELAAN Review 3.1-2 (Fall 2004): 85-95.

In the world of Pied-Noir Research...

2011-10-10T19:38:00.000-07:00

Because of this blog, in the last two weeks students from two different countries have contacted me regarding research projects on the Pieds-Noirs. Poor abandoned blog. I have not quit writing about the Pieds-Noirs, and much is happening in the community as they prepare for the 50th anniversary of their exodus from Algeria. I have just been consumed with finishing my book manuscript and other projects since moving to The University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia. My apologies for not doing a better job of keeping the blog up to date.

For the handful of readers who need English language research on the Pieds-Noirs, I intend to put up links to scholarly articles in the upcoming months. For those of you who also read French, most of the recent correspondence I've received is related to Charly Cassan's film La Valise ou le cercueil which I have not yet seen. You can follow the promotion on Facebook through multiple groups as the producers try to get the film onto France's national television stations. Video clips are available here (photo and link sent to me by Reportage 34).

I have been actively blogging elsewhere on the much more personal but somewhat related subject of hoarding at http://hoardingmemory.wordpress.com but my research on the Pieds-Noirs is ongoing. If you have questions, comments, or research ideas, please feel free to contact me.

Repatriating Remains from Algeria

2011-07-03T06:38:00.000-07:00

According to Ennahar Online today, 135 small French cemeteries in Algeria will be regrouped into 22 cemeteries in Algerian cities. There were 523 cemeteries and 210,000 graves gradually abandoned after Algerian Independence.

The Pieds-Noirs who make pilgrimages back to their hometowns often go to the cemeteries to find ancestral graves. The graves that are now in ruins evoke extreme emotion from the Pieds-Noirs who feel helpless to stop the desecration of the abandoned sites. For many who have revisited Algeria, the cemeteries are the penultimate sites of return (see Marie Cardinal's Les Pieds-Noirs and Au pays de mes racines, Hélène Cixous's Si près, and Jacques Derrida and Safaa Fathy's Tourner les mots).

The decree to regroup the graves apparently also gives French citizens the option of repatriating the remains of their loved ones at their own expense. An interesting choice: let the loved one remain "abandoned" in their homeland, or have them join their families in exile so they can be looked after. Of course, cemeteries are not as much for the dead as for the living.

Pèlerinage recap

2011-06-13T07:45:00.000-07:00

Indeed, I was in Nîmes for Ascension again this year, but under the rain and grey skies, the event took on a different tone. I apologize to those I was supposed to meet. I looked, asked around, and texted, but did not find them. Instead, I met a few new characters in the street and at their booths, and I believe they provided me with enough material in just a few minutes of conversation to help me find my way to the end of my book.

I can't tell if it's apparent here, but I'm struggling with my experience in Nîmes this year. I predict that next year's gathering which will mark the 50th year of exile will be a different sort of celebration, but somehow seeing all these aging people, some crippled, make their way up the long path to the sanctuary under the rain -- it troubled me this year. In 2007 my experience was joyful and I was treated to open strangers who happily shared their pasts with me. This year I felt distant ... what was I doing there by myself? People still openly talked with me when I approached them. I was still led around by my elbow and introduced to relevant figures in the community, but this year I was approaching a community that is slowly becoming a part of my own past. My research interests are shifting and maybe revisiting Nîmes was suddenly a personal effort to return to my own past.

Pieds-Noirs in Nice today

2011-06-04T07:26:00.000-07:00

I can't be there tonight to hear Jean Monneret and other well known Pieds-Noirs talk about various aspects of their history and culture (as well as that of the Harkis), so I'm reprinting a story about last year's event posted in The Riviera Times (who knew such a paper existed?).

* * *

Pied-Noir festival: a fun event with a serious undertone

Last year, 40,000 people turned out for Aux Soleil de Deux Rives, a figure that easily surpassed the expectations of the event’s organisers. Clearly a raging success, it comes as no surprise that one year later another festival is set to take place and this weekend the second annual Pied-noir festival will be held in the Arenez de Cimiez gardens.

The festival is dedicated to the Pied-noirs (French nationals who moved to Algeria when it was a colony but were expatriated after it achieved independence) and the Harkies (Algerian nationals who fought for France during the war of independence and had to flee after the war was lost). Both minority groups have endured a difficult history and experienced discrimination and alienation from the Algerian and French communities.

With music, food, games, exhibitions, films and a puppet show Aux Soleil de Deux Rives provides entertainment for adults and children. Robert Castel, an Algerian-born French film star and comedian, will be one of the highlights of the event, performing a one-man show on Saturday at 6.00pm (in French). Following the laughs will be an animated dance accompanied by the Thierry Noll orchestra.

Although plenty of fun is to be had, the festival will also shine a light on the more serious subject of expatriation and immigration, bringing together those who fled North Africa almost 50 years ago with those who are fleeing the region now…NM

Didier le Pied-Noir, et moi, alors?

2011-05-16T07:44:00.000-07:00

Not long ago I translated and posted commentary by Didier Lestrade on the relationship between France and North African countries as it relates to Pied-Noir identity. Lestrade is well known for speaking out whether his ideas are popular or not, and as it turns out, like many who offer a differing perspective on Pied-Noir identity, he is familiar with being an outsider.

In what Lestrade says is an effort to maintain "transparency," he posted comments (almost all angry) that he received on his article, "Pied-Noir et Pro-Arabe" in the Revue Minorités. His 27 February 2011 followup, "Chanson de Pieds-Noirs" shared what was maybe expected disappointment, but to me the comments were no less shocking than the original article.

The general consensus is that Didier cannot be a Pied-Noir. You can judge for yourself by reading the comments Lestrade posted (see below). Perhaps I am most disappointed because I had seen recent signs that the Pieds-Noirs are becoming increasingly diverse and accepting multiple views and approaches to the relationship with Algeria. Whereas the vision of Algeria was fairly uniform up through the 1990s, individuals are beginning to address the violence, exclusions and hardships they experienced while still living there. The old identity marker returns here, though. You can only be a Pied-Noir if... Lestrade has been rejected by some community members for his strong opinions about letting go of the past and healing. The same has happened on Facebook Pied-Noir groups in which certain people are excluded for having differing views on just what or who a Pied-Noir is. For some reason I'm allowed to float around on these groups and I'm frequently invited to join them. I'm even warmly embraced by the community. But then, I have no pretention of being a Pied-Noir.

* * *

Three of the Comments on Didier Lestrade's "Pied-Noir et Pro-Arabe"

- Toi un Pied-Noir ? J'en doute car mes frères sont fiers de l'être et fiers de leurs aînés qui ont construit un pays envié à partir d'un désert, au prix de leur vie. Penses ce que tu veux mais stp ne nous insulte pas, nous avons eu notre part de malheurs. Nous avons assez de détracteurs en France qui a oublié les sacrifices de nos parents pour la libérer et en Algérie où les profiteurs de l'indépendance n'en ont plus pour longtemps. La majorité nous regrette et le dit dans la presse locale et autres vidéos. Voilà, je me contenterai de ne pas te saluer, et si tu l'oses tu me réponds.

- Didier le Pied Noir.
C'est la dernière fois que je te nomme le Pied Noir.
Après ce que tu as écrit sur nous. Que tu nous souhaites tout simplement la mort, je veux te faire savoir que tous les Pieds-Noirs de facebook sont en train de faire tourner ton immondice de texte. Honte à toi. Honte à tes propos indécents et insultants à notre égard. Nous allons même consulter un avocat pour te trainer devant les tribunaux .. Non nous ne sommes pas encore morts. De victimes tu veux nous faire passer de bourreaux.

Les Pieds-Noirs, malgré ce que tu penses ont des relations privilégiées avec le peuple Algérien et si l’Algérie devient démocratique, nous aurons des relations apaisées avec le pays de nos racines. Tu n'as rien compris à notre désarroi, à notre exil, à notre soif de vérité. Tu n'as rien compris à nos souffrances, à notre mal être, à notre déracinement. Tu n'as rien compris à notre soif de reconnaissance pour ce que tous nos ancêtres ont fait et endurer pour construire ce beau pays. Tu n'as pas compris et tu n'as pas vu l'accueil que nous réservent tous les Algériens quand nous foulons notre pays. Tu n'as rien compris comme nous a pas compris ce falso de degol.

Honte à tes propos insultants vis-à-vis de ton peuple. Honte à ton racisme primaire contre ton propre camp. Honte à toi tout simplement. Je suis un artiste Pied-Noir - 5 générations en Algérie — de père petit fonctionnaire de mairie et de mère au foyer (6 enfants) tu vois le sale colonialiste et le sale facho que je suis... Salut.

- Et vous, cher monsieur êtes-vous de gauche ou d'extrême gauche ? Sachez qu'en ALGERIE nous n'étions pas pollués par la politique de droite ou de gauche, nous étions tout simplement PIEDS NOIRS. Donc vous voudriez que nos parents et grands parents s'excusent d'avoir construit l'ALGERIE (1830 — 1962) pays à l'état sauvage ne comprenant que des marécages et occupé par toutes sortes d'ethnies qui ne songeaient qu'à se faire la guerre. Mais puisque vous êtes journaliste, essayez de vous pencher sur l'histoire de l'ALGERIE. Quand à vos parents, comme nous les plaignons d'avoir engendré un tel traître capable de souhaiter la mort à ses vieux parents. Quelle tristesse pour eux !!! Ce qui est sûr, c'est que quand nous ne serons plus là, vous ne serez pas représentatif des enfants de PIEDS NOIRS qui ont eux un autre respect pour leurs parents que vous n'en avez pour les vôtres. UN PIED NOIR ET FIER DE L'ETRE

Nîmes, pèlerinage de Notre Dame de Santa Cruz 2011

2011-05-15T10:15:00.000-07:00

This year marks the 49th anniversary of the Pieds-Noirs' exile from Algeria and preparations have long since begun for the commemoration of 50 years to take place in 2012. Because I have a conference in Aix-en-Provence and am presenting June 1, I've been able to stitch in a quick trip to Nîmes for Ascension on June 2. I've already made contact with a few Pieds-Noirs who will be there, but if you are interested in talking to me (in French or in English) about your memories of Algeria or any return trips you may have made since 1962, please do contact me. I'd love to talk to you in person.

Et pour les francophones, je le dis en français: je serai à Nîmes le 2 juin pour l'Ascension et le pèlerinage de Notre Dame de Santa Cruz. J'arrive à Nîmes vers la fin de la matinée, mais j'espère être à Mas de Mingue vers midi. Si vous aimeriez me parler de vos souvenirs de vote patrie, si vous avez écrit un texte au sujet de votre passé en Algérie, ou si vous avez fait un voyage de retour depuis 1962, je serais très contente de vous rencontrer. Je travaille actuellement les voyages récents (depuis 2000) en Algérie, surtout ceux qui ont été filmés. Contactez-moi, donc. Malheureusement je dois repartir le 3 juin, mais je me réjouis de pouvoir retrouver des anciens et nouveaux amis pieds-noirs.

Vidéo du pèlerinage en 2007. http://piedsnoirs.blogspot.com/2007/05/plerinage-de-santa-cruz.html

Marie Cardinal, ten years and so much more

2011-05-09T15:04:00.000-07:00

on my desk today

Ten years ago today, Marie Cardinal passed away. I was in Paris when I heard the news. I had hoped to meet her in 2001 while I was living in Switzerland and frequently traveling to France for my doctoral research, but that was not to be in my future.

Her passing, though, had little bearing on the direction of my research. Hardly a day has gone by when I haven't thought of something that she has written or that her work hasn't in some way influenced the way I think or see things. When I first discovered her, thanks very much to an undergraduate professor at Truman State University, I thought I had discovered my adoptive mother. "Les Mots pour le dire," je les ai trouvés. It was as though someone was finally speaking my language, albeit in French. Her words soothed, her pain made me feel understood, her vulnerability drew me in.

While I read, obsessed, and wrote about her during the dissertating years, I also grew to loathe the woman. She truly was like a literary mother to me. I became so sick of her whining, so unforgiving of her obsessive recreation of Algeria, so intolerant of her struggles and supposed victories. Why wasn't she strong enough to divorce her husband? Why was she so afraid of losing Algeria and so unable to see or really accept that it had gone on without her? Why did she refuse to openly criticize the Pied-Noir people, as she blatantly said in Les Pieds-Noirs.

And now I'm writing about her again, and again and again, all these years later. She kept repeating and I can't stop writing about her need to repeat. I have even found new angles to look at that obsessive memory and its manifestations. As I have come to know members of her community and understand the struggles the Pieds-Noirs have faced, I find she is much easier to forgive. She openly confronted traumas that many could not articulate, some I still cannot understand, even though I feel I've tracked her down and pinpointed so many details of her past.

Marie Cardinal, I'm sorry I've only known you through your writing, but perhaps that is the best way to know you, to keep you at your word, there in front of me, always within arm's reach.

Visualizing Algiers, Reconstructing Marie Cardinal's Memory

2011-03-22T13:50:00.000-07:00

I've spent the greater part of the morning on a sort of archeological dig via the Internet. I'm revising a chapter of my book related to the pleasure of repetition, and one of Cardinal's recurring stories needed some backup. She often recounts a very violent scene, most probably the Rue d'Isly massacre, intertwined with her mother's traumatizing avowal of having attempted to provoke a miscarriage when pregnant with Cardinal. This secondary and more recent violence is always somewhat fuzzy, and in Les Mots pour le dire, Cardinal claims she forgets the name of the street where she was. Nonetheless, she remembers other street names and can give a precise visual description of the location in Algiers.

image of Rampe Bugeaud 1961 from
http://jf.vinaccio.free.fr/site1000/alger08/alger037.html

Thanks to the marvels of the Internet and the many Pieds-Noirs who have recreated Alger on their websites, I was able to use Google maps combined with a 1930s city map, Elisabeth Fechner's photos from Alger et l'Algérois, and some photos of the Hôtel Aletti to identify the street in question. I had always thought that Cardinal was disingenuous in her claim to forgetting, because I believed she was talking about the Rue Michelet (which she cites elsewhere). Now that I know the Hôtel Aletti is today called Hôtel Es-Safir and I have been able to transpose multiple maps and descriptions, I'm fairly sure the Boulevard (or sometimes called Rampe) Bugeaud is where the confession took place.

Why this matters, I'm not entirely sure - except that I'm proving repetition does not keep us from forgetting. Furthermore, we no longer need to remember because technology can do it for us. We repeat for other reasons, to fulfill other impulses, and even sometimes repeat to forget, repeat to erase unwanted details, repeat to take control of the painful recollections.

Now that I have an image of where Cardinal was in 1943 when her mother committed the unforgivable act of confession, I somehow feel the haunting sadness from the image. I remember these images from similar but inconclusive research undertaken a few years back: I'm creating my own sort of memory of Algiers, a city I've never visited. I'm sharing in a visual part of Cardinal's past, but through images and maps she likely never studied, because these are places she willfully tried to forget.

Stora on the War of Memories

2011-03-09T14:28:00.000-08:00

Benjamin Stora gave an interview with Kersten Knipp published on Qantara.de as "The Bitter Legacy of Past Franco-Algerian Relations" on March 4, 2011 (and apparently translated from German to English - does Stora speak German?). Stora expounds upon France's reluctance to remember the loss of Algeria and Algeria's use of this history to legitimize their country today. I copy a snippet of the text below:

Knipp: France and Algeria have completely different memories of their common history. How would you characterise these memories?

Benjamin Stora: For a long time – for almost 30, 40 years – France primarily fostered a culture of forgetting. People didn't speak of Algeria; they wanted to put that era firmly behind them – the war and, of course, the defeat, the ignominy of ultimately having to withdraw from Algeria. After all, the French considered this North African nation to be an integral part of their national territory.

The Algerians, on the other hand, were faced with "too much" history. For them, it was about a memory that they could use to legitimise the existence of the nation and, above all, political power, which they tried to legitimise through heroic stories.

Pied-Noir and pro-Arab, from the Minorités Review

2011-02-22T13:33:00.000-08:00

Didier Lestrade wrote, "Pied-Noir et pro-Arabe" on Feb. 20 for the Revue Minorités, in which he reflects on the current political situation in Egypt, Libya and other so-called "Arab States." His take on the Pieds-Noirs, in which he includes himself, is worth sharing without comment. I have excerpted the essay and my translation to English follows the original text.

* * *

J’ai 53 ans, je suis pied-noir et fils de pied-noir. Or, tous les pieds-noirs que je connais sont heureux de ce qui se passe dans ces pays, mettant de côté mauvais souvenirs et drames. Même mes parents sont sincèrement heureux. Et je me dis que la dernière génération de pieds-noirs à laquelle j’appartiens devrait manifester sa joie et l’imposer à l’autre partie des pieds-noirs, plus âgée, celle qui truste les associations et les leaders politiques, celle qui empêche littéralement la France de sortir de cette rancœur vis-à-vis des arabes. À cause d’eux, l’Algérie souffre toujours, à cause d’eux on ouvre des musées qui glorifient le colonialisme et on vote des lois qui lavent leur conscience. À cause d’eux, la classe politique française ne peut dépasser le traumatisme de l’indépendance et accompagner le développement des autres départements français qui souffrent encore du colonialisme comme les Antilles. C’est toute une chaîne de blocages qui est entretenue par les anciens pieds-noirs.

[...]

Nous sommes la dernière génération de pieds-noirs, il n’y en aura pas d’autre après nous. Nous sommes nés juste avant ou pendant l’indépendance et nous n’avons pas à payer pour les erreurs de nos parents et de leurs familles. Mais, en fait, nous avons déjà payé toute notre vie leur influence. Notre amour de nos racines n’a pas pu être exprimé à cause de ces origines dramatiques. Nous n’avons pas pu développer de vraies amitiés et de vraies histoires d’amour avec des arabes car le poids des morts reste entre nous. L'immense majorité d’entre nous n’a pas eu le bonheur de retourner sur son lieu de naissance et c’est le moindre des prix à payer pour l’histoire. En France, tout le monde a le droit de retourner dans la ville de naissance, sauf nous. Vous réalisez ce que ça veut dire ? Nous nous sommes sacrifiés car nos parents refusaient de s’excuser une bonne fois pour toutes comme cela s’est passé dans tous les pays colonialistes de manière à passer, enfin, à autre chose.

Ces vieux pieds-noirs nous empêchent de vivre. Ce sont de mauvais parents puisqu’ils imposent un état de fait à leurs enfants qui payent le prix de la bêtise obstinée des anciens. Et ce qui se passe aujourd’hui dans les pays arabes les met encore plus dans une position fautive. Que faut-il penser ? Que la France ne s’excusera jamais devant l’Algérie tant que le dernier pied-noir d’extrême droite ne sera pas mort ? Mais qu’il meure alors ! Qu’on l’enterre plus vite ! Pouvons-nous nous permettre d’attendre encore 10 ou 20 ans alors que la démocratie arrive dans les pays où elle n’a jamais été envisagée parce que nous-mêmes ne l’avons pas apportée ? Allons-nous perdre toute notion de proximité avec les pays arabes alors que nous les connaissons mieux que les autres ? [...]

* * *

I’m 53, and I am a Pied-Noir and the son of a Pied-Noir. And all of the Pieds-Noirs who I know are happy about what is happening in these countries, putting aside the bad memories and drama. Even my parents are sincerely happy. And I think that the last generation of Pieds-Noirs, to which I belong, should demonstrate its joy and impose it on the other, older Pieds-Noirs, those who monopolize the associations and who are the political leaders, those who literally keep France from getting over this resentment towards the Arabs. Because of them, Algeria is still suffering, because of them, we open museums that glorify colonialism and we vote for laws that clear their conscience. Because of them, the French political class cannot get past the trauma of independence and join the development of other French departments that are still suffering from colonialism, like the French Caribbean. It’s a whole chain of blockages that is kept up by the old Pieds-Noirs.

[...]

We are the last generation of Pieds-Noirs, there will never be another after us. We were born just before or during Algerian Independence and we do not have to pay for our parents’ mistakes or the mistakes of their families. But, actually, we have already paid our whole lives for their influence. Our love of our roots could not be expressed because of these dramatic origins. We could not form true friendships and true love stories with Arabs because the weight of the dead remains between us. The vast majority of us have not had the chance to return to our birthplace and this is the least of the prices to pay for history. In France, everyone has the right to return to the town where they were born, except for us. Do you realize what that means? We sacrificed ourselves because our parents refused to apologize once and for all for all that happened in the colonial countries in a way that would let us move on to something else.

These old Pieds-Noirs are keeping us from living. They are bad parents because they impose this situation on their children who pay the price for the obstinate stupidity of the elderly. And what’s happening today in Arab countries makes them even more culpable. What should we think? That France will never apologize to Algeria as long as the last Pied-Noir from the extreme Right isn’t dead? Well let him die, then! And let’s bury him as quickly as possible! Can we allow ourselves to wait another 10 or 20 years so that democracy can arrive in countries where it had never before been imagined because we didn’t bring it there ourselves? […]

unexpected loss of homeland

2011-01-30T11:59:00.000-08:00

While I work on articles related to hoarding memories of the homeland and the links between collecting memorabilia and writing the self, I have come across a poignant passage from Marie Cardinal's Les Pieds-Noirs (Belfond, 1988) in which she speaks about her unexpected loss of home. I quote here the original followed by my translation.

Les années d’insouciance, celles de mon enfance, de mon adolescence, et les premières années de ma vie de femme… les premières amours…le premier enfant… Le poids de cette légèreté, de cette beauté, de cette tendresse, de cette inconscience ! Peut-être que cela palpite toujours en moi parce que je n’ai jamais quitté ces images pour toujours, jamais je ne les ai rangées dans un tiroir ou une valise, jamais je n’ai regardé la terre de ma jeunesse en me disant que je n’y serais plus chez moi. La dernière fois que j’en suis partie, je ne savais pas que c’était la dernière fois. J’étais venue de Grèce où j’enseignais au lycée français de Thessalonique. Enceinte de huit mois, incapable de voyager en avion dans l’état où j’étais, j’avais méandré soixante-dix heures à bord de l’Orient-Express qui prenait des allures de diligence, puis j’avais vogué vingt heures sur un paquebot, pour venir, comme une tortue, mettre au monde mon enfant sur mes plages. Je n’imaginais pas qu’un petit venu de mon ventre puisse voir le jour ailleurs que là… Ensuite je suis repartie avec ma fille dans mes bras, c’était l’été, je reviendrais pour Noël. Je ne savais pas que, désormais, je n’aurais plus de maison. Je ne savais pas que ma terre ne serait plus jamais ma terre. (11-12)

The carefree years, those of my childhood, my adolescence, and the first years of womanhood ... first loves ... the first child ... The weight of this lightness, this beauty, this tenderness, this unawareness! Perhaps it still pulsates in me because I never permanently left these images, I never put them away in a drawer or a suitcase, I never looked at the land of my youth while telling myself that I would never again be home. The last time that I left, I didn't know it would be the last time. I had come back from Greece where I was teaching in a French high school in Thessaloniki. Eight-months pregnant, unable to travel by airplane in that state, I had meandered seventy hours aboard the Orient Express that ran at the speed of a stagecoach, and then I wandered twenty hours on a steam ship, so that, like a turtle, I could give birth to my child on my beaches. I couldn't imagine that this child coming from my tummy could ever see the day somewhere other than there... Then I left again with my daughter in my arms, it was summer, I would come back for Christmas. I didn't know that, from then on, I would no longer have a home. I didn't know that my land would never again be my land.

Her lightness of being, her state of carefree existence, came from knowing her home would be there to support her. Once it was gone, she attached herself to the mental image and repeated it throughout her literary career. Les Pieds-Noirs is a photographic coffee-table book mixed with autobiography and history of the Pied-Noir people. It is, in many ways, a reproduction of the lost homeland, a surrogate and horribly insufficient space designed to protect the past from being forgotten.

Remains of the St Eugène Cemetery

2011-01-23T12:23:00.000-08:00

Robert Fisk wrote "Tombs that bear witness to Algeria's Jewish tragedy" in the Independent yesterday (22 Jan 2011). His insightful take on a visit to the Saint Eugène cemetery in Algeria is reminiscent of numerous other returns that are pictured and depicted in the works of Marie Cardinal (Les Pieds-Noirs and Au pays de mes racines) and Hélène Cixous (Si près), as well as in other visual and literary by Algerian-born authors. The site is an icon for the now absent former Algerian citizens.

Return voyages almost always include emotional visits to cemeteries, representative of lost lives, ancestries, absent and untransportable genealogies, neglected and often destroyed. The now treacherous access to St Eugène seems to only reaffirm that murky access to the past.

Zineb Sedira in Africultures

2010-12-16T08:18:00.000-08:00

Africultures profiled the work of Zineb Sedira today in an excellent article, "Zineb Sedira: Mémoire vive" by Julie Crenn. I had the honor of meeting Zineb in January at the France-Algeria: Visualising a (Post-) Colonial Relationship conference in Manchester, UK. Her 2003 works "Mother, Father, and I" and "Retelling Histories" merge family and national histories (and painful testimonials) tracked through multi-media installations.

I plan to analyze Sedira's project alongside Leïla Sebbar's Mes Algéries en France and subsequent visual texts. As Crenn says of Sedira, and as I've written about Sebbar:
Sedira procède à des allers retours dans ce vaste patrimoine qui est le sien. En exil, l'artiste se cherche, jusqu'à revenir en Algérie en 2002. Un retour aux sources inévitable et nécessaire, après quinze années d'absence. Depuis, les paysages de son pays d'origine et les Algériens sont les sujets récurrents de son œuvre.
This aller-retour is at the heart of my work on repetition in return narratives. While many pieces of Pied-Noir written returns are primarily an "aller simple," what happens when the memory is brought back again and again through the visual? The upcoming exposition in Manchester based on the "North to North" project reworks the same idea. Check out New Cartographies: Algeria-France-UK in which Zineb Sedira will be a featured artist in 2011.

Pieds-Noirs and winemaking in Médoc

2010-11-18T14:14:00.000-08:00

If you love French wine and the Pieds-Noirs as I do, you may enjoy this lovely review of Adrien Tramier's Château Saint Saturnin Cru Bourgeois wine from Jancis Robinson.com. I quote Tramier's biographical information below:

Tramier landed in Marseille from Algeria in 1964 and went initially to study in Montpellier, where his sister lived. He came to Bordeaux to look at a possible little wine property in the far east of the Entre-Deux-Mers region that a fellow pied noir, a lawyer, had found for him but threw dice for it with another potential buyer and lost. Further pied noir contacts found him three hectares of vines in Begadan (he now has 37 around this village and the next), which he worked half and half with the previous owner to begin with. By 1975 he had established his very particular way of working but, he added wistfully, 'I'll never be integrated here. I'd like to return to Algeria one day, and I wouldn't view it through the eyes of today but with all my childhood memories. I'm ill at ease here.'

Next time I have the privilege of staying in Maubuisson, I plan to call it a research trip and trek up to the town of Bégadan in Haut-Médoc to meet Mr. Tramier and hopefully do some wine tasting.

Jean-Jacques Jordi

2010-11-18T07:22:00.000-08:00

I have long been thankful for the works of Jean-Jacques Jordi, a Pied Noir who writes about the migration of the Pieds Noirs from Algeria to France. On my desk (exactly as pictured on the right), I keep a copy of 1962: l'arrivée des Pieds-Noirs within arm's reach. Today he was featured in Sud Ouest in an article entitled "L'apport des pieds-noirs" which highlights the diverse roots of the Français d'Algérie and France's efforts to "franciser" Algeria. He also explains that the Pieds-Noirs arrived in France during Les Trente Glorieuses and were able to participate in the urbanization of France. (As it happens, Algeria was more modern than France in many respects in the 1950s and early 1960s. See René Domergue's L'Intégration des Pieds-Noirs dans les villages du Midi, L'Harmattan, 2005, for a detailed description of the tensions this caused.) Jordi explains that the newly arrived Pieds-Noirs were clamoring for better sewer systems and telephone lines when they arrived in France.

Jordi will be participating in a debate tonight from 5-7 p.m. in Pessac, France, if you happen to be in the area.

Algerian War Testimonials

2010-10-28T09:55:00.000-07:00

France-Info, Les Arènes publishing, Le Nouvel Observateur, El Wattan, and FNACA are working together to collect testimonials of the Algerian War for the 50th anniversary of the war's end in 2012. You can contribute to their forum if:

"Vous étiez Algérien, Français de métropole ou d’Algérie. Entre 1954 et 1962, vous avez été appelé ou militaire d’active, vous étiez harki dans les rangs de l’armée française, vous avez milité pour le FLN, vous avez participé aux combats de l’ALN, vous étiez activiste de l’OAS ou militant contre la guerre."

They are also seeking scanned documents such as personal diaries, notebooks and photos to contribute to their online collection.

You can read some of the collected memories on the France-Info site discussion at http://www.france-info.com/forums-2010-10-21-guerre-d-algerie-vos-temoignages-492389-193-193.html

French ambassador "ignores" Pied-Noir attempts to reclaim belongings

2010-10-28T09:48:00.000-07:00

In a fine example of not very good translation, Echorouk Online reports that the French ambassador to Algeria said, "I ignore Pieds-Noirs attempt to claim their belongings in Algeria." He more likely said "J'ignore..." because the story goes on to say that Ambassador Xavier Driencourt "has no idea" about such efforts.

The Ambassador also said, "The Pieds-Noirs come back to Algeria because of nostalgia especially that they receive a wonderful welcome" and that French and Algerian associations have been working together to create a meeting of Algerian and French war veterans.

I look forward to the follow up on that meeting.

Pieds Noirs du Littoral, souvenir

2010-10-18T07:38:00.000-07:00

This item keeps appearing on Ebay and is repeatedly picked up by my Google Alert for "Pieds Noirs." I've emailed the seller about its origin, but still know nothing about it. The pin, "Pieds Noirs du Littoral Catalan" is selling for $6.25 USD if you're interested: I'd just like to know its background. Any guesses?

Retour des Pieds-Noirs

2010-08-27T06:54:00.000-07:00

Encore un documentaire sur le retour des Pieds-Noirs en Algérie. À noter, vers 3m22s, les Pieds-Noirs parmi les ruines.

Macias in Montreal

2010-07-26T07:13:00.000-07:00

I'm reposting below an article from the Montreal Gazette that brings together several of my interests: Les Pieds-Noirs, Quebec, and transporting Pied-Noir culture.

Macias brings Arab-Andalusian music to Quebec fest

By Kevin Dougherty, Montreal Gazette July 9, 2010

Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/Macias+brings+Arab+Andalusian+music+Quebec+fest/3257082/story.html#ixzz0unVZRWLt

QUEBEC - Enrico Macias was born into a Jewish family in Algeria and left almost 50 years ago, near the end of Algeria's war for independence.
But even though he has never been back to Algeria and has a French passport, Macias will put on a show of classical Arab-Andalusian music Saturday at Quebec City's Festival d'été.
"We had to leave, against our will," Macias told reporters Friday. "Because of history."
Macias built a career in France as a popular singer, although much of his popular repertoire recalls the exile from Algeria of the "pieds noirs," Europeans and others, such as himself, who left Algeria and consider themselves exiles.
"I have always been faithful to Algeria because it is my native land," he said.
The roots of Arab-Andalusian music in the Maghreb region of North Africa are in the Spanish Andalusia, where he recalled Christians, Jews and Muslims lived in "perfect harmony" until the advent of "Isabella the Catholic."
The marriage in the late 15th century of Isabella of Castile to Ferdinand II of Aragón created Spain and ended that harmony, leading to the persecution and expulsion from Spain of Muslims and Jews.
Macias will be backed up by seven musicians, including a flute player and percussionist from Algeria.
He described the Arab-Andalusian repertoire as "10,000 hours of music" that is transmitted orally, not in written form.
"I know it all by heart," he said.
kdougherty@thegazette.canwest.com

Elisabeth Fechner: Là-bas, la France

2010-07-26T07:08:00.000-07:00

I'm finishing edits for a forthcoming publication and am still unable to find a biography for Elisabeth Fechner. Readers, if you happen to know about her, please do contact me. Calmann-Lévy has yet to answer my queries. Today, however, I found one of her texts Là-bas, La France (2003) profiled on ina.fr.

retrouver ce média sur www.ina.fr

Sans valise ni cercueil, Les pieds-noirs restés en Algérie

2010-06-09T06:42:00.000-07:00

Cette vidéo présente un entretien avec un homme d'Oran qui est resté en Algérie après l'indépendance, le 14 juillet 1962.

Selon l'oeuvre de Jean-Jacques VIALA, Pieds-Noirs en Algérie après l'indépendance: une expérience socialiste (Harmattan, 2001), "... ceux qui ont essayé de rester ont été chassés d'une manière ou d'une autre, le cas le plus net étant la nationalisation des terres décidée par Ben Bella en 1963" (7). Le projet de Viala est de regrouper les témoignages des Français d'Algérie qui ont tenté de devenir Algériens. En ce qui concerne ma recherche et mon travail avec la littérature des Pieds-Noirs, est-ce qu'on peut être Pied-Noir si on n'a pas quitté l'Algérie?

Film source: ina.fr

Hors la loi and Marie Cardinal's Les Pieds Noirs (1988)

2010-06-02T08:54:00.000-07:00

Rachid Bouchareb's new film Hors la loi has caused a great polemic among the Pied-Noir community and, according to Le Monde, has started a new war of Algerian Memories ("France-Algerie: réconcilier les mémoires?" May 20, 2010). Groups of Pieds-Noirs demonstrated at the showing at Cannes (Le Point.fr "Des pieds-noirs manifestent dans le calme lors de la projection du 'Hors la loi" de Bouchareb' May 21, 2010), and the debate continues on blogs, facebook, and listservs for the Pied-Noir community.

Hors la loi opens with the Sétif Massacres on May 8, 1945 which became an uprising between the Algerians and Europeans until the French Army repressed the Algerians throughout the region. The number of dead has been a subject of great debate. Marc Mora, not having seen the film like most involved in the debate, wrote an interesting reaction "Merci au film Hors la Loi, Merci à Rachid Bouchareb" in which he states, "c’est grâce à Hors-la-loi et à Rachid Bouchareb qu’on commence à donner la parole, non pas à des Pieds-Noirs comme vous et moi, il ne faudrait tout de même pas exagérer dans l’audace, mais à ce qu’on appelle en jargon marketing des « leaders d’opinion..." According to the article in Le Point, Bouchareb has declared, "Hors la loi est un film de fiction."

The debate has tied many aspects of my research on Pied-Noir literature and history together. I am currently working on aspects of Marie Cardinal's Les Pieds-Noirs (Belfond, 1988) for my presentation at Women in French, "Envisioning Algeria, Ruining the Past"which will take place June 11, Wagner College, Staten Island, New York. Cardinal's text, written with other Pieds-Noirs to visually represent the community as a collective autobiography, dedicates two pages to the Sétif uprisings. I cite the entire commentary:

Tandis que la Chartes des Nations Unies s'élabore à San Francisco en avril 1945, un vent de nationalisme soulève le monde arabe. En Algérie, certains croient aux promesses d'émancipation. Déjà, le 1er mai, des Musulmans ont défilé à Alger, Oran, Bougie, Guelma. Des incidents ont éclaté. Le 8, on célèbre la signature de l'Armistice, des cortèges se forment, qui se rendent au monument aux Morts. A Sétif, le drapeau algérien est déployé, on scande des slogans d'indépendance. Bousculades. Heurts. Echange de coups de feu avec la police. Les manifestants attaquent les Européens: violences et meurtres. Le soulèvement gagne les campagnes à Lafayette, Chevreul, Kerrata, Oued Marsa. Au soir du 9 mai, on compte plus de 100 morts et 250 blessés européens. L'armée organise les opérations de répression: 15 000 morts selon le général Tubert qui préside la commission d'enquête envoyée par le gouverneur général Chataigneau.

Mai 1945 dans le Constantinois est une date cruciale en Algérie. Rien ne sera plus comme avant.
(Les Pieds-Noirs p. 227)

The six included images are the following:
1. Maison d'Européens incendiée
2. Une réaction de défense à Sétif
3. En mai 1945, dans une mechta du Constantinois
4. Reddition dans les gorges de Kerrata
5. La soumission des communes de Oued Marsa et de Djidjelli
6. Des douars dissidents se soumettent

Qu'est-ce qu'un Pied-Noir

2010-04-18T20:27:00.000-07:00

Subject of much debate and myth: What is a Pied-Noir? This was a big chunk of my presentation "How the Pieds-Noirs Remember Algeria" at Truman State University, Kirksville, MO in March. It was also a fascinating part of Alek Toumi's talk at NeMLA last week, “Albert Camus: ‘Nostalg(ér)ies’ d’hier et d’aujourd’hui.” After our discussion of all the different colored feet one may have, I sent Alek the following definition of Faux Pieds-Noirs found on the Jeune Pied-Noir website:

Les faux pieds-noirs Petite minorité très influente, notamment dans les médias et le monde des Arts, de natifs d'Afrique du Nord d'origine européenne ou juive qui rejettent leur communauté d'origine et l'oeuvre de la France en Algérie. Selon leurs tendances politiques, ils sont qualifiés de pieds-rouges, pieds-verts, pieds-roses, pieds-gris, etc... Il existe aussi maintenant une petite minorité d'enfants de Harkis-rouges, roses, verts, gris... principalement des filles, qui jouent aussi ce rôle en reprochant à la France d'avoir "colonisé" l'Algérie, tout en oubliant que les Arabes sont aussi des colonisateurs venus tout simplement en Afrique du Nord, alors chrétienne, 13 siècles plus tôt ! La plupart se qualifient eux mêmes de "gauche" ou "progressistes". Ils se reconnaissent facilement par leur position "anticolonialiste".

On the other hand, a Jeune Pied Noir (or Pied-Noir according to Jeune Pied-Noir) has a political yet broad definition:

Définition Jeune Pied-Noir Toute personne solidaire de la juste cause des Français d'AFN et des victimes françaises de la décolonisation. On peut être pied-noir de naissance, par héritage, par le coeur, par l'esprit et aussi pied-noir d'honneur par les actions menées en faveur de la communauté des Français rapatriés.

All of this gets back to the same question of who gets to define the group and why. Alek Toumi made the point quite well in his talk that there are many types of Pieds-Noirs, and I would add, many Algerias for those who lived and live there. Boiling it down to one version does not do reality (or even memory) justice.

pieds-noirs, mythes et origines

2010-04-08T11:32:00.000-07:00

My Contemporary French Literature students just completed Un aller simple by Didier Van Cauwelaert, a novel which offers an intriguing approach to the questions of national identity, written homelands, nostalgia for the past, and the myths and fictions we create about ourselves. I have always appreciated the novel for the interesting counterpoint it offers to the writings of the Pieds-Noirs and the multiple myths of their pasts. The first of these myths pertains to the term "pied-noir" and its origins (consider Aziz and his name coming from the Ami 6). This site http://www.francparler.com/syntagme.php?id=337 gives an overview of the primary sources of the term. As Marie Cardinal says it, however, they were never Pieds-Noirs until they arrived in France. First an insult and eventually a badge of honor.

NeMLA: Between Present and Past

2010-03-19T09:25:00.000-07:00

If you happen to be in the Montreal area April 9-11, consider attending my panels, Between Present and Past: Nostalgia in French Literature I and II, at the Northeast Modern Language Association annual conference. The schedules are as follows:

Saturday, April 10, 3:15-4:45 p.m.
Hotel Hilton Bonaventure, 13.15 Salon H
Between Present and Past: Nostalgia in Francophone Literature I
Chair: Magali Compan, College of William and Mary

“Albert Camus: ‘Nostalg(ér)ies’ d’hier et d’aujourd’hui” Alek Toumi, University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point
“Rewriting Ruins: Deconstructing the ‘Nostalgeric’ Attachment to the Homeland” Amy Hubbell, Kansas State University
“Sur ma mère de Tahar Ben Jelloun: une expérience de la nostalgie” Mena Marotta, Università di Salerno and University of Maryland

Sunday, April 11, 10:45 a.m.-12:15 p.m.Hotel Hilton Bonaventure, 17.12 Salon E
Between Present and Past: Nostalgia in Francophone Literature II
Chair: Amy Hubbell, Kansas State University

“Créolité: the Reaffirmation of Repressed Cultural Identity or Fabricated Nostalgia?” Sam Coombes, University of Edinburgh
“Memories and Constructions of Brotherhood in Le dernier frère by Natacha Appanah” Magali Compan, College of William and Mary
“Nostalgies de comptoir? India and Nostalgia in French Literature” Corinne François-Denève, University of Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines
“Moi, Jeanne Castille de Louisiane, and the Other Within” Monika Giacoppe, Ramapo College of New Jersey

Now back to writing my paper as I continue to struggle with ruins and how they destabilize nostalgia.

National Holocaust Museum

2010-02-26T08:27:00.000-08:00

The expression of trauma for the Pieds-Noirs always seems to fall back to the trauma of the Holocaust, and perhaps Pied-Noir trauma pales in comparison. The foundational research on trauma, however, is the same. I am currently using Dylan Trigg's ideas on ruins as he analyzes the holocaust survivor's return to the camps and their impossible expression of being there, both before and again during the return. This photo is of an Eisenhower quote engraved on the outside wall of the National Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. (photo taken as "snowmageddon" was getting underway in February 2010).

France - Algeria: Visualising a (Post-)Colonial Relationship (via the UK)

2010-01-12T18:52:00.000-08:00

We have just returned from a 10 day tour of the UK on our pilgrimage to the "Visualising the Franco-Algerian Relationship since 1954" conference at the University of Manchester and to some places of Doug's ancestors' pasts. I heartily thank Joe McGonagle and Ed Welch for inviting me to participate in this enriching day of study. Although the weather (which was apparently the most snow Britain had seen in 30 years) left some would-be participants stranded, the conference was well attended and my co-presenters gave great talks. My paper, “(Re)turning to Ruins: Pied-Noir Visual Returns to Algeria” went a bit long thanks to my technological endeavors, but I enjoyed writing and delivering the talk and realize I have more to write as I continue to struggle with Dylan Trigg's ideas on ruins in conjunction with my work on nostalgia.

Zineb Sedira was in attendance -- she's a friend of Nadira Laggoune who presented on contemporary Algerian art. Zineb, an internationally respected artist (mostly video and photo), enlightened my perspective on numerous issues related to the Français d'Algérie, and told the story of her photo (left) of the maison abandonnée. At an exhibition of her work she met two women who lived in this house which was apparently a school that their father directed during colonial years and later a maison de torture. The women could (quite understandably) not accept what had happened to their once home.

Euphoria

2009-12-01T18:06:00.000-08:00

Euphoria
by Donna Bamford

But you were so beautiful
with your long black eye-lashes
like a girl’s
and your Parisian French,
that night in Stockholm
“I am a pied noir,”
you said
“from Casablanca.”
We drank wine
and smoked hashish
one long euphoric kiss
hitchhiking to Switzerland
in Germany we seduced each other
you were Jewish
a little shy with the Germans
in a chalet by the undulating Rhine
awakening to the tinkling of cow bells
so happy, my choice seemed so apt
and on to Lausanne
bliss unending or so it seemed
or so it seemed
kisses sweeter than Liebfraumilch

** Thank you to Donna for allowing me to repost her poem here. It immediately seduced me.
a.

Camus to the Pantheon?

2009-11-21T09:40:00.000-08:00

Sarkozy has decided he would like to move Camus to the Pantheon. It's been fifty years since Camus' death, and this is Sarkozy's way of honoring the Nobel laureate. I have read numerous articles and emails from colleagues on this topic. It seems absurd to me to move this man who wrote with such love and nostalgia for his bright and warm homeland, to such a cold solemn place in the heart of Paris. I asked one of my colleagues, what would Camus want?

It's become, of course, a political issue. Jean-Marie Le Pen is calling this an "électoraliste" decision. "Celui d'un écrivain pied-noir à quatre mois des élections régionales où probablement la majorité va subir une lourde défaite, je crois que c'est assez évident". I asked the same colleague, why does anyone care what Le Pen thinks? "C'est de la politique".

Poor Camus. He's being made into a symbol and possibly a monument.

Les pieds-noirs réunis autour d'un méchoui

2009-10-06T18:31:00.001-07:00

Reportage de SudOuest, le lundi 5 octobre 2009
Jean-Louis Cordier

À l'invitation de France et Michel Delenclos - ce dernier est écrivain et chercheur en histoire contemporaine - plus de 150 Français d'Algérie et leurs amis se sont réunis à la salle des fêtes, dimanche 20 septembre, pour un méchoui. Les responsables des deux associations participantes, Jean-Claude Sanchez, Jean-Marie Roques et Georges Bocquel, lors de l'apéritif, ont salué Pierrette Razé, le maire, et la municipalité, notamment Martine Boyer et Frédéric Guillaudeux, pour leur accueil.

Forum algérianiste

À la veille du 36e congrès national et du Forum algérianiste du livre, qui se tiendra du 23 au 25 octobre à Aix-en-Provence, les participants ont débattu sur le thème « Français d'Algérie, transmettre un combat pour l'histoire. Transmettre à qui ? Comment ? Pourquoi ? » Depuis leur exode de 1962, les Français d'Algérie attendent toujours « les promesses faites par les gouvernements successifs ». Ils mènent un combat « pour la vérité historique, la défense de l'oeuvre de la France en Algérie » et la mémoire de leurs morts et disparus.

Photo: "France et Michel Delenclos ont organisé cette journée des Français d'Algérie." (photo J.-L. c.)

Mascara: Retour des pieds-noirs

2009-10-06T18:27:00.000-07:00

Reportage de Liberté, le mercredi 7 octobre 2009

"Entre 2007 et 2009 une bonne centaine d’anciens colons ayant quitté l’Algérie au lendemain de l’indépendance a (re) visité différentes communes de la wilaya de Mascara. Il s’agit le plus souvent de délégations composées des personnes du troisième âge très attachées aux régions où elles ont grandi. Ces anciens colons, une fois sur place, se replongent dans d’intarissables évocations de souvenirs de leur enfance et manifestent un intérêt particulier à revoir leurs anciennes demeures et, leurs souhaits sont souvent réalisés grâce à la compréhension des nouveaux locataires. En outre ces pieds-noirs ne ratent jamais l’occasion pour se rendre aux cimetières".

Sète - memorial for the Pieds-Noirs

2009-07-08T11:52:00.000-07:00

In 2007 Doug and I were traveling through France as I conducted research during the 45th anniversary of the exile of the Pieds-Noirs. Sète was on our list of places to visit and I very much wanted to see the Cimetière Marin (made famous by Paul Valéry's poem). Instead of staying, however, we were forced to leave. Our hotel had not received our reservation even though we had prepaid through Expedia. The hotel owner and her husband had just taken over the business a few days prior and they were the loveliest people. The husband actually drove us to Toulouse (no rooms were availabe in Sète that night due to the grain auction) and he refused to take money for gas. Not only that - they fed us and gave us beer while we waited. The hospitality we experienced during that entire 5 week stay in France was amazing.

So, not having really visited Sète, I now really long to go there. And now I have legitimate research to do there. On June 7, 2009 a memorial for the Pieds-Noirs was inaugerated in the cemetery.

François Doré wrote the following for MidiLibre:

Plusieurs centaines de personnes ont assisté hier en fin de matinée, dans l'enceinte du Cimetière marin, à l'inauguration du mémorial des Sétois d'Afrique du Nord.
Sur une terrasse de 12 m 2 , située face à la mer et délimitée symboliquement par le contour de la côte nord africaine, l'artiste frontignanaise Marina Di Dona (lire notre édition d'hier) a réalisé gracieusement une sculpture en bronze représentant un homme, une femme et un enfant, unis comme une famille pied-noire.
Ce mémorial, attendu depuis longtemps, a été porté et défendu par les membres de la maison du pied-noir et le cercle algérianiste, et soutenu par la municipalité qui a offert le terrain.

« Aujourd'hui, nous pouvons être fiers que les filles et fils d'Afrique du Nord, nombreux dans notre ville et ses alentours (1), aient enfin un lieu de recueillement pour rendre hommage à leurs défunts restés sur la terre d'Afrique du Nord », a rappelé le maire François Commeinhes.
François Hernandez, président de la maison du pied-noir a, lui, tenu à rendre hommage à son prédécesseur, Jean- Claude Pruniaux, aujourd'hui disparu, et à l'origine de ce projet. Au sujet du monument, il s'est félicité d'y voir « le point d'équilibre entre la tragédie vécue dans le passé, et l'avenir et ses promesses.

(1) 10 000 pieds-noirs vivent dans le bassin de Thau.

Memory must bring people together

2009-06-05T07:36:00.000-07:00

Elie Wiesel, Buchenwald survivor and Nobel Laureate, spoke just moments ago during his visit to Buchenwald with Barack Obama and Angela Merkel.

After saying that it is enough - there has been enough visiting cemeteries and enough weeping, he continued:

“Memory must bring people together rather than set them apart. Memories heed not to sow anger in our hearts, but on the contrary a sense of solidarity with all those who lead us. What else can we do except invoke that memory so that people everywhere will say the twenty-first century is a century of new beginnings filled with promise and infinite hope and that time’s profound gratitude to all those who believe in our task wishes to improve the human condition. A great man, Camus, wrote at the end of his marvelous novel The Plague, ‘After all,’ he said, ‘after the tragedy, nevertheless there is more in the human being to celebrate than to denigrate.’ Even that can be found as truth, painful as it is, in Buchenwald.”

Dual, Doubled and Divided

2009-06-04T12:29:00.001-07:00

I’m trying to finish this article on plural identities in Francophone women’s autobiographies and I’m stuck in thoughts of my fractured sense of self. Ever since Sorenne was born I have had a new appreciation for the women I’ve been reading for years: Cardinal, Cixous, Sebbar, among many others. This child came from me and for the first four and a half months was exclusively nourished by me. Reproduction simply works in that mind-boggling fashion. As much as she was or is a part of me, I feel completely independent from that child. She was her own person from the first time I felt her move in the womb. I never want to be a woman whose identity is caught up in the perceived success and failure of her child. That girl is so completely her own, and while we are deeply bonded (she’s a bit mommy crazy these days), she has her own identity.

I had an awkward moment yet again yesterday when a colleague said she has my eyes. I do not know how to react to these continual statements of, “Sorenne looks just like you,” from friends and strangers. Part of me doesn’t really see it, and the other part just doesn’t know how to react. Is this a complement? Poor girl. Maybe she doesn’t want to look like me. Still, she’s limited somewhat by my genes. Inescapably doubled, or at least divided, but mostly that feeling is driven by a severe lack of sleep.

Between Present and Past: Nostalgia in Francophone Literature

2009-05-22T12:34:00.000-07:00

Call for Papers:
Between Present and Past: Nostalgia in Francophone Literature
41st Anniversary Convention, Northeast Modern Language Association (NeMLA)
April 7-11, 2010
Montreal, Quebec - Hilton Bonaventure

“Nostalgia tells it like it wasn’t,” according to David Lowenthal’s 1989 article, yet many are compelled to cling to their longing for the past. This is especially true for many French and Francophone authors who lived through the end of colonialism. While they may overtly deny their nostalgia, it is difficult to escape the compulsion to recreate the time before their exile. Authors such as Albert Camus, Marguerite Duras, and Marie Cardinal, among many others, cannot help but recreate their colonial homes even when they write from a postcolonial position. Rewriting the past can be therapeutic and obsessive. As Judith Butler explains in “The Pleasure of Repetition” (1990), repeating the past is a vain effort “to inhabit that past within the terms of the present and effect its fantasized reconstruction.” In an attempt to understand how nostalgia affects memory writing and how writing sustains nostalgia, this panel will examine the recreation of the past in French and Francophone postcolonial literature. Email Amy L. Hubbell (ahubbell@ksu.edu) with proposed abstracts of 300 words by September 30, 2009.

Please include with your abstract:
Name and Affiliation
Email address
Postal address
Telephone number
A/V requirements (if any; $10 handling fee)

Additional Conference Information:
The 41st Annual Convention will feature approximately 350 sessions, as well as dynamic speakers and cultural events. Details and the complete Call for Papers for the 2010 Convention will be posted in June: www.nemla.org.

Interested participants may submit abstracts to more than one NeMLA session; however panelists can only present one paper (panel or seminar). Convention participants may present a paper at a panel and also present at a creative session or participate in a roundtable.

Travel to Canada now requires a passport for U.S. citizens. Please get your passport application in early.

Leïla Sebbar: Entre exil et enracinement

2009-05-22T12:26:00.001-07:00

"Pour moi, la question de l'exil continue à se poser. Elle se posera jusqu'à ce que je cesse d'écrire. J'écris dans l'exil, j'écris à partir de l'exil. Ce qui m'intéresse, ce sont tous ceux qui sont ou frappés par l'exil, ou qui ont fait le choix de l'exil. C'est ce que je traite dans tous mes livres."

- Leïla Sebbar, interview with Boniface Mongo-Mboussa

"Entre Exil Et Enracinement: Entretien Avec Leïla Sebbar." Notre Librairie: Revue des Littératures du Sud 165 (2007). p. 127.

In a 1987 interview with Ysabel Saïah, Marie Cardinal stated, “J’écris toujours le même livre dont l’empreinte est là-bas. La vie d’une femme vivant sur une terre ravagée par le conflit des humains.”

Is this repetition indicative of a psychological trauma, or is it just a typical impetus for writing?

You can never go home

2009-03-10T13:34:00.000-07:00

I received this message from a childhood friend yesterday on facebook, “My parents were just visiting and told me your old house has been razed....new home coming up. This follows a kitchen fire last year but I didn't think they'd take the whole house down!”

I have known for years now that you can never really go home, but now that I know I can never revisit the place, I am pondering what that means. I can’t think of one reason I would want to return there. To remember the address, however, I typed in “Meadowview Ln” into Google Maps which suggested Meadow View Dr, and led me to click on a picture. When I turned just one click to the right, there before me was my house.
When I lived there the road wasn’t paved and cattle were kept in the field on “the hill” behind us. So now, I see the house for the first time in ages on the web, and it really no longer exists. I click up and down the street and remember Kory’s house and Kristen’s house and see a lot of houses that weren’t there before.

I told my mom the house was gone and she asked, “OK, so where's the picture??? That is crazy and I think the kitchen is the only part we remodeled!!! Well, it has been a few years, hasn't it.” It’s funny to think of asking for a picture of something no longer there. Proof that it’s gone? An empty lot? We can never go back. Not if we wanted, not if we had to.

Many Pieds-Noirs have been returning to Algeria in recent years. They bring back film that recaptures their homes and they play it for those who cannot physically return. When Jacques Derrida saw his homeland played back for him by Safaa Fathy, he found the past unrecognizable (see Tourner les mots), and Hélène Cixous traveled to Derrida’s Algeria with photos of his past, trying to make sense of what she was witnessing for the first time (Si près). But many Pieds-Noirs do not even see the present when they return. They only see what used to be.

In my case, this picture triggers memories of the dirt road and how big that hill to the right seemed when I rode my bike down it, and many of those houses now there were once just fields and empty lots. I see my past transposed onto the new siding and attempting to erase that ugly truck. But can I see an empty lot?

The Pieds-Noirs’ War of Memories in the New York Times

2009-03-05T13:41:00.000-08:00

Today’s New York Times article, “In France, a War of Memories Over Memories of War” sums up much of my research in just two pages. The author, Michael Kimmelman, writes from Perpignan, France. Although he doesn’t discuss it, Perpignan is home to my correspondent Jean-Pierre Bartolini, publisher of La Seybouse. (The most recent edition is from February 1, 2009, No. 81.) Bartolini was recently embroiled in a war of memories of his own with other Pieds-Noirs in the area. Bartolini officially won that battle, but the conflict underscores the sensitivity the former French citizens of Algeria feel about the past and the way it is remembered. Until recently the vision of the past in Algeria was almost unilaterally expressed by Pieds-Noirs, and that past was written as one of peace and love in Algeria and anguish and betrayal in France.

In recent years the past has begun to disintegrate in a sense. An increasingly diverse set of authors is now finding ways to express their experiences, and as the past slips further away (now almost 47 years since the end of French Algeria), memories that are not already fossilized in writing are phantomatically ebbing forth.

The most prolific historian on all things Algerian, Benjamin Stora, had this to say in the New York Times:

“There is a crisis of French national storytelling, in that France historically has seen itself as a place of assimilation and integration, but now minorities want to question that story. That’s partly what the riots were about. And in this climate, the pieds noirs, who look back with nostalgia on the colonial days before the war in Algeria” — an era, Mr. Stora was careful to emphasize, when Algerian Muslims did not have equal rights — “they want to be seen as guardians, keepers of a bygone French nationalism, of Jacobinism.”

The Pieds-Noirs strive to protect the past (sauvegarder la mémoire), but there is no longer just “Une Algérie” available in the history section of French bookstores. We now have multiple visions of the past, or as Leïla Sebbar titled it, Mes Algéries en France.

My absence and others' absences

2009-02-06T08:31:00.000-08:00

My absence from this blog, if anyone has noticed, is directly related to a wonderful project I've been working on.

Sorenne was born on December 7, 2008, and now that she's settling into her rhythm, I'm able to get back to writing about the Pieds-Noirs, exile, homeland, and nostalgia.

I'm currently working on a project for presentation at the Northeast Modern Language Association conference in Boston at the end of this month. "Dual, Doubled, and Divided Selves: Women Writing between Algeria and France," focuses on Marie Cardinal, Leïla Sebbar, and Hélène Cixous and how these women wrote multiple versions of themselves, each with a different strategy for representing her identity.

Although I won't have time to address it in this paper, I've also been thinking about language choice and how this has further divided authors like Sebbar and Assia Djebar (the subject of Névine El Nossery's talk on the same panel). Below is an interview with Sebbar on her work, Je ne parle pas la langue de mon père (Paris: Julliard, 2003).

I'm concurrently writing a book review of Assia Djebar edited by Najib Redouane and Yvette Bénayoun-Szmidt (Paris: Harmattan, 2008) for the French Review. It's taking an eternity (see above image of baby Sorenne), but the collection of essays is providing me with much to think about. Sebbar and Djebar have both stated that if they had chosen (or in the case of Sebbar, been able to) write in Arabic, they would not write at all. Djebar explains the risk of writing herself,

"Prendre conscience que l’écriture devient un dévoilement, cela m’a fait reculer. Je me suis remise en question: si je continue à écrire, je vais détruire ma vie car elle va être perturbée par l’écriture romanesque” (29).

and Sebbar focuses on her need for writing fiction,

“… me placer au cœur, au centre, dans la fiction fictionnelle, c’est me placer dans un lieu unitaire, rassembleur des divisions (…) pour moi, la fiction c’est la suture qui masque la blessure, l’écart entre les deux rives” (Lettres parisiennes, Paris: Barrault, 1986. 147).

For these women, the absence of their language and their separations became their source of expression.

Guerre d' Algerie la valise ou le cerceuil part 1

2008-08-31T05:39:00.001-07:00

Guerre d' Algerie la valise ou le cerceuil part 1

In the fall edition of the Revue Diasporas: histoire et sociétés, I will have an article published on the theme of "La valise ou le cercueil" 'The suitcase or the coffin' in the Pied-Noir community. This video posted at Daily Motion explains, "C’est autour de ce mot d’ordre que s’est constituée le 11 février 1961, l’Organisation de l’armée secrète (OAS), mouvement d’extrême droite, se fixant un double objectif, conserver l’Algérie française et renverser le général de Gaulle et son régime."

Le 14 juillet 1962: un Français d'Algérie en parle

2008-07-29T19:28:00.000-07:00

Grâce aux alertes de Google j'ai reçu un lien à cette vidéo. C'est un entretien avec un Français d'Algérie le 14 juillet 1962 qui a décidé de rester en Algérie après l'indépendance. Peut-être que mes contacts pieds-noirs me corrigeront, mais je ne l'appelle pas un Pied-Noir parce qu'il n'a pas quitté l'Algérie. Pour moi cet exil est un facteur important à l'identité des Pieds-Noirs. Ca ne veut pas dire que cet homme n'a pas connu un autre exil. Je suppose qu'il est devenu algérien en restant à Oran, mais il ne distingue que les Européens et les Musulmans.

Thanks to Google Alerts I received a link to this YouTube video. It's an interview with a Français d'Algérie on July 14, 1962 who decided to stay in Algeria after its independence. Maybe my Pied-Noir contacts will correct me, but I do not call this man a Pied-Noir because he didn't leave Algeria. For me, exile is a prime factor in Pied-Noir identity. That is not to say that this man didn't experience his own sort of exile. I suppose he became Algerian by staying in Oran, but I notice that in his vocabulary he only distinguishes between "les Européens" and "les Musulmans."

Si près

2008-06-10T15:54:00.000-07:00

Hélène Cixous has written numerous things that have marked me, but lately I'm only interested in her remarks on Algeria. I'm reading Si près (Galilée, 2007) for a paper I'm writing on return narratives and her premise here is that she said to her 95 year old mother, "j'irai peut-être à Alger" (16). She expounds later on:

L'idée de vouloir revoir l'Algérie une dernière fois, celle-là je ne l'aurai en aucun cas. C'est une idée de mort. Cela voudrait dire que l'Algérie va mourir. Si des deux c'était moi qui allais mourir, je garderais naturellement ma mort pour moi. (42)

Algerian-born Yves Saint Laurent dies in Paris at age 71

2008-06-02T05:11:00.001-07:00

YSL, fashion icon and Pied-Noir, died on Sunday, June 1. According to the New York Times (and multiple other sources), Saint Laurent’s career spanned from 1957 to 2002 and included putting women into traditionally male clothing … i.e. pants, peacoats, trenchcoats, and tuxedo jackets. He was known to inspire artists such as Picasso, Miró and Matisse and to dress women such as Catherine Deneuve, Paloma Picasso, Lauren Bacall, and Marie-Hélène de Rothschild. He became famous in 1958 when he was only 21 when he showed his Trapeze collection for Christian Dior after Dior’s death. After his “rich peasant” collection showed in New York, Saint Laurent said, “The clothes incorporated all my dreams, all my heroines in the novels, the operas, the paintings. It was my heart — everything I love that I gave to this collection.”

Pieds-Noirs (and others) have been busy today posting their homage to the master de couture online. One person wrote on a forum today, “Condoléances à tous les pieds noirs, dont Yves était de la famille.” Another who remembers his shop in Marseille writes, “il laisse un grand vide dans le coeur de tous les Pieds-Noirs.”

Yves Saint-Laurent was a Pied-Noir, born in Oran on August 1, 1936. His father was a lawyer and insurance broker and his mother had great style. His childhood home was a villa on the Mediterranean, the sea that dominates most Pied-Noir memories. The young Yves disliked sports – except swimming—and took to fashion at a very young age, even designing his mother’s clothes. While his parents wanted him to become a lawyer, he went to Paris at the age of 17 (around 1953, just before the tensions of the war would be felt) to work in theatrical fashion design. Dior quickly recognized his talent and snatched him up.

In September of 1960, the same year he made his last collection for Dior, Saint Laurent was called up for 27 months of military service in Algeria. According to the NYTimes, “He had previously been given deferments because 2,000 jobs depended on his talent.” About three weeks after beginning his compulsory service he was hospitalized for a nervous “collapse.” He was discharged from the army and he entered a private clinic near Paris. He returned to work on his own, having been replaced at Dior by Marc Bohan. Just months before Algerian independence, on January 19, 1962, the first Yves Saint Laurent collection was shown.

At his retirement in January 2002, Saint Laurent said, “Every man needs aesthetic phantoms in order to exist. I have known fear and the terrors of solitude. I have known those fair-weather friends we call tranquilizers and drugs. I have known the prison of depression and the confinement of hospital. But one day, I was able to come through all of that, dazzled yet sober.”

His phantoms, although personal, are shared by many in his Pied-Noir family.

Blogging ... and not blogging

2008-06-01T04:54:00.000-07:00

[Photo taken May 2008 in Vieux Montréal]

I've recently become an avid reader of multiple blogs, most of them written by Americans living in Paris, and I realize that what keeps me going back to them is knowing there will be somewhat regular posts, creatively written, and engaging. I have not done a great job, if I have any regular readers, of keeping my blog up to date, but I also have not forgotten the very specific topic that I've chosen.

Right now I'm in Montreal (and soon in Quebec City) with a Canadian Government "faculty enrichment" research grant and my topic is not Pied-Noir studies. Instead, I am working on including Canadian (Quebec) content into my commercial French course and textbook which is in development. While this has been my focus for the past several months, I have not stopped working on Pied-Noir literature. I am in the process of reworking a paper for publication on Pied-Noir Photo-documentary works and I'm writing another about the recent Pied-Noir returns to Algeria for presentation in July. My first article in French, “« La valise ou le cercueil » : un aller-retour dans la mémoire des Pieds-Noirs” should be coming out later this year in the Revue Diasporas: histoires et sociétés later this year.

As I finish up my work in Canada in a couple of weeks, I will be getting back to my passion and hopefully finding my blog-voice. Part of the issue is that I'm still grappling with what I, a young American French professor, have to say about the traumas of the Pieds-Noirs. I have much to say ... in English or in French ... but to whom, here in a blog post, written in English?

Témoignages des Français de Tunisie et Maroc / Testimonials from the French citizens of Tunisia and Morocco

2008-04-09T05:04:00.000-07:00

Another youtube video picked up by Google Alerts, "Les Français d'Afrique du Nord" interviews early exiles from Tunisia and Morocco who were forced to leave in 1958. I especially appreciated the descriptions of cultural (or more specifically, agricultural) differences between North Africa and France. René Domergue provides a detailed exploration of these differences through testimonials in his work, L'Intégration des Pieds-Noirs dans les villages du Midi (Harmattan, 2006).

Traffic: La Valise ou le Cercueil (the suitcase or the coffin)

2008-03-19T14:18:00.000-07:00

Cet objet d'art, que j’ai découvert grace aux Alertes de Google, me trouble terriblement (http://moooonriver.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!F50083AB13224D70!8134.entry). L'artiste, Mona Hatoum, est de Beyrouth, née en 1952.

Mona Hatoum, Traffic, 2002
Suitcases, metal, plastic, human hair (valises, métal, plastique, cheveux humains)

"Inspired as much by her exile from war-torn Beirut as by her sensitivity to contemporary racial and gender issues, Hatoum's works are both deeply personal and quietly political. Without being didactic, she invites viewers to see the world through her eyes while also encouraging them to trust their own reactions to her evocative works."

Inspirée autant par son exil de Beyrouth (ravagé par la guerre) que par sa sensibilité aux problèmes actuels de race et genre, les œuvres de Hatoum sont profondément personnelles et tranquillement politiques. Sans être didactique, elle invite ses spectateurs à voir le monde à travers ses yeux pendant qu'elle les encourage à faire confiance en leurs propres réactions à ses œuvres évocatrices. (my translation)

Le "Jeu" des Pieds-Noirs?

2008-02-20T10:34:00.000-08:00

I learned of this game - "Le Parcours du Pied-Noir" - through a regular e-letter I receive from the Jeune Pied-Noir (purchasing information follows below). While the psychoanalytic applications of the Fort-Da seem apparent to me (creating a game to master the past), I would really like to hear thoughts from members of the community. Is playing this type of game enjoyable? Is this part of the mission to preserve and transmit the past in an entertaining way? Does it make the painful past more tolerable? forgettable? accessible? Perhaps I should purchase the game next time I'm in France. I'd really like to know what "parcours" is represented on the game board and which pictures Solange de Martini chose to represent the monuments of the past. More on this in my next presentation - and eventually in my book.

[J'ai appris de l'existence de ce jeu - "Le Parcours du Pied-Noir" dans le journal électronique de l'Association du Jeune Pied-Noir (pour l'acheter, voir en bas). Même que l'usage de la technique psychanalytique du Fort-Da me semble évident (créer un jeu pour maîtriser le passé), j'aimerais recevoir les commentaires des membres de la communauté. Est-ce agréable de jouer ce genre de jeu? Est-ce une partie de la mission de sauvegarder et transmettre le passé dans une manière divertissante? Est-ce que ça rend le passé douloureux plus tolérable, oubliable, ou accessible? Je dois acheter le jeu la prochaine fois que je suis en France. J'aimerais vraiment savoir quel 'parcours' est représenté sur le tableau de jeu et quelles images Solange de Martini a choisies pour représenter les monuments au passé. J'écrirai plus dans ma prochaine présentation - et éventuellement dans mon livre.]

LES PIEDS-NOIRS CREATIFS !

JEU "LE PARCOURS DU PIED-NOIR"

de Solange de MARTINI

PASSEZ UN BON MOMENT EN FAMILLE AVEC VOS PETITS-ENFANTS

A PARTIR DE 10 ANS - DE 2 A 5 JOUEURS

450 questions (et réponses naturellement !) sur l'histoire, la cuisine, les villes, le langage... de notre Algérie avant l'exode. 50 cartes de gages illustrées de photos de là-bas pour ceux qui ne sont dans l'erreur !

Prix : 37,10 euros port compris

A COMMANDER DIRECTEMENT A
Solange de MARTINI
Courriel : mailto:de_martini@hotmail.fr - Tel : 04 67 53 73 63
Courrier : 1, rue Lt Marius Bazille - 34200 SETE

Trouvé dans: JEUNE PIED-NOIR INFORMATION
Voir pour plus de détails le site JPN : http://perso.wanadoo.fr/jeunepiednoir/jpn.wst
jeunepiednoir@wanadoo.fr - Tel : 06 80 21 78 54
Diffusion du dimanche 10 février 2008

Photos-souvenirs

2007-11-10T04:23:00.000-08:00

"J'ai quitté l'Algérie"

Pieds noirs de jijel (Algerie)
Uploaded by miano16

D'où sont-ils venus/Where did they come from?

2007-10-13T07:58:00.000-07:00

Les Pieds-Noirs : histoires d'une blessure (1/3)
Uploaded by vodeo

These are the roots of the diverse Français d'Algérie, today known as Pieds-Noirs.

Role of the exile

2007-08-02T14:04:00.001-07:00

Here's a quote I came across while reviewing Ireland and Proulx' collection of essays, Textualizing the Immigrant Experience in Contemporary Quebec (Praeger, 2004). Ireland uses it in her discussion of return writing.

“The task of the exile, especially the exiled artist, is to transform the figure of rupture back into a figure of connection.” (Michael Seidel qtd in Ireland 41)
Seidel, Michael. Exile and the Narrative Imagination. New Haven: Yale UP, 1986. x.

Pour les francophones, je traduis la citation de Seidel:
"La tâche de l'exilé, surtout de l'artiste exilé, c'est de transformer la figure de la rupture dans une figure de la connexion".

C'est leur vie

2007-07-20T12:48:00.000-07:00

Voici une autre vidéo, documentaire, sur l'exode des Pieds Noirs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tfhfT1W1eQ

Le film s'appelle "C'est leur vie" réalisé par Kahina Aid.

YouTube and the Pieds-Noirs

2007-07-20T12:31:00.000-07:00

fête à Nîmes

Voici ce que j'ai trouvé sur YouTube.com aujourd'hui. C'est l'Ascension, le Pèlerinage de Notre Dame de Santa Cruz, où j'étais en mai et dont je parle en bas. La seule chose qui manque c'est la procession de la Vierge. Sinon, c'est plus ou moins ce que j'ai vécu.

45 years later - l'Amicale des Saïdeens

2007-07-08T11:58:00.000-07:00

My gratitude is long overdue to the members of the Amicale des Saïdeens who invited me as a guest of honor to their commemoration of their exile from Algeria. It's now 45 years after their departure and they celebrated their 18th biennial reunion in Toulouse on May 26 and 27, 2007. Their president, Louis Baylé, and his family warmly welcomed me, and I was able to interview a number of the association's members about their history, personal pasts in Algeria, arrivals in France, and of special interest to me, their recent return voyages to their lost homeland. I'll be writing a separate blog post about these returns and the film they made after a collective voyage to Saïda in the fall 2006. Members Bernard and Amicie Allène collected footage from a number of participants and edited this into a film, Saïda…on revient! sur les pas de notre enfance, which was projected at the reunion. The projection of this film allowed the 500 people in attendance to experience a return of their own, much like Derrida's return to Algeria through Safaa Fathy's eyes in their 1999 film D'ailleurs Derrida, and the subsequent book, Tourner les mots (2000).

Very special thanks to the Baylé family who treated me like an honored guest during our stay in Toulouse and have sent me many materials for my research. I'd also like to thank Claire Lesca, the new treasurer of the association who spent a good hour during lunch giving me precious bits of information.

Mehdi Charef - la vraie vérité, the true truth

2007-05-31T05:33:00.001-07:00

31 mai 2007
Dans un entretien publié le 25 mai 2007 dans Le Figaro « Mehdi Charef retourne à ses douleurs d’enfance » avec Brigitte Baudin, Mehdi Charef parle de la sortie de son film Cartouches gauloises qui traite « son arrachement à la terre de ses ancêtres » pour « restituer la vérité vraie ». Charef dit de son personnage principal, « Ali, c’est moi » et qu’il lui fallait 10 ans de pouvoir confronter son passé qui continue à lui faire mal. Effectivement, il a dû confronter certaines violences enfouies dans sa mémoire lors de la production du film. Charef est venu en France, toujours enfant, en 1963. Tandis qu’il parle de son passé dans les mêmes termes utilisés par les Pieds-Noirs, il ne se met pas de leur côté. Charef dit qu’en Algérie « Les colons vivaient en cercle fermé. Contrairement aux juifs qui parlaient arabe, connaissaient notre culture et avaient ouvert des magasins dans la médina. Et c'est là d'où vient tout le drame. Si les pieds-noirs avaient aimé les Arabes autant que leur terre, ils n'auraient probablement jamais quitté l'Algérie ».

In an interview published May 25, 2007 in the Figaro, “Mehdi Charef returns to the pain of his childhood” with Brigitte Baudin, Mehdi Charef speaks about the release of his film Cartouches gauloises which addresses being “torn out of the land of his ancestors” in an effort to “restore the true truth.” Charef says of his main character, “Ali is me” and that it took him ten years to be able to confront his past which still hurts him. Indeed, he had to confront certain traumas repressed in his memory during the production of the film. Charef was still a child when he came to France in 1963. Although he speaks about his past in the same terms used by the Pieds-Noirs, he doesn’t classify himself with them. He says that in Algeria, “The colons lived in a closed circle unlike the Jews who spoke Arabic, knew our culture, and had opened stores in the medina. And that’s where all the drama comes from. If the Pieds-Noirs had loved the Arabs as much as their land, they probably would have never left Algeria.”

Pèlerinage de Santa Cruz

2007-05-31T05:32:00.000-07:00

Nîmes, le 17 mai 2007
Pèlerinage de Notre Dame de Santa Cruz

Hier soir dans notre hôtel à Nîmes, j’ai eu la chance de rencontrer un groupe de Pieds-Noirs de Brest qui m’ont invitée à faire partie de leur pèlerinage à Mas de Mingue aujourd’hui où se trouve l’église de Notre Dame de Santa Cruz. À l’origine, j’avais prévu de prendre le bus et de m’y rendre toute seule. J’avais compris du site Internet de l’église http://sanctuairesantacruz-nimes.cef.fr/ qu’il y aurait des messes célébrées tout au long de la journée et que le pèlerinage aurait lieu vers 14h. Avec une invitation de partir à 8h avec des Pieds-Noirs, je ne pouvais pas refuser.

Nous sommes partis presque à l’heure et dans notre groupe il y avait Jean-Louis, le Président de l’Amicale des Oranais à Brest, Max, le Secrétaire le plus sociable au rassemblement, sa femme Andrée, Suzanne qui vient chaque année, Pierre, un Algérois italien, et deux amis du groupe, Marie-France et Michèle. Je ne me suis pas bien présentée… mais les présentations sont venues au fur et à mesure pendant la journée. Nous n’avons pas assisté aux messes, mais la première activité dès l’arrivée (et il y avait du monde qui venait de loin à pied déjà à 8h30) c’était d’acheter et allumer les bougies pour les disparus, les malades, et ceux qu’on voulait rappeler. Un groupe de scouts aidait à allumer et placer les bougies. Tout était bien planifié et organisé. La Croix-Rouge y était avec des tentes préparées, le parking était dirigé avec des passes vérifiées, la nourriture et les boissons étaient à vendre à l’église, les gendarmes étaient partout, et un marché arabo-pied-noir était installé près de la chapelle où l’on pouvait acheter toutes sortes de pains, pâtisseries, et viandes (et d’autres friandises), ainsi que des tee-shirts et des souvenirs du pays.

Je n’ai jamais été mieux accueillie. Bien sûr, la dernière fois que je suis venue à Nîmes, M. Christian Pastor m’a adoptée, m’a présentée au maire, et m’a conduit à Santa Cruz pour me montrer les lieux. Il a même demandé au prêtre de me faire un tour commenté et il m’a fourni avec des documents en me racontant l’histoire de l’église. Cette fois-ci Jean-Louis m’a expliqué encore plus ainsi que des choses que j’avais malheureusement oubliées. L’église a été construite très tôt, vers 1962 ou 63, et apparemment un groupe d’Oranais de Nîmes – ou de Nîmois d’Oran, est retourné clandestinement à Oran pour prendre la statue de la Vierge, Notre Dame de Santa Cruz. Depuis ce temps-là, le sanctuaire et une châsse ont été construits. Chaque année à l’Ascension, on fait le pèlerinage. J’ai entendu pendant toute la journée des plaintes qu’il n’y ait pas autant de monde cette année que pendant des pèlerinages précédents … qu’il y eût, autrefois, tant de monde qu’on ne pouvait pas bouger dans les rues. Max pensait que peut-être le culte a connu son apogée il y a 10 ans.

Après avoir allumé les bougies, Pierre et Jean-Louis m’ont fait visiter la châsse. Et après Marie-France m’a accompagnée au marché. Elle est de Bretagne et elle m’a expliqué qu’elle fait le pèlerinage pour remémorer ses enfants qu’elle a récemment perdu dans un accident traumatique. Sur le chemin il y avait des poteaux partout représentant les quartiers différents d’Oran. Les gens restent sous les pancartes pendant la journée et d’autres s’y arrêtent pour demander certaines personnes qu’ils ont connues ou pour voir si les autres peuvent leur donner des nouvelles des connaissances de là-bas. Ils espèrent même de rencontrer les anciens amis et camarades de classe. Sur notre chemin nous avons trouvé max qui parlait avec un ami avec qui il a été enfant de chœur. Max a pris le relais de Marie-France pour me montrer le marché. Quelques des marchands avaient des panneaux pour indiquer les noms (ou ceux de leurs ancêtres) qu’ils portaient en Algérie. Max m’a expliqué certains aliments comme la soubressade, le merguez, le boudin, la mouna http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mouna (recette), la paella avec de l’escargot. Nous sommes arrêtés pour écouter Raymond Chayat , http://www.bide-et-musique.com/song/2857.html (paroles) et http://www.radiorpni.com/Biographiederaymondchayat.htm (biographie), qui chantait de là-bas et de la chaleur qu’ils connaissaient en Algérie. Cette ambiance chaleureuse était vraiment présente aujourd’hui.

Nous sommes retournés au bus pour le déjeuner, mais pas avant que Max rencontre encore un ami, un ancien collègue avec qui il avait étudié. Il m’a dit quelque chose d’intéressant qui semblait être l’avis de tous : Il a dit qu’il y a des Pieds-Noirs qui disent qu’ils doivent s’intégrer et que c’est le temps d’oublier. Ces gens sont soit des menteurs, soit des faux Pieds-Noirs. Cela confirme l’argument que j’ai fait dans ma thèse que si le Pied-Noir arrête de retourner au passé, il ou elle ne sera plus Pied-Noir car le retour est implicite dans leur nom. J’ai aussi entendu plusieurs versions du mythe du mot « Pied-Noir » aujourd’hui. Pour la plupart toutes les histoires renvoient aux bottes noires que les soldats coloniaux portaient. Max a proposé que ce ne soit pas les indigènes qui ont appelé les soldats les « pieds noirs » mais que c’était les anti-colonialistes qui ont employé ce terme. Cela a plus de sens que les versions que j’ai lues. Mais on est toujours d’accord qu’ils n’étaient pas Pieds-Noirs avant d’arriver en France. Je crois que c’était Max qui a dit que la première fois qu’on l’a appelé Pied-Noir c’était quand il était militaire et que c’était les soldats Français (de France) qui ont utilisé ce mot. Il a dit qu’il ne l’a jamais pris comme une injure.

Le déjeuner a commencé avec de l’anisette suivie par des sandwichs de saucissons (longanisse, boudin, et boudin blanc http://www.cuisinedusud.com/soubressade-c-23_36.html) et un verre de rosé pour moi. Je dois dire qu’auparavant j’étais sceptique du boudin, mais j’ai tout mangé et tout était bon. La longanisse en particulier était délicieuse. Après le repas Jean-Louis m’a présenté à ce qu’il a appelé « Le Groupe de fantômes » -- un nom qui m’a plu parce que je travaille le concept du fantôme d’Algérie dans un article. Ce groupe qui se cachait derrière un bâtiment consistait d’une centaine de personnes, complet avec tables et chaises. Ils prenaient leur repas tranquillement et personne ne pouvait soupçonner qu’ils y étaient. J’ai rencontré quelques membres du groupe qui ont offert de m’envoyer des manuscrits (j’ai aussi rencontré un cousin d’un membre du group de Brest qui a aussi dit qu’il m’enverrait son manuscrit sur ses expériences pendant la guerre d’Algérie) et puis nous sommes partis pour préparer le pèlerinage de la Vierge.

Alors, le pèlerinage a commencé vers 14h quand tout le monde s’est mis en queue avec les bannières de chaque ville décorées avec les images de la Vierge, brodées ou peintes. L’évêque, l’archevêque, plusieurs prêtres, et un moine étaient présents pour guider la foule dans les « Je vous salue Marie », les « Notre Père », et les cantiques « Ave, Ave, Maria » qui se répétaient pendant toute la procession et aux arrêts prévus pour la prière. Nous avions » des barrières (balustrades) humains des deux côtés de la route pour empêcher les gens de venir toucher les mains et les pieds de la Vierge. Apparemment, dans les années précédentes, on offrait les fleurs à la base de la statue, mais les organisateurs ne trouvaient plus tenable cette possibilité. France 3 Sud était là pour filmer le rassemblement, mais je n’ai pas pu voir si ça a passé aux infos du soir. Une image qui m’a frappée c’était que dans le bâtiment d’en face de la chapelle où nous avons commencé la procession, plusieurs familles musulmanes, les femmes avec les foulards, regardaient par les fenêtres avec leurs enfants. Pendant toute la procession le ciel était couvert mais il semblait faire du soleil au dessus de nous venant de je ne sais où, et on a eu de forts coups de vent qui élevaient la bannière comme un cerf volant. Je n’ai vu qu’une femme aux genoux qui priait quand la Vierge l’approchait et quelques femmes dans la barrière humaine étaient pieds nus, mais peut-être cela était plutôt une question de confort. Une fois fini avec la procession, Jean-Louis nous a dit de ne pas rester pour la messe mais de revenir au bus. Nous avons bien obéi.

Une fois au bus, on m’a présenté à une des dirigeantes de l’Amicale de Marseille qui m’a donné des conseils pour les visites une fois sur place. J’ai aussi parlé en détail avec Pierre de ses expériences entre l’Italie et la France et de comment il est devenu français en faisant son service militaire pendant la guerre – et que c’était aussi comment il a appris à parler français. Il a grandi entre une ville près de Naples et Alger et il parlait napolitain -italien. Maintenant il a une maison en Italie où il passe trois mois de l’année. Je crois qu’il a dit qu’il a 71 ans et qu’il avait 19 pendant son service.

Le groupe avait tellement de bonnes choses à me dire et à me partager. Ils m’ont même remerciée de ma participation. Ils venaient auparavant à ce rassemblement en car, mais maintenant c’est difficile de trouver assez de monde pour remplir leur minibus. Et ils avaient toujours de la place pour moi et pour adopter une autre personne s’ils en avaient trouvé une. Chaleureux, généreux, les deux meilleurs mots pour décrire ce groupe de Pieds-Noirs. Nous avons quitté la cour de l’église vers 17h15 avec Max, le conducteur, qui klaxonnait pour signaler notre départ à ceux dans la rue. Nous avons fait nos signes d’adieu comme si dans un défilé sur la route du départ, suivant les cars dans une procession. Mais nous avions une bannière qui indiquait « Bretagne » sur le pare-brise. Ce groupe sera là l’année prochaine, et l’année après jusqu’à ce qu’il ne reste plus personne pour faire le voyage.

Notre Dame de Santa Cruz

2007-05-19T07:11:00.000-07:00

17 May 2007
Ascension, Nîmes, France
Pèlerinage de Notre Dame de Santa Cruz

Last night at our hotel in Nîmes I had the privilege of meeting a group of mostly Pieds-Noirs from Brest who invited me to join their group to Mas de Mingue today where the church of Notre Dame de Santa Cruz is located. I had originally planned to take the bus up and walk around on my own. I had understood from the church’s website http://sanctuairesantacruz-nimes.cef.fr/ that there would be masses celebrated all day and that the pilgrimage would take place at around 2:00 p.m. With an invitation to leave at 8:00 this morning with a group of Pieds-Noirs, I could not refuse.

We left almost promptly at 8:00 and in our group were Jean-Louis, the President of the Brest Association of Pieds-Noirs d’Oran (Oranie?), Max, the secretary and Mr. Popularity at the gathering, his wife Andrée, Suzanne who comes every year, Pierre, an Algerois Italian, and two friends of the group, Marie-France and Michèle. I wasn’t properly introduced and didn’t do a great job of introducing myself … but that came as the day progressed. We did not attend any of the masses, but the first activity once on site (and there were people walking from far away to get there already at 8:30 while we parked in the church parking lot) was to buy candles to light for those lost, ill, remembered. There was a group of scouts helping to light and place the candles. Everything was very well planned out and organized. The red cross was on site with tents set up, parking was all directed and passes were checked, food and drinks were for sale on the church grounds, the police were everywhere, and an Arabo-Pied-Noir market was set up near the chapel where there were breads, pastries and meats (and other friandises) as well as t-shirts and souvenirs du pays for sale.

I have never been better received by anyone. Of course, last time I came to Nîmes, M. Christian Pastor adopted me, introduced me to the mayor, and drove me up to Santa Cruz to show me around – making the priest give me a personal tour and giving me the history of the place. This time Jean-Louis explained even more to me, and many things I had unfortunately forgotten. The church was founded very early on – in 1962 or 63, and apparently a group of Oranais de Nîmes, or Nîmois d’Oran, clandestinely returned to Oran to steal the statue of the virgin, Notre Dame de Santa Cruz. Since then a sanctuary and shrine (reliquary or sacristy) has been built up, and every year on the Ascension, a pilgrimage is made. I kept hearing throughout the day that this year’s turn out wasn’t nearly as good as the past … that there used to be so many people that they could hardly move through the streets. Max thought that maybe the cult had reached its peak ten years ago.

After Jean-Louis and Pierre lit their candles and explained the shrine to me, Marie-France walked me down to the market. She is from Bretagne and explained that she makes the pilgrimage to remember her children who she recently lost in a traumatic accident. Along the way there were signs set up all over representing the different neighborhoods of Oran. People stand there during the day and others stop by and ask for certain people they knew or see if others can give them news of people past or hope to run into old friends and classmates. On our way through we ran into Max who was chatting with a friend with whom he had been an altar boy. Max took over the tour then and showed me the market. Some of the stalls had signs indicating their names (or their forefathers’ names) in Algeria. He explained several of the different foods to me (soubressade, merguez, boudin, mouna (recette) , paella with escargot, just to name a few), and we stopped to hear Raymond Chayat (paroles) (bio), singing about là-bas and the warm ambiance they used to know. That warm ambiance was certainly alive today.

We went back up to our station for lunch, but not before Max ran into another friend, a former colleague with whom he studied, who said something interesting to me – and this seemed to be the consensus. He said that there are those Pieds-Noirs who say that they should integrate and it’s time to forget. Those people are either lying, or not really Pieds-Noirs. This confirms the argument I made in my thesis that if the Pied-Noir were to move beyond returning to the past s/he would no longer be a Pied-Noir, because that return is implicit in their name. I also heard different versions of the myth of the Pied-Noir name today – mostly going back to the black boots that the colonial soldiers wore. Max said that it was not the indigenous people who called them Pieds-Noirs, but the anti-colonialists. This would make more sense than the versions I’ve read. Still, there is an agreement that they weren’t Pieds-Noirs until they arrived in France. I believe it was Max who said that the first time he was called a Pied-Noir was when he was in the military and the French soldiers called him that. He said he never took it as an insult.

Lunch ensued with anisette followed by sausage sandwiches (longanisse, boudin, et boudin blanc) and for me a glass of rosé. I have to say that I’ve always been skeptical of boudin, but I ate everything, everything was good, and the longanisse was particularly delicious. After lunch Jean-Louis showed me what he called “Le groupe de fantômes” – a name I really enjoyed because of the article I’m working on – who were hiding behind one of the buildings. There were at least 100 people set up with tables and chairs eating lunch, and no one could have known they were there. I met a few members of their group who offered to send me their manuscript (incidentally a cousin of one of our group members also said he’d send me his manuscript on his experience in the Algerian war) and then we were off to prepare for the procession of the virgin.

Alors … the procession itself began around 2 p.m. when everyone was lining up with their city banners with images of the virgin embroidered or painted on them. The bishop and archbishop and several priests and a monk were all there leading the Hail Mary’s and the Our Father’s and the songs (Ave Ave Maria) which were repeated throughout the procession and at various prayer stops. We had human guardrails on both sides of us to keep people from running up to the virgin and touching her hands and feet. Apparently they used to give out the flowers around her base after the procession, but the organizers found the situation no longer tenable. France 3 Sud was there taping the gathering, but I wasn’t able to see if it appeared on the news that evening. One thing I found interesting was that in the apartment building just across from the chapel where we began were several Muslim families, women with headscarves watching out the windows with their children. During the entire procession the sky was cloudy but there seemed to be sun on us coming from I don’t know where and the wind picked up quite forcefully several times, lifting our banner like a kite. I only saw one woman on her knees praying as the virgin approached and a few of the human guardrail women were barefooted, but perhaps that was only a question of uncomfortable shoes. Once we finished the procession, Jean-Louis grabbed me and Marie-France to say – hey, don’t attend the mass. Come back to the car when you’re done. So we obeyed.

Once at the bus, I was introduced to one of the leaders of the group from Marseille who gave me several ideas of what to visit once there. I also talked to Pierre at length about his experience between Italy and France and how he became French when he was doing his military service during the war – and this is also when he learned to speak French. He had grown up between a town near Naples and Alger speaking Napolitano-Italian. Now he has a house in Italy where he spends 3 months of the year. I believe he said he’s 71: he was 19 when he did his military service.

The group had so many nice things to say to me – even thanking me for my participation. They used to come to this gathering in a charter bus but now they had to struggle to find enough to fill their mini-bus. And even then they had room for me and one more if they wanted. Chaleureux, généreux … Warm and generous. Those are the best words to describe this group of Pieds-Noirs. We left the churchyard around 5:15 with Max honking to the people on the streets, we were waving good-bye to everyone on the road, like a parade on the departure route, following the charter buses in the procession, though we were marked with a sign that read “Bretagne” on the windshield. This group will be back next year and the next until there is no one left who is able to make the journey.

Pied-Noir Commemorative Gatherings

2007-05-04T09:18:00.000-07:00

Below are just a couple of the many upcoming Pied-Noir gatherings commemorating the 45 years of their exile from Algeria. Doug and I will be in both Nîmes and Toulouse for some of the events. For a more exhaustive list of events, go to: http://www.radiorpni.com/ComManifConf.htm

Thurs. May 17 Rassemblement des Pieds-Noirs
Pélérinage de la Vierge Santa-Cruz d'Oran - Nîmes-Coubressac
Le plus grand pélérinage de France depuis 1963 avec plus de 50.000 participants venus de toutes les régions de France - Rassemblement des habitants des villes et villages de tous les départements de l'Algérie française - Contact : Association Nationale des Amis de Notre-Dame de Santa Cruz - Mas de Mingue - 30000 Nîmes - Contact : - Tél : 04 66 09 99 - Vice-Président : R. Giraud

Rendez-vous à l'oeuvre d' ARGAUD
5, rue Général LECLERC, NIMES
Pour les anciens de l'oeuvre Saint-Louis de Gonzague d'Oran Saint-Eugène
Messe à 10 Heures et repas tiré du sac.
Renseignement : Jean TRIPIANA
Téléphone : 03 85 96 18 13

Fri. May 18 and Sat. May 19
45 eme ANNIVERSAIRE DE L'EXODE DES RAPATRIES ET HARKIS D'ALGERIE
NIMES - STADE DES COSTIERES

La Municipalité de NIMES et le Collectif local des Associations de Rapatriés Organisent le vendredi 18 et le Samedi 19
Salle d'Exposition du stade des Costières à NIMES.

Grande Manifestation Nationale du Souvenir consacrée à L' ALGERIE FRANCAISE ET A SON ARMEE !
Au Programme. (Entrée libre )
Exposition d'Uniformes de l'Armée d'Afrique, De peinture, De cartes postales, Conférences, Projections de films.
Les 18 et 19 au soir, sont prévus des moments de convivialités
vous seront consacrés.
Les Auteurs d'Ouvrages sùr l'Algérie Française ainsi que les Associations et personnes qui souhaitent exposer pour ses deux jours.

Sat. May 26:
Toulouse, Diagora Espace de Congrès et d'Exposition : Rue Pierre Gilles de Gennes - BP 71907 - 31319 Labège Cedex Tél. : 05 61 39 93 39 - Fax : 05 61 39 79 80 - nanin.s@diagora-congres.com

• 15 h 00 : Accueil au Centre de Congrès Diagora dans le Hall et remise des badges et des tickets-repas. Le Bar payant de Diagora sera ouvert tout l'après-midi pour faciliter les retrouvailles.
• 17 h 00 : Assemblée Générale de l'Amicale des Saïdéens dans la salle B (1er étage) de Diagora. Tous les Membres de l'Amicale à jour de leurs cotisations 2007 sont invités à participer à cette Assemblée.
• 20 h 00 : Dîner amical servi à table dans la Salle des "Colonnes" pour ceux qui le désirent et qui se seront impérativement inscrits avant le 7 mai 2007.

Sun. May 27 :
• 9 h 30 : Accueil des nouveaux arrivants au Centre de Congrès Diagora et remise des badges et tickets-repas.
• 10 h 30 : Office inter-religieux dans l'Amphithéâtre de Diagora. Suivi de la Messe.
• 12 h 00 : Apéritif offert par l'Amicale dans le Salon d'accueil de Diagora.
• 13 h 00 : Déjeuner servi à table dans l'espace restaurant de Diagora pour ceux qui se seront impérativement inscrits avant le 7 mai 2007
• 16 h 30 : Présentation du Film réalisé par Bernard et Amicie Allène : "Saïda... On revient !... Sur les traces de notre enfance". Dans le très confortable amphithéâtre de Diagora, vous pourrez retrouver vos souvenirs en découvrant le film que les participants au voyage de septembre 2006 nous ont permis de réaliser pour vous.
• 20 h 00 : Dîner musical servi à table dans l'espace restaurant de Diagora pour ceux qui se seront impérativement inscrits avant le 7 mai 2007

2007-04-17T08:39:00.000-07:00

« L’oubli est la plus compliquée des serrures mais il n’est qu’une serrure, il n’est pas une gomme ou une épée, il n’efface pas, ne tue pas, il enferme ». (Marie Cardinal, Les mots pour le dire, p. 203)

Derrida - le carreau (the misplaced tile)

2007-02-01T07:04:00.000-08:00

Derrida, Jacques et Safaa Fathy, Tourner les mots. Paris: Galilée-Arte, 2000. p. 93

Une mémoire apaisée n’a plus aucune chance, il ne lui reste qu’à s’endormir. Une mémoire harmonieuse, réconciliée, euphorique, une mémoire heureuse, je n’imagine pas qu’elle puisse faire autre chose que se perdre. Autre façon de lier la mémoire au mal et son essence au remords. La blessure signe l’œuvre (…).

An appeased memory no longer has any chance. The only thing left for it is to go to sleep. A harmonious, reconciled, euphoric memory, a happy memory does not imagine that it can do anything but get lost. Another way to tie memory to badness and its essence to remorse. The wound signs the work ... (my feable translation)

ruins, framing, images and cnn

2006-12-20T11:36:00.000-08:00

watching my boyfriend in the camera
and seeing him simultaneously on the set
he is not the same person
he is not his image
the one on the set i see directly with my eyes – he is mine, the one i know and recognize
the one on the screen is him, but reorganized, set up, framed, projected, and staged to sound the way – the best way he can
and then on cnn he sounds another way, the way the journalist wants him to sound
what remains is a ruin or a remnant of the one i’m in love with
a replica, a souvenir
a piece of (the berlin wall)
but it is not but a fraction of my love on that screen
i want the one at home, the one on my couch, the with sounds, odors, colors, angles- senses
and yet all of that is also only the way i’ve framed my vision, isn’t it?

figure of nostalgia

2006-12-06T07:22:00.000-08:00

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingre's
La Grande Odalisque, 1814
Pre-Romantic (Neoclassical)
and overly realist.

The detail in her headscarf alone is stunning, but if you look closely ... Ingres added an extra vertebrae to make her slightly more beautiful to fit his idealized sense of beauty.

Talking about the past - or just living it?

2006-11-26T06:52:00.000-08:00

My partner and I were talking last night while I was drifting in and out of sleep ...
do women keep a sea of secrets inside them?
No more than anyone does, we agreed.
But when I talk about my past relationships, and he knows that I work on identity and memory, he often tells me I'm living in the past.
At what point is it reliving the past, and when is it simply sharing experience and being open about what we've lived so that the other knows and understands us in our present? Or are we always constructing a narrative in our present, whether we talk or not talk about what preceded?
It's this line of thinking that several years ago made me conclude that pure memory simply doesn't exist.
I do not believe we can separate our present from our pasts. Living in the present is nice, but it isn't ever really possible to pretend we exist separate from the myriad of experiences that formed us - talked about or silenced.
Yet, to be in an openly communicating mode with a partner, must we share every intimate past moment to be regarded as unsecretive? The balance still eludes me.
When issues are relevant and memories emerge, I share them.
I'm inclined to think that if I repeat those memories and recreate them and attempt to reexperirence them ... this would be a stab at living in the past. I'm also in the process of thinking that denying that the past exists is another form of letting the past control you. Eithe rway, it forms you if you try to control it.
You cannot touch without being touched is Newton's third law.
I cannot press my memory without it pressing me.

current ideas under construction

2006-11-24T13:43:00.000-08:00

These are the ideas I'm mulling over for current articles. If you have thoughts, please message me.

-- the connections between exile writers, mother, and homeland and how those relationships are articulated in their litereature.

-- Camus and his use of nostalgia (and especially return) to articulate identity

-- Francophone women and their articulation of home (again the mother comes into this discourse quite heavily).

-- Writing the wounds of Algeria, which is on the underside of nostalgia writing, or what is covered up by the nostalgia. (This article is in progress and the abstract accepted for publication).