In the world of Pied-Noir Research...

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

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

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

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?).

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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