Colonization & Resistance: Algeria (1830-1871), by HE Zaimeche Al-Djazairi, Editions Ribât

The French colonization of Algeria is undoubtedly one of the most controversial historical episodes in the debates of our time; often evoked wrongly and through - for good or bad -, subject to all manipulations, it remains however singularly misunderstood. 

From the fall of Algiers (1830) to the great insurrection of 1871 and its terrible repression, this book gives us a picture of these bloody military campaigns, from Constantine to the Moroccan border, but also and above all of the war of annihilation led by Marshal Bugeaud, to name only him, and his brothers in arms. With the help of countless quotations from colonial officers who themselves speak widely about their actions, it is thus the true face of the "pacification" of Algeria which appears in all its brutality: the fumades and the scorched earth, mass killings and dispossession of land, desolation of the environment and annihilation of economic livelihoods – in short, the systematic destruction of Algerian society in all its aspects. With a lively and sharp eye, this book also explores the state of mind of the culprits of these atrocities, colonial propaganda and the intellectual justifications for the invasion of the country, between the myth of piracy, "civilizing mission", " rights of superior races” and Christian expansionism. 

Faced with this raw colonial violence, the author finally highlights the heroic drive for life of the natives doomed to submission or extermination, in tribute to the extraordinary resilience of the Algerian people and their standard-bearers: the emblematic figure of Emir Abd al-Kader, of course, but also Hadj Ahmed Bey, Bou Ma'za or al-Mokrani - not to mention the incessant resistance movements that were to animate the country of the mountains of Kabylie at the gates of the Sahara…