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France in Algeria—A Problem of Culture Contact*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2009

Werner J. Cahnman
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Extract

If We are to discuss race and culture contacts in North Africa, we must first appraise the historico-geographical conditions under which such contacts have taken place. It seems significant then that the Arab geographers called what is now Italian, French, and Spanish North Africa, Djesiret el Maghreb, that is the Island of the West. On a closer look, North Africa is indeed an island, separated, as it is, from the European North by the Mediterranean Sea, from Egypt and the Near East by the Libyan desert, and from the Negro country of the Sudan by the desert belt of the Sahara. To the West, it borders on the open Ocean. Within this so-bounded island, however, there is no unity. There are wild mountain ranges and fertile valleys, wind-swept plateaus, and the dry steppe regions which fade out into the immensity of the desert; but a core of integration, a central landscape, as it were, is lacking. As a result of these geographical conditions, there has been sufficient isolation for ancient customs and particular creeds to be preserved, but there has been not enough concentrated political power to enable the peoples of North Africa to fend off frequent invasion and the ever recurring play of outside intervention.

Type
Articles
Information
The Review of Politics , Volume 7 , Issue 3 , July 1945 , pp. 343 - 357
Copyright
Copyright © University of Notre Dame 1945

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References

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2 Le Domaim Colonial Français, Tome Deuxième: L'Afrique du Nord, (Paris, 1929), pp. 55–58Google Scholar; Stanford, Charles Thomas, About Algeria, (London, 1912). p. 42Google Scholar.

3 Cahnman, Werner J., “Religion and Nationality,” The American Journal of Sociology, Vol. XLIX, No. 6, (05 1944), pp. 524–29, and the literature mentioned there. The present paper should be understood as an application of the principles evolved in this previous publication.CrossRefGoogle Scholar Cf. Bernard, Augustin, quoted ace. to Le Domaine Colonial Français, op. cit., p. 61Google Scholar, and Maunier, René, Loi Française et Coutume Indigène, (Paris, 1932), passim, esp. pp. 108, 110, 112, 123, and 129Google Scholar: “Le probleme est avant tout celui de la mise en contact de la ‘nation,’ ou de l'État, et même de l'Empire, que nous représentons, avec la ‘tribu,’ ou bien avec la ‘cité.’ Il y a, en Afrique du Nord, des groupes de populations qui en sont demeurés à la tribu; il y a, d'autre part, des groupes de populations qui en sont arrivés à la cité: mais il en a pas qui soient parvenus a l'État.”

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5 Cf. Werner J. Cahnman, op. cit., with regard to the “millet” institution.

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16 Sarraut, Albert, La Mise en Valeur des Colonies Françaises, (Paris, 1923), p. 19Google Scholar. “Association” means not cooperation between equals but assimilation confined to the native elite; Cf. Wieschhoff, H. A., Colonial Policies in Africa, African Handbooks: 5. (Philadelphia, 1944), p. 91–92Google Scholar.

17 The new philosophy is hard to define but not so difficult to understand. The French Colonial Governors assembled in Brazzaville were in favor of a policy of assimilation but they thought that this policy should be carried into effect with some caution. They found opposition from cultural pluralists, but they stuck to the idea of the gradual association of native élites to the civilization of France. They made explicit their contention that native cultures should not be encouraged. These native cultures are expected to be corroded by the subtle processes of “internal progress.” This may be called the French version of indirect rule. Cf. Renaissances, Revue de la Pensée Politique Française, Vol. I, Nos. 3 and 4, (Algiers, 1944), espGoogle Scholar. articles of Lorraine, Jacques, “La Conférence de Brazzaville,” pp. 88–110Google Scholar; Laurentie, Henri, “Notes sur une philosophie de la politique coloniale Française,” pp. 1–7Google Scholar; Viard, Paul-Émile, “Essai d'une organisation constitutionelle de la ‘Communauté Française’,” pp. 8–28Google Scholar. See also Lapie, P. O., “The New Colonial Policy of France,” Foreign Affairs, (10 1944), pp. 3–10 and the memoranda of Félix Éboué (Engl. transl.). Free France, Special Issue, No. 2 (French Colonial Policy in Africa), (September 1944)Google Scholar.

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19 We find ourselves in substantial agreement with Governor Henri Laurentie's definition (Renaissances, op. cit., p. 3): “Une colonie, quelque soit son statut politique, quels que soient les liens qui l'atlachent à la mêtropole, est essentiellement un pays où une minorité européenne s'est superposée a une majorité indigène de civilisation et de comportement différents.”

20 Engl. transl. in Free France, Vol. 5, No. 6, (03 15, 1944, p. 226–27Google Scholar.

21 Cf. Wieschhoff, H. A., op. cit., p. 95: “… members of the élite who are without positions commensurate to their training or to their expectations are apt to express their dissatisfaction most vehemently. Many leaders of the anti-French revolutionary parties in North Africa, such as the Moroccan Unity party, the Young Moroccan Movement, the Association des Oulemas Réformateurs in Algeria, or the Neo-Destour in Tunisia have as leaders, in addition to nationalistic and conservative Moslem leaders, many disappointed and dissatisfied members of the élite.”Google Scholar

22 Devereux, George and Loeb, Edwin M., “Antagonistic Acculturation,” American Sociological Review, Vol. 8, No. 2, 04 1943, pp. 133–147CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Compare Lorraine, Jaques, op. cit. p. 92Google Scholar.

23 Recently, the nationalistic party. Amis du Manifeste, has been outlawed, its leaders arrested. The no less nationalist Parti Populaire Algérien, whose slogan is “Algeria for the Algerians,” is being carefully watched, following the Kabyle uprising. The Communist party has suffered a decline. Of course, the ups and downs of particular parties will hardly change the trend in which they all participate.

24 For the following, compare René Hoffherr et Lucien Paye, “Evolution du peuplement en Afrique de Nord” and Mesnard, G., “La regression relative des Européens en Algérie,” Démographic de la France d'Outremer, Congrès International de la Population, Vol. VI, (Paris, 1938), pp. 4–10, 11–14: both articles contain excellent statistical tablesGoogle Scholar.

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