The Harkis

The Wound That Never Heals

Vincent Crapanzano

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Year: 2011
• ISBN:
  9780226118789
• Topic: Scienze sociali
• Subtopic: Sociologia

In this haunting chronicle of betrayal and abandonment, ostracism and exile, racism and humiliation, Vincent Crapanzano examines the story of the Harkis, the quarter of a million Algerian auxiliary troops who fought for the French in Algeria's war of independence. After tens of thousands of Harkis were massacred by other Algerians at the end of the war, the survivors fled to France where they were placed in camps, some for as long as sixteen years. Condemned as traitors by other Algerians and scorned by the French, the Harkis became a population apart, and their children still suffer from their parents' wounds. Many have become activists, lobbying for recognition of their parents' sacrifices, compensation, and an apology.More than just a retelling of the Harkis' grim past and troubling present, The Harkis is a resonant reflection on how children bear responsibility for the choices their parents make, how personal identity is shaped by the impersonal forces of history, and how violence insinuates itself into every facet of human life.

INDEX

AAAA. See Association des anciens des affaires algériennes

AAAAS. See Association des anciens des affaires algériennes et sahariennes

abandonment of Harkis, 83–85, 171–72, 173, 175–76, 181, 183

Abane, Ramdane, 21, 51

Abbas, Ferhat, 46–47

Abd al-Qadir, 41, 201n12

Abel, Olivier, 216n4

accusation, heritage and, 13

adjustment and accommodation, 160

Agamben, Georgio, 12

Ageron, Charles-Robert, 43–44, 73, 76

Ahmed, accounts of imprisonment by, 100–102, 105

Aissaoui, Ali, 214n23

Ait Ahmed, Hocine, 47, 52

Aît Daoud, 61

AJIR, 15, 18, 32, 161, 197n1, 198n3

Algeria: Algerian nationhood, 95–96; attitude toward Harkis, 175; Bureaux arabes, 45; commune mixte, 45; France’s invasion of, 38, 41; French occupation, 41–47; Islamic law in, 44; Kabyle protests against Algerian government, 200n14; literacy rates, 45; military administration of, 43–44; Ministry of the Interior administration of, 44; naming of, 40–41; organizing of society, 41; pauperization of, 45–46; Provisional Government of the Republic of Algeria, 52; re-entry of Harkis in, 207n22; relationship with France, 40–41, 49, 161, 173; religious traditionalism in, 46–47; scapegoating Harkis, 173; secular modernism in, 46–47; unemployment in, 45; violence in, 36; vote for independence, 55–56

Algerian Department of Anthropometry, 105

Algerian National Office of Labor, 105

Algerians, 193; Arabs or Berbers (see Berbers and Arabs); attacks on Harkis, 76–77; and civil war struggles, 36; European settlers (see European settlers); exploitation and domination of, 42–43; and FLN, 52, 64, 91, 139; in France (see Algerians in France); and the French, 38, 41, 42, 44, 45–46, 57, 66, 140; as French nationals or subjects, 44; Harkis (see Harkis); legal status of, 207n24; literacy rates, 45; massacre of, 47, 50; memories, 8; in military (see French military and police); names for, 24, 203n1; notion of nationhood, 95–96; protests by, 156–57; rules of personal status governing, 44; subversive acts by, 74; treatment of Harkis, 17, 21, 29, 76–77, 83, 92, 95, 131, 170, 173–74, 183; and Treaty of Evian, 33; violence...