Prominent French historian Benjamin Stora has reiterated the urgent need for France to officially acknowledge its colonial crimes in Algeria. He specifically highlighted the massacres committed against Algerians and the systematic seizure of their land, acts that he says are being questioned by certain segments within the French political establishment.
Stora, who has faced criticism from the French far-right and those nostalgic for ‘French Algeria’ due to his writings and anti-colonial stance on historical memory, emphasized the importance of building new bridges between the two nations. He advocated for collaborative historical work, referencing the initiative launched by Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune to establish a joint Algerian-French commission on history and memory.
Discussing the timeline of the brutal French colonial period in Algeria (1830-1962), the historian described it as a period marked by the dispossession of Algerian lands, the plunder of their wealth, and the perpetration of massacres. He characterized these acts as crimes against humanity, lamenting the fact that these truths are ‘absent from French textbooks.’
Given France’s continued silence on this tragic period, Stora stressed the necessity of rewriting history to make it accessible to the French public. He pointed to the crucial role of archives, which should be readily available to researchers and historians from both sides.
Stora also addressed the attacks he has received from certain political circles in France, particularly from the far-right, who are attempting to cast doubt on France’s colonial past and its crimes in Algeria. He described them as ‘those who did not want to hear anything about the massacres committed against Algerians, nor about the nuclear tests.’ He concluded by stating, ‘Now we must see what we can do to set things right and reveal the truth about the French occupation of Algeria.’
