Algeria-France: A Long War of Images

Bedjaoui, Ahmed

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-37994-0_10

Ahmed Bedjaoui⁴

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Arab Cinema ((PASTARCI))

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Abstract

The first battle: Orientalists on board

The second stage saw the beginnings, with photography, of more sophisticated means of communication and representation of the world. Human types were photographed and classified. They were shown in school books. After the Orientalists’ lascivious images of natives under the sun, Algerians had to suffer the exotic gaze of photographers.

In the fringes of the UN: Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber and Jean Daniel were to play a part in the interest that Senator Kennedy took in the Algerian resistance, an interesting role and a complementary one to that of the leaders and representatives of the FLN.

American reporters in the maquis Jean Daniel was very close to Joseph Kraft, a journalist with the Washington Post and the New York Times, before becoming one of John Kennedy’s speechwriters during the presidential campaign in 1960. In the autumn of 1957, this same Joe Kraft came to visit the maquis of Wilaya V, on behalf of the Saturday Evening Post. He was accompanied by Khaled Khelladi, known as Si Tahar. This visit is confirmed in No. 19 of El Moudjahid, dated February 28, 1958: ‘Joe Kraft, special envoy of the famous magazine Saturday Evening Post has spent some time staying with the maquis in Wilaya V.’

Kennedy’s Algeria speech: Robert Miller describes how the Democrat Senator from Massachusetts, wanting to expand his legitimacy in foreign policy, denounced the position of the American government regarding the aspirations of the Algerian nationalists, which he deemed legitimate.

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Notes

1.
Dominique Legrand, “Art de la conquête, paradoxes de l’orientalisme,” Le Soir de Bruxelles (November 12, 2003), 2, 3.
2.
Journalists accompanying the army on military operations.
3.
Victor Hugo, Les Orientales, poems, re-edited Stock (2004).
4.
Victor Hugo, Le Rhin, lettres à un ami (1842).
5.
Catalogue of the Exhibition, Delacroix à Renoir, l’Algérie des peintres, Institut du Monde Arabe, Éditions Hazan (2003), 178, 186.
6.
Blog in Nouvel Observateur, June 11, 2012, “Des restes d’Algériens dans un musée parisien, barbarie coloniale!”
7.
In his Discours sur le colonialisme, Aimé Césaire denounces the primacy of “euro-centric prolitarianism” over colonialism. See, in this respect, the article by Hassen Saleh, “How to Liberate Marx from His Eurocentrism Notes on African/Black Marxism Documenta,” Series 091, 1956, 2012.
8.
Patrick Mougenet, La Guerre d’Algérie et ses mémoires, journée de formation académique, December 3, 2012, on the site www.cinema-et-histoire.fr, “Entre Histoire et Mémoire: les représentations cinématographiques de la Guerre d’Algérie, 1945–2012.” This correspondence, by General Gambiez, was “designed to accompany the production of a cinema report to prepare opinion for the televised speech that Guy Mollet, President of Counsel, had planned for April 23, 1956, following the vote of ‘special powers’ in March.”
9.
Jean Sénac, Le Soleil sous les armes, Éléments d’une poésie de résistance algérienne, ed. Subervie (Rodez, 1957).
10.
Le Soir d’Algérie (November 30, 2011).
11.
Abderrezak Hellal, Le Refus d’une mise en images, ed. Rafar (Algiers, 2011), 237.
12.
Correspondence from Colonel Ducourneau, head of cabinet for the resident Minister in Algeria, to the General, head of the psychological action service (April 3, 1956).
13.
Jean Carta, Partisans No. 4 (April–May 1962). This review published its first issue in September 1961. Its aim was to muster the foreign sympathizers of the FLN.
14.
Matthew Connelly, ibid., 180. Water, Crops, and Men alludes to the supposed “action civilisatrice de la France,” or “civilized action of France.”
15.
Report of the tour by SDC in the Constantine region, June 5, 1957.
16.
Sébastien Denis, Les Images pendant la guerre d’Algérie, Algérie 1830–1962, with Jacques Ferrandez, ed. Casterman (2012), 206.
17.
Images relating to war captivity in the film collections and photographs at the Établissement de communication et de production audiovisuelle de la défense (1914–2011), www.ecpad.fr.
18.
Interview with André Gazut, published in Liberté (Algiers, December 24, 2003).
19.
Marc Garanger, La Guerre d’Algérie vue par un appelé du contingent, ed. Seuil (1984).
20.
Note from the Governor General to the Minister of the Interior, concerning the documents about the black file of Messali (November 1955), ANOM, 12CAB 93*, cited by Marie Chominot, ibid.
21.
Robert Soulé, “Un témoin de la scène raconte,” France Soir (December 31, 1955), 5.
22.
Claire Mauss-Copeaux, Algérie, 20 août 1955: Insurrection, répression, massacres, ed. Payot (Paris, 2011), 168.
23.
Sylvie Thénault, Le Monde, Supplément, Guerre d’Algérie, mémoires parallèles (February–March 2012), 19.
24.
Robert Soulé, Un témoin de la scène raconte, ibid.
25.
Le Monde (January 1–2, 1956), 5.
26.
Marie Chominot, “Algérie, août 1955: la mort filmée en direct,” http://www.ldhtoulon.net/spip.php?article4909.
27.
Abdelkrim Djilali, “Images combattantes,” symposium L’Introduction du visuel dans la Guerre de Libération nationale. L’image et la revolution, National Public Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (May 15–16, 2013).
28.
Benyoucef Benkhedda, Algiers, capitale de la résistance 1956–1957, ed. Houma (Algiers, 2002).
29.
Cited by Benjamin Stora in Algérie-Vietnam, deux guerres vues par deux cinémas, ed. Casbah (Algiers, 1997), 121. Television broadcast in April 1991.
30.
Julie Champrenault, http://www.histoire-politique.fr/documents/comptesRendus/pdf.
31.
Matthew Connelly, L’Arme secrète du FLN. Comment de Gaulle a perdu la guerre d’Algérie, ed. Payot (Paris, 2011).
32.
Report of the communication by Matthew Connelly, by Mustapha Benfodil, El Watan (July 7, 2002).
33.
Interview with Marie Chominot by Wafa Sifouane, “Le pays a gagné la guerre de l’image,” La Tribune (Algiers, July 4, 2012).
34.
On the subject of a photography exhibition, see Florence Aubenas, “La Guerre d’Algérie en regards,” Libération (January 30, 2004).
35.
Matthew Connelly, L’Arme secrète du FLN, ibid., 172.
36.
Robert D. Kumamoto, International Terrorism and American Foreign Relations, 1945–1976, ed. UPNE (1999), 94–95.
37.
Ibid., 94–95.
38.
The Ministry of Armement and General Liaisons (MALG) was the intelligence service of the ALN during the war.
39.
Mohamed Lemkami, Les Hommes de l’ombre, mémoire d’un officier du MALG, Éditions Dahlab (Algiers, 2012).
40.
Abdelkader Bousselham, La Diplomatie algérienne de la guerre d’indépendance 1954–1962, Chapter 3, ed. Casbah (Algiers, 2005). He was diplomatic advisor to the GPRA mission in Rabat, former Ambassador.
41.
Michel Lefebvre, interview with Matthew Connelly, Le Monde, Supplément, ibid., 7.
42.
Professor Robert L. Miller, Un tournant dans la Guerre d’Algérie. Le discours de John F. Kennedy au Sénat des États-Unis en juillet 1957, United States (November 2010).
43.
M’hmed Yazid was married to an American and mastered the English language perfectly.
44.
Cited by Amel Blidi, “L’intense lobbying des hommes du FLN aux USA,” El Watan (December 2, 2013), 5.
45.
Maxime de Person, “Kennedy et l’Algérie,” an article taken from the review, Recherches contemporaines, No. 3, (1995–1996), 209.
46.
Yves Courrière, L’Heure des colonels, 581.
47.
Robert Miller, Le Discours de John Kennedy au Sénat des États-Unis (July 1957).
48.
Yves Courrière, L’Heure des colonels, ibid., 301–2.
49.
Fredj Maâtoug, John F. Kennedy, La France, et le Maghreb, ed. L’Harmattan (Paris, 2012).
50.
Amel Blidi, L’Intense lobbying des hommes du FLN aux USA, ibid.
51.
Herb Greer, A Scattering of Dust, ed. Hutchinson & Co. (London, 1962).
52.
Saïd Mehdaoui, Les Cinéastes de la liberté, ibid.
53.
Marie Chominot, 1956-1957: L’ALN sous l’objectif de deux reporters américains, dans Histoire de l’Algérie coloniale, ed. La Découverte-Barzakh (Algiers, 2012), 610–13.
54.
Robert D. Kumamoto, ibid.
55.
Not to be confused with Algérie en flammes, made in May 1958, by René Vautier.
56.
Matthew Connelly, A Diplomatic Revolution: Algeria’s Fight for Independence and the Origins of the Post-Cold War Era, 133.
57.
Samia Lokmane-Khelil, L’Introduction du visuel dans la guerre de libération nationale, National Public Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MAMA) (Algiers, May 15–16, 2013).
58.
Cited by Merzak Bedjaoui, former Algerian Ambassador in Sweden, MAMA symposium (2013).
59.
Mohamed Lemkami, ibid., 213.
60.
Maxime de Person, “Kennedy et l’Algérie,” ibid., 207.
61.
Sébastien Denis, Le Cinéma et la guerre d’Algérie, la propagande à l’écran (1945–1962), Nouveau monde éditions (Paris, 2009), 11.
62.
Ali Djenaoui, tenth graduating class of IDHEC, had accumulated experience by making several television dramas before his departure to the maquis in 1958, including Feu Monsieur de Marcy, L’affaire des poisons, and an adaptation of Polyeucte, by Corneille.
63.
Cited by Saïd Ould Khelifa, “Le Moudjahid Pierre Clément est mort,” L’Expression, October 15, 2007.
64.
The “bleuite” brainwashing campaign, referred in Chapter 8.
65.
From his real name Ben Abderrazak Ahmed, Colonel Si el Haouès of the Liberation Army died in March 1959.
66.
L’Expression, October 1, 2007.
67.
Jean-Rayond Tournoux, Jamais dit, Ed. Plon (Paris, 1971), 207, cited by Abderrezak Hellal in Le Refus d’une mise en images, ed. Rafar, 218–19.
68.
Mustapha Benfodil, “Communication de Connelly,” El Watan (July 7, 2002).
69.
A special chapter is devoted at the beginning of this work to this generation of combatants of the image.
70.
Remarks reported on December 25, 2012, by Shaman Dolpi, Mediapart online journal.
71.
Anne Guérin-Castell, Un déshonneur de la République, ed. LDH Toulon (June 28, 2012).
72.
M. Challali, Mediapart online journal (February 21, 2012).
73.
Saïd Mehdaoui, Les Cinéastes de la liberté.

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University of Algiers III, Dély Ibrahim, Algeria
Ahmed Bedjaoui

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Bedjaoui, A. (2020). Algeria-France: A Long War of Images. In: Cinema and the Algerian War of Independence . Palgrave Studies in Arab Cinema. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-37994-0_10

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-37994-0_10
Published: 26 March 2020
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-37993-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-37994-0
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