Editing Algerian War (section)

=== Continued controversy in France ===

The Algerian War remains a contentious event. According to the historian [[Benjamin Stora]], one of the leading historians on the war, memories concerning the war remain fragmented, with no common ground to speak of:

<blockquote>There is no such thing as a history of the Algerian War; there is just a multitude of histories and personal paths through it. Everyone involved considers that they lived through it in their own way, and any attempt to understand the Algerian War globally is immediately rejected by protagonists.<ref name="MemoryStora">[http://www.ina.fr/voir_revoir/algerie/itv_stora.light.en.html Bringing down the barriers – people's memories of the Algerian War] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070705003504/http://www.ina.fr/voir_revoir/algerie/itv_stora.light.en.html |date=July 5, 2007}}, interview with [[Benjamin Stora]] published on the [[Institut national de l'audiovisuel]] archive website {{in lang|en}}</ref></blockquote>

Even though Stora has counted 3,000 publications in French on the war, there still is no work produced by French and Algerian authors co-operating with each other. Although according to Stora, there can "no longer be talk about a 'war without a name', a number of problems remain, especially the absence of sites in France to commemorate" the war. Furthermore, conflicts have arisen on an exact commemoration date to end the war. Although many sources as well as the French state place it on 19 March 1962, the [[Évian Accords|Évian Agreements]], others point out that massacres of harkis and the kidnapping of ''pieds-noirs'' took place later. Stora further points out, "The phase of memorial reconciliation between the two sides of the sea is still a long way off."<ref name="MemoryStora"/> That was evidenced by the [[National Assembly (France)|National Assembly]]'s creation of the [[French law on colonialism|law on colonialism]] on 23 February 2005 that asserted that colonialism had overall been "positive".

Alongside a heated debate in France, the February 23, 2005, law had the effect of jeopardising the treaty of friendship that President Chirac was supposed to sign with President [[Abdelaziz Bouteflika]], which was no longer on the agenda. Following that controversial law, Bouteflika has talked about a cultural [[genocide]], particularly referring to the 1945 [[Sétif massacre]]. Chirac finally had the law repealed by a complex institutional mechanism.

Another matter concerns the teaching of the war as well as of colonialism and decolonization, particularly in [[Education in France|French secondary schools]].<ref>{{cite journal |title=''Terminale'' history class: teaching about torture during the Algerian war |last=McCormack |first=J. |journal=[[Modern & Contemporary France]] |volume=12 |issue=1 |year=2004 |pages=75–86 |doi=10.1080/0963948042000196379 |s2cid=145083214 }}</ref> Hence, there is only one reference to [[racism]] in a French textbook, one published by [[Bréal]] publishers for ''terminales'' students, those passing their [[baccalauréat]]. Thus, many are not surprised that the first to speak about the [[Paris massacre of 1961]] were music bands, including hip-hop bands such as the famous [[Suprême NTM]] (''les Arabes dans la Seine'') or politically-engaged [[La Rumeur]]. Indeed, the Algerian War is not even the subject of a specific chapter in the textbook for ''terminales''.<ref name="DiploApril">[http://mondediplo.com/2001/04/04algeriatorture Colonialism Through the School Books – The hidden history of the Algerian war] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190422180941/https://mondediplo.com/2001/04/04algeriatorture |date=22 April 2019 }}, ''[[Le Monde diplomatique]]'', April 2001 {{in lang|en|fr}}</ref> Henceforth, Benjamin Stora stated:

<blockquote>As Algerians do not appear in an "indigenous" condition, and their sub-citizens status, as the history of nationalist movement, is never evoked as their being one of great figures of the resistance, such as Messali Hadj and Ferhat Abbas. They neither emerge nor are being given attention. No one is explaining to students what colonization has been. We have prevented students from understanding why the decolonization took place.<ref name="DiploApril"/></blockquote>