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The Decolonization of North African History

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

John Wansbrough
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Extract

Since independence the countries of North Africa have been occupied almost exclusively with the establishment of a new society. An important part of this activity has been directed towards a solution to the problem of symbols and values: the construction of an image of themselves for their own contemplation and for export to the world outside. One aspect of this general problem of acculturation is concerned with interpretations of history and the evaluation of one's own place in historical evolution. Starting from the premiss that North African history has largely been a monopoly of French scholarship since 1830, contemporary historical writers in Algeria, Tunisia, and Morocco have found it essential, before entering upon problems of historical interpretation, to rewrite their own history. Discovery of this first requisite has generated a spirit shared by all those writers preoccupied with this problem, however much they might disagree on solutions to it, which is best expressed by the phrase ‘décoloniser l'histoire’. The subject is vast, and I should like here only to indicate several of the problems, with their proposed solutions, so far treated by writers dealing with the history of Algeria.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 9 , Issue 4 , October 1968 , pp. 643 - 650
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1968

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References

1 Cf. e.g. Mandouze, A., La Révolution algérienne par les textes (Paris, 1961)Google Scholar

2 See Gordon, D., The Passing of French Algeria (Oxford, 1966), 183–90.Google Scholar

3 Gellner, Cf. E., ‘The struggle for Morocco's past’, Middle East Journal (1961), 79–90.Google Scholar

4 G. von Grunebaum, Cf., ‘Acculturation as a theme in contemporary Arab literature’, in Modern Islam (Los Angeles, 1962), 248–88.Google Scholar

5 See Mantran, R., ‘Les données de l'histoire moderne et contemporaine de l'Algérie et de la Tunisie’, Annuaire de l'Afrique du Nord, I (Paris, 1964), 243–8.Google Scholar

6 Cf. e.g. Desparmet, J., ‘Les Chansons de geste de 1830 à 1914 dans la Mitidja’, Revue Africaine, LXXXIII (1939), 192–226.Google Scholar

7 See Roth, A., Le Théâtre algérien (Paris, 1967), 14 ff.Google Scholar

8 See Nouschi, A., La Naissance du nationalisme algérien (Paris, 1962), 52Google Scholar

9 Bennabi, M., Vocation de l'Islam, 82–95.Google Scholar

10 Kahn, J., Le Monde, 16 03 1964, cited in Gordon, D., The Passing of French Algeria, 183.Google Scholar