Pied-noir

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Pied-Noir ("Black-Foot") (plural Pieds-Noirs), (pronounced /pje.nwaʁ/) is a term used to refer to colonists of Algeria until the end of the Algerian War in 1962. Specifically, Pieds-Noirs were French nationals of European descent, Sephardic Jews, and settlers from other European countries such as Spain, Italy, and Malta who were born in Algeria.^[1][2][3] From the French invasion in June 18, 1830 until attaining independence, Algeria formed three départements (Algiers, Oran and Constantine) and was considered a part of France. By independence, the Pieds-Noirs accounted for 1,025,000 people, or roughly 10% of the total population.^[4]

The term Pied-Noir is perhaps best known in reference to the Algerian War, which saw the deaths of 24,000 French men and anywhere between 200,000 and 1,000,000 Algerians, the fall of the French Fourth Republic, and the exodus of French Nationals.^[5] The Algerian War was fought by nationalist groups such as the Front de Liberation National (FLN) against the colonial French government in response to political and economic inequalities as well as their perceived "alienation" from the French settlers.^[6] Following Algeria's independence in 1962, over one million Pied-Noir settlers of French nationality returned to mainland France. Upon their arrival, many Pieds-Noirs felt ostracized by the French public's perception that they had brought about the violence of the Algerian War and the political turmoil surrounding the collapse of the French Fourth Republic. Complicating the situation, the Pieds-Noirs felt they were not able to return to Algeria because of the violence and resentment by both the settlers and the native Algerians.^[7] In popular culture, the community is often represented thus, as feeling removed from French culture, in addition to feelings of longing for Algeria.^[8][5] One of the most well-known Pieds-Noirs is writer and philosopher Albert Camus.

Contents 1 Origin of the term 2 History 2.1 French invasion 2.2 Settlement 2.2.1 Relationship to Mainland France and Muslim Algeria 2.2.2 As part of the total Algerian population 2.2.3 The Jewish community 2.3 The Algerian War and Exodus 2.3.1 The Algerian War 2.3.2 Exodus 2.3.3 Return to Mainland France 3 References in popular culture 4 Notable members of the community 5 See also 6 Further reading 7 Footnotes

[edit] Origin of the term

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The origin of the term Pied-Noir is difficult to determine. There are two proposed explanations for the expression's development: first, it has been suggested that colons (French: colonists) could be distinguished from the indigenous population by their black boots (as the French soldiers in Africa wore black boots);^[9] second, it was asserted in the magazine Pieds Noirs d'Hier et d'Aujourd'hui that the phrase derived from pieds-noirs sailors assigned to the coal rooms because of their experience with a warm climate. Supposedly, this caused their feet to become black.^[9]

Criticism about these two explanations:

1. If the first were right, indigenous population would have used the term continually since the origins to 1962. But they've still have named Europeans "Roumis", making reference to Romans, who occuppied North Africa during centuries.

2. Another clue is the term metropolitan French people, especially in the Army, used to name Algerian Europeans to laugh at them: "Arbicot", when they name Muslims "Bicots".

3. The story of sailors have something true but only a couple of historiography papers may be taken into account: since most sailors working in the coal roams of ships sailing between Algeria and France were natives of Algeria, one has found in old logbooks it was question of "these black feet who soil the deck..."

4. The story of "colonists" who were supposed to wear polished shoes is amazing. Most, most people who settled in Algeria first were not colonists: a colonist is somebody who owns a property and exploit it. In 1956, the famous sociologist (left wing and former Resistance soldier) Germaine Tillon made a precise study of Algeria population: only 2% of Europeans were "colonists", much less than in metropolitan France. Most settlers were very poor people who came in Algeria as they could have gone to the USA as well. Therefore they were far to wear polished shoes...

5. In fact the only serious thesis comes from the news magazine "L'EXPRESS", very involved in favor of the independence. An article written in the mid fifties described sarcastically Europeans of Algeria as lazy rich people who were exploiting muslim natives ; and the author compared them with the Black Feet American Natives, supposed (according to famous cartoon author Hergé in his album Tintin in America) to take benefit lazily of oil laying under their lands, playing cards and drinking...

The term Pied-Noir was therefore imagined by some metropolitan French intellectuals to laugh at French of Algeria. Quick to retort, the Algiers Students Union took the term as a challenge. But nobody among the population used the term which was discovered once back to metropole in 1962. Europeans of Algeria named themselves Algerians like an American born in Texas would say Texan or they more simply used the City from which they were native: Algerois for Algiers, Oranais for Oran, Constantinois for Constantine ; like an American born in New York would say a NewYorker

It was and still is a very pejorative term as Neger for instance to name African Americans.

At independence, European Algerians described themselves as Algerians in relation to metropolitan French, and as Europeans vis-à-vis the indigenous Arab and Berber population. During the 1920s and 1930s, the term Algerian came to be monopolised by indigenous Arab-Algerians as Algerian nationalism became a significant political force.

[edit] History

[edit] French invasion

Main articles: French Algeria and History of Algeria

European settlers began arriving significantly to the Barbary Coast in the 1830s when France invaded Algeria, wresting the region from nominal Ottoman control.^[10] There are numerous reasons behind the precipitation of French military activity. First, military action would be an excellent source of employment for veterans of the French Napoleonic Wars;^[4] and second, Prochaska asserts that the war masked internal discontent in France.^[11] Finally, Prochaska also contends that the Algerian Dey had been owed substantial sums of money, mostly for grain, by Napoleon's regime following the Italian Campaign of 1796.^[11][10][4] The French invasion itself was purportedly instigated by an event in which the French consul was struck in the face with a fly-swatter by the Dey of Algiers, an appointed provincial ruler of the Ottoman Empire from 1671 onwards.^[4][10]

In response, military action began three years later. The government of Charles X (1824-1830), the last Bourbon king of France, chose to blockade Algeria and placed Admiral Duperré at the command of a six hundred ship armada which sailed to Algiers. Following the failure of the blockade, the French then sent a land expedition into the country.^[10][12] Using Napoleon's 1808 plan for invading Algeria, General de Bourmont landed with a complement of 34,000 soldiers on June 18, 1830 at Sidi Ferruch, 27 kilometres (17 mi) west of Algiers. Following a roughly three-week campaign of fighting, the Dey Hussein capitulated on July 5, 1830 ^[4] and was exiled aboard a French ship heading for the Italian peninsula. Thus, after 313 years, the Ottomans abandoned administration of Algeria. The French then proceeded to expropriate Turkish property and organize the occupation of Algeria.^[13]

The French presence in the early 1830s extended only to Algiers, Bougie, and Bonemet.^[4][10] The French subsequently entered the Oran region and began to face significant resistance from Emir Abd al-Kader (alternatively referred to as: Abdelkader or Abd el-Kader),^[4] a Moroccan and leader of the Sufi Brotherhood, who attempted to create a state based on "egalitarian Islamic principles".^[14] In 1839, Abd al-Kader declared jihad against the French and thus began a period of war which lasted seven years.^[14] The French Army signed two peace treaties with Abd al-Kader, one asserting French authority and the second establishing three French communes along a fourth, independent region which al-Kader controlled. However, these treaties were broken due to miscommunication between the French in the field and the government in Paris. In response to the breaking of the second treaty, Abd al-Kader went on the offensive and drove the French to the Algerian coast. In reply, General Thomas-Robert Bugeaud led a successful French force numbering nearly 100,000 troops (a third of the total French force) to Algeria. Bugeaud's campaign was devastating to the North Africans and the Algerian countryside. Although various pockets of the country remained insurgent, opposition effectively ended in 1847 with the surrender of Abd al-Kader.^[4]

In 1848, following efforts by the Algerian settlers, the French government decreed that Algeria would be considered a département of France, roughly analogous to a "county" in English.^[4] Hence, Algeria was recognized as an integral part of the French state, with a status similar to other French departments such as Côte-d'Or, Paris, or Bouches-du-Rhône. Three départements named Alger, Oran, and Constantine were created.^[12]

[edit] Settlement

Initially, the French modeled their colonial system on that of their predecessors, the Ottomans.^[4] This meant co-opting local tribes via a series of agreements. In 1843, the French began supervising the province directly by setting up the Bureaux Arabes (Arab Bureaus).^[13] Originally, the Arab Bureaus were operated by military officials without financial interest in the region. Thus, due to their lack of monetary investment, the officers often sided with the locals in disputes.^[4]

This system lasted until the 1880s with the fall of Napoleon III and the rise of the French Third Republic, when efforts to colonize and "confiscate" lands intensified.^[4] The large-scale expropriation of Algerian land started with the creation of land speculation companies which took advantage of French colonial policy requiring indigenous tribal groups to abandon their properties. These large areas now available were taken by settlers. By the beginning of the twentieth century the Europeans held "1,700,000 hectares and by 1940,  2,700,000 hectares, about 35 to 40% of the arable land of Algeria."^[13]

The settlers were actively encouraged to emigrate to Algeria (in an attempt to "assimilate Algeria into France") via a number of efforts.^[4] Some of these French initiatives, such as the earmarking of 50 million francs for the relocation of unemployed Parisians to Algeria, were generated by a desire to alleviate poverty in France.^[15] Settlers came from all over the western Mediterranean region, particularly coastal and island regions in the present-day countries of Italy, France, Spain, and Malta.^[16]

[edit] Relationship to Mainland France and Muslim Algeria

The Pied-Noir relationship to France and Algeria was marked by a number of factors. First, the settlers of European descent considered themselves French and were considered integrally French, characterized by Premier Pierre Mendès-France's quote in A History of the World from the 20th to the 21st Century: "France without Algeria would be no France."^[17]. Hence, many of the European descendants viewed themselves as "French in Algeria" and thus did not see themselves as colonists, but rather as French in the same sense as a Parisian living in Paris.^[17]

Additionally, many of the Pieds-Noirs arrived from a range of European nations. Hence, settlers' ancestry was not exclusively French and many did not have a connection to mainland France. Further, these settlers encompassed a wide range of socioeconomic strata, including fishermen, peasants, as well as higher classes of large landowners.^[17] In this characteristic, they were divided between the larger landholders grands colons (great colonists) who had amassed large estates, mostly through wine making, citrus, olives, and vegetables growing; and petits blancs (small whites) who were small farmers and members of the urban working class. Moreover, although the Pieds-Noirs considered themselves to be French, the actual physical connection with metropolitan France was tenuous. To demonstrate, in the book "Population Resettlement in International Conflicts: A Comparative Study" authors Arie Marcelo Kacowicz and Pawel Lutomski examine the repatriates following Algerian independence and note:

Of the 900,000 European “repatriates” from Algeria arriving in France in the spring and early summer of 1962 only 9 percent had visited the metropole often before the evacuation from Algeria. Eighteen percent had only visited “mainland France” once in their life. Forty-five percent had visited France “only a few times.” Indeed a full 28 percent had never before been to the metropole.

– Arie Marcelo Kacowicz and Pawel Lutomski, Population Resettlement in International Conflicts: A Comparative Study^[18]

On the Algerian side, the relationship between those of European descent and Muslim Algerians was marked by Pied-Noir hegemony.^[19] The Muslims were not considered French citizens and did not share the same circumstances politically or economically.^[17] Economically, for example, the indigenous population did not own most of the settlements, farms or businesses, although they numbered nearly 9 million (versus roughly one million Pieds-Noirs) at independence. Politically, the Muslim Algerians had no representation in the Algerian National Assembly and limited influence in local governance.^[20] Further, they were required to renounce their Muslim identity in order to obtain citizenship until the mid-twentieth century .^[21] Moreover, education was only available to them at the primary level.^[4] Hence, the settlers established near total dominance politically, economically, and in education; and the relationship between the Pieds-Noirs and the Algerians was tense.

[edit] As part of the total Algerian population

From roughly the last half of the 19th century until independence, the Pieds-Noirs accounted for about 10% of the total population. Although they constituted a minority, they were undoubtedly the political and economic force of the region.^[4] Additionally, some areas had higher concentrations of Europeans. The département of Oran, a rich European-developed agricultural land of 16,520 km² (6,378.4 sq mi) stretching between the cities of Oran and Sidi-Bel-Abbès, and including them, was the largest area of Pied-Noir density outside of cities, with the Pieds-Noirs accounting for 33.6% of the population of that département in 1959.^[4]

The general Algerian Population vs. the Pieds-Noirs population ^[22][23][14]

Year	Algerian Population	Pied-Noir population
1830	1,500,000	14,000 (in 1836)
1851	2,554,100	100,000 (in 1847)
1960	10,853,000	1,111,000 (in 1959)

[edit] The Jewish community

Main article: History of the Jews in Algeria

Upon French arrival, Jews and specifically Sephardi Jews had been present along the Northern Coast of Africa for thousands of years. The community had grown progressively. First, many had been present since the time when "Phoenicians and Hebrew, engaged in maritime commerce, founded Annaba, Tipasa, Caesarea, and Algiers."^[24] Many others arrived following the Reconquista in Spain and more came from Palestine running from the Egyptians^[clarify] and Titus in the fall out of the First Jewish-Roman War (years 66-73 CE), which significantly contributed to the Jewish diaspora, as many Jews were sold into slavery or fled to areas in the Mediterranean. When the French invasion began, the number of Jews in Algeria was estimated to be 25,000.^[4]

The Algerian Jewish community became associated with the European-Algerians fairly quickly and in 1870 Adolphe Crémieux, the Justice Minister at the time, wrote a proposal allowing the French naturalization of Algerian Jews. This work was titled the décret Crémieux (French: The Crémieux decree) and granted French citizenship to the community. This had the effect of bringing the once mostly poor community into a more professional role. It was in this fashion in which the Jews of Algeria came to be, according to some sources, part of the Pied-Noir community.^[4]

However, this advancement for the Jewish community was not without resistance from part of the Pieds-Noirs community of European descent: in 1897, a wave of anti-semitic riots rolled through Algeria.^[24] Additionally, during World War Two the The Crémieux decree was abolished under the Vichy Regime and Jews were barred from professional jobs. Their citizenship was restored in 1943 and many fled the country in 1962 with the rest of the Pieds-Noirs community following the Algerian War.^[25]

[edit] The Algerian War and Exodus

[edit] The Algerian War

Main articles: Algerian War and Evian Agreements

For over a century France maintained colonial rule in Algerian territory. Predominance began to end following the growth of Algerian nationalism, particularly following the Second World War. Many Algerians had fought and died for France and de Gaulle suggested that the French were indebted to the Muslim Algerians following the war. Algerian nationalists agreed with de Gaulle's assessment and began increased efforts aimed at furthering equality. For example, the Algerians enumerated complaints in the Manifesto of the Algerian People, which requested equal representation under the state and access to citizenship. The French response was to grant citizenship to only a number of worthwhile or "meritorious" Algerians (who numbered about 60,000 out of 9,000,000).^[26] Further, in 1947, in a reform effort, the French modelled a bicameral legislature with one house for the Pieds-Noirs and the other for the Algerians. However, the European's vote was seven times more valuable than the Algerian.^[21] In response, more paramilitary independence groups such as the Front de Libération nationale (FLN) appeared. These concerns led to a war for independence which was waged in Algeria from 1954 until 1962 and is called the Algerian War. This conflict led to the relocation of about 900,000 Europeans and Jews.

At the onset of the war, the Pieds-Noirs believed that the French military would be able to overcome opposition by the FLN. However, in May 1958 the situation intensified following the seizure of power in Algiers by General Massu who, as head of a military junta, demanded that Charles de Gaulle be named President in order to prevent the "abandonment of Algeria", eventually leading to the fall of the French Fourth Republic.^[17] In response, the French Parliament voted 329-224 to place de Gaulle back into power.^[17]

Once de Gaulle assumed leadership of France, he made attempts to resolve the Algerian crisis by visiting Algeria within three days of his appointment. To the crowds of Algerian and Pieds-Noirs he remarked "I have understood you."^[17] De Gaulle organized a referendum which introduced the proposal for Algerian self-determination. The referendum passed overwhelmingly. In response to what they felt was betrayal, numerous Pieds-Noirs formed what was called the Organisation de l'armée secrète (OAS) and began attacking metropolitan France, the Algerians, and de Gaulle himself (assassination attempt while riding in his chauffered-car at Petit-Clamart, near Paris, on 22 August 1962).^[17] The OAS was accused of particularly violent actions, including random murders and bombings which effectively nullified opportunities for reconciliation between the Algerian and European communities.^[27]

The bloodshed culminated in an attempted coup by retired generals (see Algiers Putsch of 1961). Following the generals arrest, on March 18, 1962 de Gaulle and the FLN signed the Évian accords which called for a cease fire. A few months later, in July, the Algerians voted in referendum 5,975,581 to 16,534 to become independent of France.^[21] Considering that many settlers had witnessed various massacres, that torture was reported, and that the chance for reconciliation seemed slim, the Pieds-Noirs' confidence collapsed.^[18] In total, French casualties are estimated near 24,000, while Algerian deaths, still disputed, are listed between 200,000 and 1,000,000.^[5]

[edit] Exodus

The exodus to mainland France began once the Pieds-Noirs became convinced that the country would become independent and accelerated after the 5th of July 1962 massacre, in which hundreds of militants entered European sections of Oran, and began randomly attacking civilians, causing up to 3,500 casualties or disappearances.^[28] In Algiers, it was reported that by May 1961 the Pieds-Noirs' morale had sunk due to violence and allegations that the entire European community had been responsible for "terrorism, torture, colonial racism, and ongoing violence in general" and that the group felt "rejected by the nation as Pieds-Noirs."^[28] It was this, combined with the Oran Massacre and the knowledge that the referendum was for an independent Algeria, which caused the Pied-Noir exodus to begin in earnest.^[8][28][5]

The number of pied-noirs that fled Algeria totaled more than one million between 1962 and 1964.^[29] Due to the need for expediency, many of the Pieds-Noirs left with only the material which they were able to carry in a suitcase.^[30][5] Adding to the confusion, the French Navy was forbidden by the de Gaulle government from assisting in the transportation of French citizens.^[18] By September 1962, cities like Oran, Bône, or Sidi-Bel-Abbès were left half empty. All administration, police, schools, justice, commercial activities stopped in a matter of three months after many were famously told to choose either: "la valise ou le cercueil" ("The suitcase or the coffin").^[31] Only 100,000 Pieds-Noirs chose to remain, but they gradually left through the following decade, until in the 1980s there remained only a few thousand Pieds-Noirs in Algeria.^[17]

The French government claimed to have not anticipated that such a massive number would leave; it said it believed that perhaps 300,000 might choose to temporarily go to France and even amongst those that a large proportion would return after a period.^[28] The French government had earmarked about two billion dollars (or roughly $1600 per Pied-Noir) for the absorption of the "repatriates". This fund was intended to assist in the relocation of the Pieds-Noirs as well as partially reimburse them for property loss, valued roughly at twenty billion dollars.^[18] The Pieds-Noirs' arrival was hampered further by the government following a policy of not acknowledging the true numbers of refugees in order to avoid upsetting its Algeria policies heavily influenced by French interest in large oil and gas deposits which had been discovered in the Algerian Sahara.^[18] Consequently, little was planned for their return, and, psychologically at least, many of the Pieds-Noirs were alienated from both Algeria and France.^[8][5][4]

[edit] Return to Mainland France

Many Pieds-Noirs settled in cities and suburbs throughout France, while others migrated to New Caledonia^[32], Spain, Australia, and North and South America^[33]. Of those who moved to New Caledonia, some became prominent in anti-independence political movements there, including including Pierre Maresca, a leader of the conservative RPCR party in that territory^[34]. Some Algerian Jews left for Israel, where they were granted instant citizenship as olim.

Of those remaining in France, many relocated to the South, particularly the Provence-Côte-d’Azur region, which offered a geographic territory and climate similar to North Africa.^[35] The influx of new citizens had two notable effects upon the present population. First, Pieds-Noirs brought with them government funds earmarked for their assistance, bolstering local economies. Second, the migration increased job competition in markets where they arrived, adding to the tense relations with new arrivals. For these reasons, Kacowicz and Smith assert that the Pied-Noir experience helped bolster an anti-North African sentiment.^[18][5]

In some ways, the Pieds-Noirs were able to integrate well into the French community, at least relative to their Maghrebin and Muslim counterparts.^[36] Their resettlement was made easier due to the economic boom France experienced in the 1960s. However, the ease of assimilation depended on the individual's socioeconomic class. Integration was easier for the upper classes, many of whom found the transformation less stressful than the lower classes who were often shocked by the change in lifestyle. Specifically, they were not prepared for the diminution of their situation. In Algeria, the Pieds-Noirs had a higher status than an indigenous group. Thus, many were surprised upon their arrival in mainland France that they no longer had such a status, in fact, they were often treated as an "underclass or outsider-group" upon arrival.^[18][5]

To assist the Pieds-Noirs, the French government assigned reimbursement for lost property. However, this money was not immediately allocated. The community lobbied the government intensively and was able to have funds distributed over a period of fifteen years.^[18] However, many repatriates felt the French government's efforts were not sufficient to match their suffering and loss of property.^[5][18]

Thus, the repatriated Pieds-Noirs frequently felt "disaffected" from the overall French society.^[37] They also suffered from a sense of alienation, stemming from change in the French government's position towards Algeria. Until independence, Algeria was legally a part of France. After the war, this changed and left many Pieds-Noirs disillusioned and with an image that they were an "embarrassment" to their country or to blame for the war, loss of life, and relatives.^[38][5] At times, the repatriates were stigmatized by the general French citizenry, who assumed that they had all been wealthy grands colons and were to blame for the deleterious effects colonialism had on the country. This effect was compounded because the Pieds-Noirs felt unable to return to their native birthplace, Algeria, following the violence of the independence movement.^[39][5][8]

[edit] References in popular culture

Literary and cinematic references to the Pieds-Noirs and especially the pain following the exodus are many. Much work focuses on the ideal of a lost land for the Pieds-Noirs since they left the land of their birth. Examples include writer Jean Pélégri who takes the reader through his childhood homeland, a place in which he found "inspiration." In other authors' works the theme of suffering caused by anguish is frequently referenced.^[40]

One of the most noted and widely known depictions of the Pied-Noir community is through the eyes of Meursault, the protagonist in Albert Camus' novel L'étranger ("The Outsider" or "The Stranger"). Meursault leads a life as an office clerk in Algiers, and the novel itself is a widely recognized achievement of the Absurdist movement in literature.^[41][8]

Also, the Pieds-Noirs were featured in the 1966 film The Battle of Algiers which depicts the fight for Algerian independence from France, as the two sides participate in acts of increasing violence which ultimately lead to the introduction of French paratroopers in the city. The film is notable for its exhibition of both sides of the conflict committing brutalities, for example, the Pieds-Noirs engage in lynch mobs against the Muslim community and the indigenous Algerians are depicted performing various acts of terrorism. Variously, the film also contains representation of torture and assassination.

[edit] Notable members of the community

• Louis Althusser, philosopher
• Alexandre Arcady, film director, father of Alexandre Jouan-Arcady, film director
• Jacques Attali, economist, writer
• Jean-Pierre Bacri, actor and screenwriter
• Jean-Claude Brialy, Nouvelle Vague actor
• Albert Camus, author, Literature Nobel Prize in 1957
• Robert Castel, actor
• Marcel Cerdan, boxer, middle weight world champion
• Alain Chabat, actor, film director
• Étienne Daho, singer
• Jacques Derrida, philosopher
• Liane Foly, singer
• Annie Fratellini, circus clown
• Nicole Garcia, actress and film director
• Tony Gatlif, filmmaker
• Marlène Jobert, actress and author
• Edmond Jouhaud, highly-decorated general who broke with president Charles de Gaulle on Algerian policy
• Alphonse Juin, Marshal of France, chief of French Army in Italy (1943-44)
• Jean-François Larios, footballer
• Enrico Macias, singer
• Jean Pélégri, author
• Emmanuel Roblès, author
• Yves Saint-Laurent, couturier

[edit] See also

• [Algeria Truth] [1]

Torture during the Algerian War

• Battle of Algiers
• 1961 Alger putsch
• Nationalism and resistance in Algeria
• Oran massacre of 1962
• History of Algeria since 1962
• Harki

[edit] Further reading

[edit] Footnotes