A Remarkable Heritage: The ‘Daily Round’ of the Children of the Harkis, between Merger and Vilification

Abstract

Strictly speaking, the word ‘harkis’ originally denoted one of the categories of former Muslim auxiliaries in the French army who had served on a voluntary basis under the French flag during the War of Algerian Independence (1954–62). When Algeria achieved independence in 1962, those former auxiliaries of the French army who were able to escape the National Liberation Front's bloody reprisals (conservative estimates suggest some 65,000 perished) were forced to seek exile in mainland France. In spite of the restrictive measures enacted by the highest state authorities with a view to preventing the migration to France of people generally considered undesirable, and in spite of rudimentary reception arrangements, some 95,000 to 100,000 former auxiliaries and family members established themselves in France after choosing French nationality. But in a society increasingly restructured by strong migratory flows from the Maghreb (particularly from Algeria) and characterized by strong prejudice against Arabs (in part linked to the transfer of the memory of ‘French Algeria’), today in France the sons and daughters of the harkis find themselves in a situation where their identity is very insecure and one which forces them to cope with a burdensome legacy at both the socio-cultural and symbolic levels.