‘Combattons pour rester «Algériens … algériens»’: National Identity and Difference in the Nationalist Discourse of the Étoile Nord-africaine (ENA) and the Parti du Peuple Algérien (PPA) in Inter-war France

Abstract

If the Algerian war of independence (1954–1962) is perceived by many observers as one of the bloodiest anti-colonial struggles of the twentieth century, the last decade has been marked by the deepening crisis which has dragged Algeria into a violent civil war (‘la deuxième guerre d'Algérie’) and by a sense that the Algerian nation is still in a process of formation. This article aims to go back to the origin of modern Algerian nationalism and explore some of the ways in which Algerian national identity was constructed in the discourse of Algerian nationalists in the inter-war period in France. It highlights three key processes which shaped Algerian ethno-national identity: firstly, an emphasis on difference and on the irreconcilability of North African Muslims' identity with Frenchness (and therefore a rejection of France's assimilationist claims); secondly, strong references to French democratic and revolutionary principles, and to Islam as underpinning the Algerian nationalist project; and finally the essentialising of North Africans' ethnicity and an emphasis on Algerian Muslims' Arabness.