Harki Autobiographies or Collecto-biographies? Mothers Speak through their Daughters

Abstract

Several recent important events in the history of the Algerian war and Franco-Algerian relations have prompted the publication of autobiographies written by women of the second generation of Harkis (Fatima Bescani-Lancou, Hadjila Kemoun, Dalila Kerchouche, and Zahia Rahmani). The military role of their fathers as auxiliary soldiers in the French army during the Algerian War of Independence has meant that this postcolonial population has previously only been examined from a male viewpoint, both in the French media and in academia. However, this article proposes to investigate issues of gender in these generally little-studied works, both in terms of their authorship and their subject matter. It will first examine the multiple origins of this forty-year silence in both generations of Harki women, addressing such issues as colonial violence, the stereotyping of Maghrebi women, and French postcolonial visions of migrant populations. How have the daughters of Harkis sought through their writing to shatter this silence and give a voice to their mothers? How have they extended the traditional ego-centric form of the autobiography to write collecto-biographies, which also focus on the lives of their family? Equally, to what extent have these authors used the stylistic tools of female Maghrebi culture, especially the sacred and secular oral traditions, in their work? Finally it will reflect on the echoes of these new voices in the contemporary Harki political movement.