Dealing with a Nuclear Past: Revisiting the Cases of Algeria and Kazakhstan through a Decolonial Lens

ABSTRACT

Over 2000 nuclear weapons explosions were conducted worldwide between 1945 and 1996. Most of these high-yield explosions took place at nuclear test sites in the Global South: among them, the Algerian Sahara and the Kazakh steppe, where their respective colonising powers (at the time) France and the Soviet Union tested their nuclear arsenal. Contemporary Algeria and Kazakhstan still bear the egregious impact of these nuclear tests. The perceptions and demands of the local population, including victims and survivors of the testing, related to addressing the nuclear past have not been comprehensively investigated. Little is known about the local-regional resistance to these tests, aside from the Sahara Protest Team in 1959 and the anti-nuclear Nevada-Semipalatinsk movement in 1989. Our aim is to develop this line of research by considering the links between anti-nuclear movements and colonialism in Algeria and Kazakhstan. By revisiting these cases using a decolonial lens, we develop a more comprehensive understanding of resistance to nuclear testing in the Global South.

KEYWORDS:

• nuclear testing
• nuclear (de)colonialism
• Global South
• nuclear imperialism
• anti-nuclear movements
• nuclear resistance

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Austin R. Cooper for his help and for providing access to his PhD dissertation titled “Saharan Fallout: French Explosions in Algeria and the Politics of Nuclear Risk during African Decolonization (1960–66)”, University of Pennsylvania, which is not yet publicly available. The authors are also grateful to the editors and reviewers who took the time to engage with this article. Their constructive feedback is appreciated.

Notes

1 In the context of this article and for the purpose of discussing nuclear decolonisation, we define the Global South as any colonised peoples subject to the power/authority of some distant metropole.

2 Kazakhstan is a co-chair of an informal working group on victim assistance, environmental remediation, international cooperation and assistance; for more details, see: https://www.icanw.org/tpnw_intersessional_work_article_6_7_victim_assistance_environmental_remediation_international_cooperation.

3 Here, the terms "colonial" and "imperial" are used together to encompass the complex dynamics of nuclear testing and its impact on anti-nuclear movements in the Global South. While they are distinct notions, their conflation is justified by the intertwined historical realities of colonial legacies and imperial ambitions in the context of nuclear testing. The forthcoming analysis will further explore and clarify the specific connections and nuances between the two concepts.

4 A good account of this research can be found in the papers published in the 2018 special issue of the Asian Journal of Political Science, which tackled the decolonising practices in arms control and disarmament (Mathur 2018) and in the documented presentations of the 2019 Workshop ‘Decolonising the Nuclear’. http://m-a-r-s.online/sessions/decolonising-the-nuclear-public-lecture-and-research-workshop.

5 Suleymenov travelled to the Nevada test site area in the US and met with the Western Shoshone people.

6 The Suez Crisis (October-November 1956) proved to be a signal lesson for the French not to rely on their allies, thus in effect determining France’s ‘independent’ course on nuclear matters.

7 See the testimonies of Sanaafi Mohamme (1936) and Chai Kouider (1926) and others documented in publications of the Algerian National Center for Studies and Research in the National Movement and the Revolution (CNERMNR 2000): https://www.cnerh-nov54.dz/.

8 See also a documented interview of a former German legionnaire who recounted the story of the prisoners in Karl Gass’ film Allons enfants de l’Algérie [Onwards, Children of Algeria] (1961) and also included in Azzedine Meddour’s archival film Combien je vousaime [How Much I Love You] (1985).

9 Morocco's delegation drafted UN resolution A/RES/1379(XIV) and garnered support for it from newly independent African and Asian states. The resolution, prompted by the Moroccan government's opposition to the French nuclear testing programme in Algeria, led to discussions in the UN's First Committee on Disarmament and International Security and ultimately resulted in a General Assembly resolution urging France to refrain from nuclear tests.

10 For a detailed account of the team’s journey, see Bill Sutherland’s memoires (Sutherland and Meyer 2000).

11 The Accords were a key stage in the path to achieving Algeria’s independence in 1962, agreed between the French government and the Algerian Front de Libération Nationale's (FLN) after a long and difficult negotiation process. While the accords focused primarily on the political and territorial aspects of the Algerian conflict, specific provisions regarding nuclear testing were not explicitly mentioned. The Accords granted France a five-year lease to maintain military and nuclear testing bases in the Sahara region. However, the lack of explicit reference to nuclear testing in the Accords left room for interpretation and subsequent challenges by Algerian leaders. For more information, see https://www.encyclopedia.com/humanities/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/evian-accords-1962.

12 For more details on the French attempt to separate the Sahara from the rest of Algeria see Henni (2021).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Leila Hennaoui

Leila Hennaoui is an Associate Professor in International Law at Hassiba Ben Bouali University, Chlef, Algeria. Email: [email protected]; [email protected]

Marzhan Nurzhan

Marzhan Nurzhan is currently a PhD Candidate at the Graduate School of Social Sciences at the University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland.