http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9654-7435
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Abstract
Using, as a point of reference, Albert Memmi’s well-known description of the colonial situation as envisaged in 1957, I address the postcolonial treatment of Albert Camus. While criticisms of his writings on Algeria have been frequent, my argument is that an overly politicized reading of his work, especially his Algerian Chronicles, leaves aside, avoids, or misinterprets important and still-relevant ethical messages concerning violence, terrorism, and repression. In my rereading of Camus’s truce appeals, I propose seeing Camus outside the colonizer–colonized dichotomy, as a person, above all, engaged in seeking the possibility of dialogue among the French, Arabs, and Berbers. While Camus’s political vision, as has already been demonstrated, lacks sympathy for the insurgents’ will for total independence from France, it contains a serious proposition to apply moral limits to the means of the struggle, consistent with Camus’s philosophical deliberations from The Rebel.
ORCID
Maciej Kałuża http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9654-7435
Notes
1 Carroll (Citation2007, 146) similarly remarks that Camus never considered direct negotiations with the FLN. However, it would be more precise to say that he did not mention them by name in his 1955 editorials, stating instead that all sides should meet to talk (OCIV Citation2008, 358). I believe Camus would have considered negotiations with the FLN on the grounds of their stopping terrorist actions. In 1958 he said negotiations with the FLN would result in “independence for Algeria under the rule of the most uncompromising leaders of the armed insurrection, and therefore the expulsion of 1.2 million Europeans from Algeria” (OCIV Citation2008, 304).
2 A position challenged by Baishanski (Citation2002). Camus’s fairly good knowledge of Muslim and Arab political factions described in Combat after the 1945 Sétif and Guelma massacre, or his numerous contacts with Algerian writers of Arabic origin, may be considered quite a challenge for such an argument.
3 For a balanced and penetrating criticism of Camus’s position on Algeria, see Carroll (Citation2007, 146–8) and Guérin (Citation2013, 271–7).
4 In 1958 Malraux made a statement very much in agreement with Camus’s observations: “The terrorism provokes repression, but the repression organizes terrorism” (Malraux and Camus Citation2016, 112).
5 Lazreg (Citation2008) researched the role of religious institutions in the Algerian conflict. She concluded that the role of the Vatican during the conflict was rather ambivalent and the engagement of Church officials in Algeria was diverse. On the other hand, Catholic intellectuals like André Mandouze and Louis Massignon made peace appeals similar to Camus’s during the conflict, having experienced similar disregard (209). I wish to thank David Carroll for his valuable observations and insights on this issue.
6 O’Brien (Citation1970, 12) points out, however, that Camus’s vision implies the domination of European culture. For a detailed evaluation of Camus’s vision of Mediterranean culture, see also Foxlee’s excellent coverage (Citation2010, 57–62).
7 Camus (OCIII Citation2006, 219) compares the Nazi extermination of Lidice to violent, colonial reactions towards the Indian Rebellion of 1857 and Sétif and Guelma in Algeria in 1945.
8 See Feraun (Citation1969); Carroll (Citation2007, 215–6).
9 Shortly after the war, Camus said, “It is better to be wrong by killing no one than to be right with mass graves” (Todd Citation1998, 427).
10 Long after the conflict, Sartre maintained such a position:
La révolution implique la violence et l’existence d’un parti plus radical qui s’impose au détriment d’autres groupes plus conciliants. Conçoit-on l’indépendance de l’Algérie sans l’élimination du MNA par le FLN? Et comment reprocher sa violence au FLN quotidiennement confronté pendant des années à la répression de l’armée française, à ses tortures et à ses massacres? Il est inévitable que le parti révolutionnaire en vienne à frapper également certains de ses membres. Je crois qu’il y a là une nécessité historique à laquelle nous ne pouvons rien. (interview with Sartre, Actuel 28, February 1973)
11 Haddour (Citation2000, 96–7) criticizes Camus for considering famine a natural disaster, concealing the role of colonialism in the tragedy. However, Camus’s reports contain many statements that can be read as implicit criticisms of French colonial policies and condemnations of their inefficacy (OCIV Citation2008, 308, 310–11, 312, 313, 318–19, 322–3, 334–5).
12 By contrast, in his memoirs, Daniel remarked that Camus’s political predictions as to the final, violent and bloody outcome of French colonialism in Algeria turned out to be right (Daniel Citation1973, 76–8).
13 Tillion (Citation1957) made comparable claims, stating that colons and natives have similar, brother-like character traits (17).
14 This commonly overlooked fundamental for solidarity is discussed in detail by Carroll (Citation2007, 148–51).
15 Mammeri reinterpreted and replied to Camus’s idea, showing a difference in the feeling of anguish among the colonized people:
There are also hopes born every day, stubborn, tenacious hopes, monotonous and deaf, so rooted and so true that we accept dying for them, so that the hope of the dead of today becomes the reality of the living of tomorrow. (Citation1957, 34)
16 Curiously, these concerns were asymmetrical. Even though he had experienced French nationalism himself during the civilian truce meeting in 1956, the texts concerning Algeria rarely mention the fact that the French colons were also radicalizing throughout the conflict, leaving little hope as to their acceptance of moderate and reformist propositions.
17 It is a little known fact that the issue of the absence of Arabs and Berbers (e.g. in La Peste) was raised as early as 1951 by Feraun (Citation1969, 54). Camus replied:
Ne croyez pas que si je n’ai pas parlé des Arabes d’Oran c’est que je me sente séparé d’eux. C’est que pour les mettre en scène, il faut parler du problème qui empoisonne notre vie à tous, en Algérie; il aurait donc fallu écrire un autre livre que celui que je voulais faire. (Nacer-Khodja Citation2004, 116)
