Fascinating and very sad subject:
Thursday, October 20, 7:00 p.m.: (La Maison française, 16 Washington Mews)
Sponsored by la Maison française and the Institute of French Studies of New York University
Vincent CRAPANZANO – The Harkis: The Wound That Never Heals (in English)
Abstract: A quarter of a million Algerians, mostly illiterate peasants, fought on the side of France during Algeria's war of independence, less for political reasons than to survive in a war-torn country. Despite warnings of an imminent bloodbath by the officers under whom the Harkis, served, the Gaulist government refused them entry into France. Tens of thousand were massacred by other Algerians in the months following independence. Finally the French government relinquished. Survivors were brought to France where they were placed in camps, some for as long as sixteen years. Condemned as traitors by Algeria, branded "collabos" by Algerian immigrant workers, and scorned by the French, the Harkis became a population apart, lost for the most part in themselves Their children bear the wounds of their fathers...
Vincent CRAPANZANO is a professor of Anthropology and Comparative Literature (CUNY Graduate Center). He is the author ofImaginative Horizons (2004), and The Harkis (Univ. of Chicago Press, 2011).