Boualem Sansal gave a radio interview to France Culture on 21 of
June (2012) HERE, in part to talk about the kerfuffle of visiting Israel and the hypocritical
Gulf states’ attempt to block his winning the Prize for the Arab Novel as a punishment for that visit.
Anyways, in the last part of the interview Sansal speaks of
the upcoming celebrations on 5th July in Algeria, organised for the 50th
anniversary of the country’s independence.
His comments are quite insightful.
Sansal says:
“We are now in 2012 and the question must be put: will the
conditions imposed for security reasons enable a popular celebration or will we
remain stuck to the old format of a State celebration.
“Up until the 90s, when the 5th of July was
celebrated it was an official celebration, a little like the 14th of
July if you like, on the Champs Elysees, that’s how it was… People participated
sure, some voluntarily but others… well they were kind of forced to…
“We had begun to be fed up with this soviet-type scenario,
we wanted a popular celebration when in fact it was a military parade.
“So what will the Pouvoir organise today? We do not know.
“I think that they feel the 50th could give rise
to debates that they will not be able to control.
“Because the debates that did not take place in 1962 could happen
this 5th of July. What did we fight for? For a military
regime ? For independence and if so what independence ? For freedom ?
If so what freedom ? Islamic freedom ? Freedom in the universal sense
of the term ? For equality ? Why did we fight?
“These questions should have been treated in the first
months after independence and should have led to a real constitutional draft
and to real elections that never happened.
“We will have to ask them one day, during the 50th,
the 60th, the 70th, or the centenary but we will have to ask
them.”
(the original in French is below)
What Sansal highlights is that a national debate on the independence never occurred. That’s a well-known fact of course, and does not mean
that this debate hasn’t occurred among individuals in some degree. But on the national level a steel thumb has
been keeping the very formulation of these questions tightly regulated.
What I find most relevant - in this beyond-credible,
ridiculous situation that no programme for the celebrations is known to this
day when there remains only two weeks to go – is the Pouvoir’s attempt to control
the question mark. Yes, the question
mark.
The Pouvoir, by controlling the question mark, controls the punctuation
of Algerian’s and Algeria’s historical and modern narrative.
--------
French :
« Nous sommes
en 2012 la question se pose:
« Est-ce que
les conditions sécuritaires permettent une célébration populaire ou est-ce qu’on
va rester dans l’ancien schéma et une célébration d’état…
« Jusque dans
les années 90s, le 5 juillet était célébré, c’était une célébration officielle
un peu comme le 14 juillet là, les champs-Elysées, voilà c’était ça,
« Le peuple
y participait oui … certains volontairement d’autres … on leur forçait un peu la main aussi.
« On commençait
à en avoir marre de ce cinéma à la soviétique, on voulait une fête populaire et
en fait c’était un défilé militaire.
« Que peut
faire le pouvoir aujourd’hui, on ne le sait pas.
« Je crois
qu’ils sentent que le 50eme anniversaire pourrait ouvrir sur des débats qu’ils
ne pourraient pas contrôler. Parce que les
débats que nous n’avons pas eus en 1962 pourraient se faire ce 5 juillet. Nous nous sommes battus pour quoi ? Pour
un régime militaire, pour l’indépendance ? Quelle indépendance ? Pour
la liberté ? Quelle liberté ?
« La liberté
islamiste ? La liberté au sens universel du mot ? Pour l’Egalité ?
Pourquoi on s’est battu ?
« Ces questions
qui auraient du être traitées les premiers mois après l’indépendance et
conduire à une véritable constituante et de vraies élections et qui n’ont
jamais eues lieu,
« Il faudra
bien les faire un jour, au 50eme, au 60eme, au 70eme, au 100eme ? mais il
faudra le faire… »
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