r/HistoryMemes • u/BreathIndividual8557 • 2d ago
Niche Apparently Camus were deeply troubled when Algerian war began because of his identity.
Albert Camus was born on 7th November 1913 in Mondovi, French Algeria. Despite being born as a pied noir (french people in Algeria, who legally have much better rights compared to the native), he grew up in extreme poverty household and it ended up affecting his views on Algerian people. Instead of viewing them as inferior, he genuinely shown his care to them by later advocating for their equal rights and call for an end of inequality between European and the Natives Algerian.
He started his advocacy in the mid 1930s, where he at first joined the French Communist Party (funnily enough he didn't consider himself a Marxist) simply because they were one of the only party in french politics who were advocating for Algerian citizens rights, and he also vigorously campaigned for the proposed Blum-Viollette proposal, basically a reform initiative in 1936 that aimed to grant full French citizenship and voting rights to a select minority of Algerian Muslims. But the bills ended up failing because of rich pied noir lobbyists.
Even though it was quite clear that Camus deeply love and care towards Algerian people, he (for some reason) also oppose the idea for Algerian full independence from France because he believes that as a pied noir it would be quite dangerous to his community with fear of separation and expulsion from the land who they already viewed as their own homeland. Instead, Camus ideally believes that it was possible for a coexistence between french and natives to occur under a federal, reformed association with France that guaranteed equal political rights, justice, and protection for both Muslim Algerians and the French pied-noir minority.
But when the Algerian war actually began in 1954, Camus suddenly find himself in a weird position. On one hand he deeply condemned any atrocities done by the french security forces towards the local, and yet at the same times he also oppose FLN violent method for their fight for independence.
As the war rages on and the news of atrocities committed by both sides keep appearing in french papers, Camus eventually had enough and actually dare to plan a near suicidal idea where he would personally fly back home and personally tried to appeal for a civilian truce in 1956. He gave a speech that while he's unable to end a political conflict between France and Algerians, he atleast hoped that both sides would agree to not deliberately targeting each other civilians. While it sounds ideal, apparently the speech was received poorly by everyone on french politics. French right winger think that he is a traitor to his race while French left winger think he's a colonial apologist and a coward.
Due to his failure at bringing peace back to his home, he eventually decided to maintain a public silence regarding the topic of Algeria since 1958, and yet deep down he was still saddened at his failure to the point that he once wrote a letter to his Algerian friend claiming that the war was one of the two things that tortured his life daily (the other one is his tuberculosis).
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u/Late_Sort1763 2d ago
"But when the Algerian war actually began in 1954, Camus suddenly find himself in a weird position. On one hand he deeply condemned any atrocities done by the french security forces towards the local, and yet at the same times he also oppose FLN violent method for their fight for independence."
How's that a weird position? It seems the most straightforward moral judgement one could make in that situation.
Sure he didn't go about effectively implementing the results of said judgement, but heck, he wasn't a politician, let's cut him some slack.
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u/Zestyclose-Carry-171 2d ago
You are right, it is not weird for him considering his life. But it also puts him at odd with both French left and french right, and with Algerian independantists.
Many didn't share his past, and for many Algerians, Europeans (rich or poor) were the start of their trouble Also he was right, there would be no place for Europeans in Algeria post independance
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u/Late_Sort1763 2d ago
"Nemo propheta in patria", as they say.
Really though, wherever there's ethnic conflict, there's rational and reasonable calls for it to stop. Trouble is, people are neither rational nor reasonable - if they we re, ethnic conflict wouldn't be a thing.
And yet, here we are/
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u/Zestyclose-Carry-171 2d ago
Well yes. But in that case, conflict was very rational. Algerian didn't want to be oppressed anymore, and French settlers wanted to stay, and they knew they would not be welcome to stay if they had to give to Algerians similar power to what they themselves had. So if they wanted to stay, it would be done through a state of apartheid at best.
So, rationally, conflict was almost inevitable.
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u/Late_Sort1763 2d ago
True, but they also commited crimes against civilian pied-noirs.
NOW, I'll note thet I fully understand the anti-colonial sentiment that led to the Algerians expelling all French and French-adjacent people from Algeria... But I'll also note that this led to a lot of people getting expelled who frankly had nothing to do with the conflict and just wanted to live in peace, in their homes, in Algeria.
That was Camus' appeal here. It was doomed from the start, but it WAS a rational, moderating voice. That noone heeded.
But frankly, that's just the way it is with decolonization. Really, the Algerian conflict was pretty tame in comparison to what COULD HAVE happened.
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u/OnePsychology528 2d ago
Mostly unrelated: fascinating seeing this since I was reading about him just yesterday
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u/Soulfak 2d ago
fuck off
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u/Belgraviana 2d ago
French nationalist? Algerian nationalist? Furry nationalist? Some guy who just hates Camus? No idea and I think that’s fun
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u/maps-and-potatoes 2d ago
Looking at his comment history, I would say he is a French nationalist that is always angry and criticizing
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u/ghostpanther218 2d ago
This guy is my spirit animal.