A national holyday in a colonial situation : the example of July 14, 1936 in Algiers.

Abstract

From a political, social and cultural history perspective, this article aims to analyze the ceremony and the demonstrations that took place in Algiers in 1936 on the occasion of the commemoration of the French national holiday of July 14, 1789, in a colonial Algeria characterized by fundamental inequality between Europeans and Muslim Algerians. Our objective is to shed new light on the colonial situation established in Algeria.  This study takes as its framework the city and the department of Algiers, which represent, from the start of French colonization in 1830, a key symbolic issue for colonial power and its propaganda. Based on a critical analysis of the prefectural archives of the department of Algiers, which essentially include police reports and General Information or documents seized by the police, our work highlights the colonial staging - for both internal and external use - intended to extol the benefits of the French presence in Algeria. It then reveals the fears of the colonial state and its desire to monitor elements deemed subversive, especially politicized Algerians. Finally, it highlights the emergence, in the streets of Algiers, of an anti-colonial consciousness and struggle. 

Keywords: Colonial Algeria, ceremony, police, demonstration