 | |
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 1959: 1.4 million[1] (13% of the population of Algeria) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Algiers,Oran,Constantine | |
| Languages | |
| French,Spanish,Catalan,Occitan,Maghrebi Arabic | |
| Religion | |
| Predominantly:Christianity Minority:Judaism |
Thepieds-noirs (French:[pjenwaʁ];lit. 'black feet';sg.:pied-noir) are an ethno-cultural group of people ofFrench and otherEuropean descent who were born inAlgeria during theperiod of French colonial rule from 1830 to 1962. Many of them departed formainland France during and after the war by which Algeria gained its independence in 1962.[3][4]
From theFrench invasion on 18 June 1830 to its independence, Algeria was administratively part of France; its ethnic European population were simply called Algerians orcolons (colonists). The Muslim people of Algeria were calledArabs,Muslims orindigènes. The termpied-noir came into common use shortly before the end of theAlgerian War in 1962.
As of the last census in French-ruled Algeria, taken on 1 June 1960, there were 1,050,000 non-Muslim civilians, some 10 percent of the population.[5] Mostpieds-noirs wereCatholic and of European descent, but their population included around 130,000 indigenousAlgerian Jews who were granted French citizenship through theCrémieux Decree and were viewed as a part of thepieds-noirs community.[6][5]
During the Algerian War, a vast majority ofpieds-noirs were loyalists and overwhelmingly supported colonial French rule in Algeria. They were opposed to Algerian nationalist groups such as theFront de libération nationale (English: National Liberation Front) (FLN) andMouvement national algérien (English: Algerian National Movement) (MNA). The roots of the conflict lay in political and economic inequalities perceived as an "alienation" from the French rule as well as a demand for a leading position for theBerber,Arab andIslamic cultures and rules existing before the French conquest. The conflict contributed to the fall of theFrench Fourth Republic and the exodus of European and Jewish Algerians to France.[4][7]
After Algeria became independent in 1962, about 800,000pieds-noirs of French nationality evacuated to mainland France, while about 200,000 remained in Algeria. Of the latter, there were still about 100,000 in 1965, about 50,000 by the end of the 1960s and 30,000 in 1993.[8] During theAlgerian Civil War between 1992 and 2002, the population ofpieds-noirs and others of European descent plummeted, as they were often targeted byIslamist rebel groups. By the 2000s, the French consulate in Algiers recorded that around 300 persons of European descent remained in the country, whereas an Algerian census company recorded the number as higher.[9] Thepieds-noirs who have remained since independence are now overwhelmingly elderly.[10]
Those who moved to France suffered ostracism from someleft-wing political movements for their perceived exploitation of native Muslims, while others blamed them for the war and thus for the political turmoil surrounding the collapse of the Fourth Republic.[4] In popular culture, the community is often represented as feeling removed fromFrench culture while longing for Algeria.[4][7] The recent history of thepieds-noirs has been characterized by a sense of twofold alienation, on the one hand from the land of their birth and on the other from their adopted homeland. Though the termrapatriés d'Algérie implies that prior to Algeria they once lived in France, mostpieds-noirs were born and raised in Algeria.
There are competing theories about the origin of the termpied-noir. According to theOxford English Dictionary, it refers to "a person of European origin living in Algeria during the period of French rule, especially a French person expatriated after Algeria was granted independence in 1962".[3] TheLe Robert dictionary states that in 1901 the word indicated a sailor working barefoot in the coal room of a ship, who would find his feet blackened by the soot and dust. Since in the Mediterranean this was often an Algerian native, the term was used pejoratively for Algerians until 1955, when it first began referring to "French born in Algeria" according to some sources.[11][12] TheOxford English Dictionary claims this usage originated from mainland French as a negative nickname.[3]
There is also a theory that the term comes from the black boots worn by French soldiers compared to the barefoot Algerians.[13] Other theories focus on new settlers dirtying their clothing by working in swampy areas, wearing black boots when on horseback, or trampling grapes to make wine.[14]
French, along with Spanish, Italian and other European settlers, moved to France's overseas colonies and territories. The largest group of one million settled in Algeria, followed by 200,000 in Morocco and proportionally fewer in other colonies. These settlers often took land that had been forcibly taken from the local population. While they had full political representation in Paris and the French government, the native population did not. Many settlers were fiercely committed to maintaining the overseas empire because they came from impoverished European backgrounds. Nearly half of the Algerian settlers in the 1880s were from Spain, southern Italy, or Malta, and the remainder were mostly poor French. They had nothing to return to if a local nationalist movement won its war of national liberation.[15]
European settlement of Algeria began during the 1830s, after France had commenced the process of conquest with the military seizure of the city of Algiers in 1830. The invasion was instigated when theDey of Algiers struck the French consul with a fly-swatter in 1827, although economic reasons are also cited. In 1830 the government ofKing Charles X blockaded Algeria and anarmada sailed to Algiers, followed by a land expedition. A troop of 34,000 soldiers landed on 18 June 1830, atSidi Ferruch, 27 kilometres (17 mi) west of Algiers. Following a three-week campaign, theHussein Dey capitulated on 5 July 1830 and was exiled.[16][17][18]
In the 1830s the French controlled only the northern part of the country.[17] Entering theOran region, they faced resistance fromEmir Abd al-Kader, a leader of aSufi Brotherhood.[19][20] In 1839 Abd al-Kader began a seven-year war by declaringjihad against the French. The French signed two peace treaties with Al-Kader, but they were broken because of a miscommunication between the military and the government in Paris. In response to the breaking of the second treaty, Abd al-Kader drove the French to the coast. In response, a French force of nearly 100,000 troops marched to the Algerian countryside and forced Abd al-Kader's surrender in 1847.[19]
In 1848 Algeria was divided into threedepartments (Alger,Oran andConstantine), thus becoming part of France.[18][19]
The French modeled their colonial system on their predecessors, theOttomans, by co-opting local tribes. In 1843 the colonists began supervising throughbureaux arabes[16][21] operated by military officials with authority over particular domains.[21]
This system lasted until the 1880s and the rise of theFrench Third Republic, when colonisation intensified.[5] Large-scale regrouping of lands began when land-speculation companies took advantage of government policy that allowed massive sales of native property. By the 20th century Europeans held 1,700,000 hectares; by 1940, 2,700,000 hectares, about 35 to 40 percent;[16] and by 1962 it was 2,726,700 hectares representing 27 percent of the arable land[clarification needed] of Algeria.[22] Settlers came from all over the western Mediterranean region, particularlyItaly,France,Spain andMalta.[4]
The end of theFrench protectorate of Tunisia and of theFrench protectorate in Morocco in 1956 led to mass emigration of French people from both states. These two countries had been placed under protectorate, whereas Algeria and its population fell under territory status and were considered part of overseas France.
After the French committed theSétif and Guelma massacre (1945), with the French navy and air force shelling and bombing Algerian territory, Algerians increasingly began to look towards increased autonomy or outright independence. In 1954 theFLN launched its first operations and this marks the start of theAlgerian war in 1954,Pierre Mendès France, President of the Council, addressing the French National Assembly expressed the distinction between the political status of Algeria compared to Tunisia and Morocco:[23][24][25][26] The French government and military reacted with implementing a brutal torture regime inspired by the likes of French general Massu. The OAS started to increase murders and bombings against Algerians and French who opposed further French control of Algeria.
We do not compromise when it comes to defending the internal peace of the nation, the unity, the integrity of the Republic. The departments of Algeria constitute a part of the French Republic. They have been French for a long time and irrevocably. Their populations, who enjoy French citizenship and are represented in Parliament, have moreover given in peace, as before in war, enough proof of their attachment to France for France, in its turn, not to allow in question this unit. Between them and the metropolis, there is no conceivable secession. Never France, no government, no French Parliament, whatever their particular tendencies, will ever yield on this fundamental principle. I affirm that no comparison with Tunisia or Morocco is more false, more dangerous. Here it is France."[citation needed]
As the colony of Algeria grew with each generation,pieds-noirs began to define themselves as distinct from the French citizens of metropolitan France; they identified as Algerian people. Somepieds-noirs considered themselves at one time to be "true Algerians", whereas they termed Muslim Algerians as "Indigenous" peoples. An exchange between apied-noir student from Algiers and a metropolitan French student was recorded during aUNEF conference in 1922:[27]
"So you're Algerian… but the son of a Frenchman, aren't you?"
"Of course! All Algerians are sons of the French, the others are natives."
However, manypieds-noirs avoided using the term after the Second World War so as not to be confused with indigenous Algerian migrant workers who went to France. Thepieds-noirs themselves also used several nicknames to designate the French in metropolitan France, such asFrench from France,Frangaoui,Patos and sometimespied-blanc (lit. 'white feet').[28]
Other terms used internally within thepied-noir population includedpied-rouge (lit. 'red feet') to refer topied-noir members of theAlgerian Communist Party or those who held left-wing beliefs, including a minority ofpieds-noirs sympathetic to the independence movement.[29][30] The termPied-Gris was used to refer both to children with parentage from both metropolitan France and French Algeria, and to French settlers from independent Tunisia and Morocco who moved to French Algeria in the late 1950s rather than to France. French writer René Domergue noted thatPied-Gris was used by both French settlers from Tunisia and Morocco and thepieds-noirs themselves to distinguish themselves from each other.[31]
French writer Léon Isnard noted thatpieds-noirs often mixed traditional French and occasionally Spanish and Italian cuisine with local Arab and Jewish influences. Dishes such asgazpacho,paella,méchoui andbrochette skewered meat were commonly consumed by thepied-noir population and often accompanied withwhite wine produced bypied-noir farmers inTlemcen andred wine fromMascara.[32]
Although French was the main language of thepieds-noirs, a distinct form of French known aspataouète developed in thepied-noir community in Algeria and contained words, idioms, expressions and slang terms not commonly found in Metropolitan France.[33] Ferdinand Duchene noted thatpataouète was largely derived from mainland French but contained words fromSpanish andCatalan (influenced by Spanish workers in Algerian during the late 1800s), as well asItalian, and local Arab dialect.[34]
Like other white populations in colonial-era Africa, thepieds-noirs generally dominated much of Algeria's industrial, cultural and political institutions, comprising the most influential section of society. However, French Algeria also attracted laborers, blue collar and agricultural workers from metropolitan France, Spain, Italy and Malta in search of better economic opportunities. European manual laborers came under thepied-noir fold and acquired French nationality after several years of living in Algeria. As such, thepied-noir community contained different social classes and structures. Following the exodus to France in the aftermath of the Algerian war, working-classpieds-noirs were particularly scathing in response to accusations from the French political left that they were exploiters or elite colonialists over the indigenous population.[35][36]
Thepied-noir relationship with France and Algeria was marked by alienation. The settlers considered themselves French,[37] but many of thepieds-noirs had a tenuous connection to mainland France; 28 percent of them had never visited there. The settlers encompassed a range ofsocioeconomicstrata, ranging from peasants to large landowners, the latter of whom were referred to asgrands colons.[37][38]
In Algeria, the Muslims were not considered French and did not share the same political or economic benefits of the territory.[37] For example, the indigenous population did not own most of the settlements, farms, or businesses, although they numbered nearly nine million (versus roughly one millionpieds-noirs) at independence. Politically, the Muslim Algerians had no representation in theFrench National Assembly until 1945 and wielded limited influence in local governance.[39] To obtain citizenship, they were required to renounce their Muslim identity – with only about 2,500 Muslims acquiring citizenship before 1930.[38][39] The settlers' politically and economically dominant position worsened relations between the two groups.
From roughly the last half of the 19th century until independence, thepieds-noirs accounted for approximately 10% of the total Algerian population. Although they constituted a numerical minority, they were undoubtedly the prime political and economic force of the region.[citation needed]
In 1959, thepieds-noirs numbered 1,025,000, and accounted for 10.4% of the total population of Algeria, a percentage gradually diminishing since the peak of 15.2% in 1926. However, some areas of Algeria had high concentrations ofpieds-noirs, such as the regions of Bône (nowAnnaba), Algiers, and above all the area fromOran toSidi-Bel-Abbès.[40] Oran had been under European rule since the 16th century (1509); the population in the Oran metropolitan area was 49.3% European in 1959.
In the Algiers metropolitan area, Europeans accounted for 35.7% of the population. In the metropolitan area of Bône, they accounted for 40.5% of the population. Thedépartement of Oran, a rich European-developed agricultural land of 16,520 km2 (6,378 sq. miles) stretching between the cities of Oran and Sidi-Bel-Abbès, and including them, was the area of highestpied-noir density outside of the cities, with thepieds-noirs accounting for 33.6% of the population of thedépartement in 1959.
| Year | Algerian Population | Pied-noir population |
|---|---|---|
| 1830 | 1,500,000 | 14,000 (in1836) |
| 1851 | 2,554,100 | 100,000 (in1847) |
| 1960 | 10,853,000 | 1,111,000 (in1959) |
| 1965 | 11,923,000 | 100,000 (in1965) |
Jews were present in North Africa and Iberia for centuries, some since the time when "Phoenicians and Hebrews, engaged in maritime commerce, foundedHippo Regius (current Annaba),Tipasa, Caesarea (currentCherchel), and Icosium (current Algiers)".[45] According to oral tradition they arrived fromJudea after theFirst Jewish–Roman War (66–73 AD). It is known historically that manySephardi Jews came following the SpanishReconquista.[6] Others came after Spain expelled Jews in 1492.
In 1870, Justice MinisterAdolphe Crémieux wrote a proposal,décret Crémieux, to give French citizenship to most Algerian Jews. This advancement was resisted by part of the largerpied-noir community and in 1897 a wave of anti-Semitic riots occurred in Algeria. During World War II thedécret Crémieux was abolished under theVichy regime. Jews were barred from professional jobs between 1940 and 1943.[45] Citizenship was restored in 1943, after theFree French took control over Algeria in the wake ofOperation Torch. Thus, the Jews of Algeria eventually came to be considered part of thepied-noir community.[6] Many fled the country to France in 1962, alongside most otherpieds-noirs, after the Algerian War.[46]
Mozabite Jews were excluded from theCrémieux Decree, and were only granted “common law civil status” and French citizenship in 1961.[47]
For more than a century France maintainedcolonial rule in Algerian territory. This allowed exceptions to republican law, includingSharia laws applied by Islamic customary courts to Muslim women, which gave women certain rights to property and inheritance that they did not have under French law.[45] Discontent among the Muslim Algerians grew after the World Wars, in which the Algerians sustained many casualties.[45] Algerian nationalists began efforts aimed at furthering equality by listing complaints in theManifesto of the Algerian People, which requested equal representation under the state and access to citizenship, but no equality for all citizens to preserve Islamic precepts. The French response was to grant citizenship to 60,000 "meritorious" Muslims.[17]
During a reform effort in 1947, the French laws were changed to give the former French subjects with the legal status of "indigenes" full French legal citizenship. The French created an Algerian Assembly, a form ofbicameral legislature, with limited powers, and two chambers, one for those who were French citizens before 1947, and another for all the others who had just become French citizens. Given the equal numbers of members in each chamber this meant that one group's votes had seven times more weight than the other group's.[38] Paramilitary groups such as theNational Liberation Front (Front de Libération nationale, FLN) appeared, claiming an Arab-Islamic brotherhood and state.[45] This led to the outbreak of a war for independence, theAlgerian War, in 1954.
From the first armed operations of November 1954,pied-noir civilians had always been targets for the FLN: they were assassinated in bombings of bars and cinemas; suffered mass massacres; and were tortured and sometimes raped on farms.[48]At the onset of the war, thepieds-noirs believed the French military would be able to overcome opposition. InMay 1958 a demonstration for French Algeria, led bypieds-noirs, occupied an Algerian government building. Plots to overthrow the Fourth Republic, some including metropolitan French politicians and generals, had been swirling in Algeria for some time.[49]General Jacques Massu controlled the riot by forming a 'Committee of Public Safety', demanding that his acquaintanceCharles de Gaulle be named president of theFrench Fourth Republic, to prevent the "abandonment of Algeria". This eventually led to the fall of the Republic.[37] In response, the French Parliament voted 329 to 224 to place de Gaulle in power.[37]
Once de Gaulle assumed leadership, he attempted peace by visiting Algeria within three days of his appointment, proclaiming "French Algeria!"; but in September 1959 he planned areferendum for Algerian self-determination that passed overwhelmingly.[37] Many French political and military leaders in Algeria viewed this as a betrayal and formed theOrganisation armée secrète (OAS), which had much support amongpieds-noirs. This paramilitary group began attacking officials representing de Gaulle's authority, Muslims, and de Gaulle himself.[37] The OAS was also accused of murders and bombings, which nullified any remaining reconciliation opportunities between the communities.[50] Thepieds-noirs had never believed such reconciliation possible as their community was targeted from the start.[clarification needed][48]
The opposition culminated in theAlgiers putsch of 1961, led by retired generals. After its failure, on 18 March 1962, de Gaulle and the FLN signed a cease-fire agreement, theÉvian Accords, and held areferendum. In July, Algerians voted 5,975,581 to 16,534 to become independent from France.[38]On the morning of 5 July 1962, the day Algeria became independent, sevenkatibas (companies) of the FLN troops entered the city and were fired at by some Europeans.[51] An outraged Arab mob swept topied-noir neighborhoods, which had already been largely vacated, and attacked the remainingpieds-noirs. The violence lasted several hours and was ended by the deployment of theFrench Gendarmerie.[51]
The exodus began once it became clear that Algeria would become independent.[11] In Algiers, it was reported that by May 1961 the morale had sunk among thepieds-noirs because of violence and allegations that the entire community of French nationals had been responsible for "terrorism, torture, colonial racism, and ongoing violence in general" and because the group felt "rejected by the nation aspieds-noirs".[11] These factors, theOran Massacre, and the referendum for independence caused thepied-noir exodus to begin in earnest.[4][7][11]
The number ofpieds-noirs who fled Algeria totalled more than 800,000 between 1962 and 1964.[50] Manypieds-noirs left only with what they could carry in a suitcase.[7][50] Adding to the confusion, the de Gaulle government ordered theFrench Navy not to help with transportation of French citizens.[38] By September 1962, cities such as Oran,Bône, andSidi Bel Abbès were half-empty. All administration-, police-, school-, justice-, and commercial activities stopped within three months after manypieds-noirs were told to choose either "la valise ou le cercueil" (the suitcase or the coffin).[45] Some 200,000pieds-noirs chose to remain, but they gradually left through the following decades; by the 1980s only a few thousandpieds-noirs remained in Algeria.[8][37]
Along with the exodus of thepieds-noirs, the Muslimharki auxiliaries, who had fought on the French side during the Algerian War, also tried to emigrate. But of approximately 250,000 Muslim loyalists only about 90,000, including dependents, were able to escape to France. Of those who remained, many thousands were killed by lynch mobs or executed as traitors by the FLN. In contrast to the treatment of the Europeanpieds-noirs, little effort was made by the French government to extend protection to the harkis or to arrange their organised evacuation.[52]
The Government of France claimed that it had not anticipated that such a massive number would leave; it believed that perhaps 300,000 might choose to depart temporarily and that a large portion would return to Algeria.[11] The administration had set aside funds for absorption of those it calledrepatriates to partly reimburse them for property losses.[38] The administration avoided acknowledging the true numbers of refugees to avoid upsetting its Algeria policies.[38] Consequently, few plans were made for their return, and, psychologically at least, many of thepieds-noirs were alienated from both Algeria and France.[4]
Manypieds-noirs settled in continental France, while others migrated toNew Caledonia,[53]Australia,[53] Spain,[54]Israel,[55]Argentina,[56][57]Italy, theUnited States andCanada.[citation needed] In France, many relocated to the south, which offered a climate similar to North Africa. The influx of new citizens bolstered the local economies; however, the newcomers also competed for jobs, which caused resentment.[7][38] One unintended consequence, with significant and ongoing political effects, was the resentment caused by the state resettlement programme forpieds-noirs in rural Corsica, whichtriggered a cultural and political nationalist movement.[58] In some ways, thepieds-noirs were able to integrate well into the French community, in particular relative to theirharki Muslim counterparts.[59] Their resettlement was made easier by the economic boom of the 1960s. However, the ease of assimilation depended on socioeconomic class.
Integration was easier for the upper classes, many of whom found the transformation less stressful than the lower classes, whose only capital had been left in Algeria when they fled. Many were surprised at often being treated as an "underclass or outsider-group" with difficulties in gaining advancement in their careers. Also, manypieds-noirs contended that the money allocated by the government to assist in relocation and reimbursement was insufficient regarding their losses.[7][38]
Thus, the repatriatedpieds-noirs frequently felt "disaffected" from French society. They also suffered from a sense of alienation stemming from the French government's changed position towards Algeria. Until independence, Algeria was legally a part of France; after independence many felt that they had been betrayed and were now portrayed as an "embarrassment" to their country or to blame for the war.[7][60] Mostpieds-noirs felt a powerful sense of loss and a longing for their lost homeland in Algeria.[61] The American authorClaire Messud remembered seeing herpied-noir father, a lapsed Catholic, crying while watching Pope John Paul II deliver a Mass on his TV. When asked why, Messudpère replied: "Because when I last heard the mass in Latin, I thought I had a religion, and I thought I had a country."[61] Messud noted that the novelistAlbert Camus, himself apied-noir, had often written of his love for the sea-shores and mountains of Algeria, declaring Algeria was a place that was a part of his soul, feelings she noted mirrored those of otherpieds-noirs for whom Algeria was the only home they had ever known.[61]
In the aftermath of the war, somepieds-noirs chose to remain in Algeria; their population was recorded at standing around 200,000 in October 1962. By 1965 their population had dropped to around 50,000.[62]
Under the Algerian Nationality Code of 1963,pieds-noirs were permitted to obtain Algerian citizenship, but political reluctance by the FLN and the slowness of the process prompted somepieds-noirs to emigrate over choosing citizenship. In 1965, it was believed more than 500 ethnic European persons had applied for Algerian citizenship, with 200 having been born in Algeria.[63]
In recent decades, it has been harder to determine the total population ofpied-noir heritage in Algeria. In 1979,Le Monde journalist Daniel Junqua put the population as being around 3,000.[64] In 1993, French historian Hélène Bracco claimed the population to be higher at around 30,000 but noted most were elderly. Lingering political instability and events such as theAlgerian civil war prompted many remaining Algerians of European descent to leave the country and apply for citizenship of France. The French Consulate in Algiers recorded that around 300 persons of European descent remain in the country, whereas an Algerian census company recorded the number as higher.[9]
In 2016, a group ofpied-noir activists headed by Jacques Villard set up theGouvernement provisoire Pied-Noir en exil (lit. 'Provisional Government of the Pied-Noir in exile') inMontpellier in response to what they argued has been marginalization against thepied-noir community by successive governments in France.[65] The movement has been referred to as État pied-noir. Since 2022, some of its members call for the establishment of an autonomouspied-noir national territory in Algeria or the French mainland.[66]
![Flag proposed by Jean-Paul Gavino[67]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fwikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aDrapeau_des_Fran%25C3%25A7ais_d%2527Alg%25C3%25A9rie.svg)
![Tricolore flag with two black feet[67]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fwikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aFlag_of_France_(Pieds-noirs).svg)
Thepied-noir community has adopted, as both an unofficial anthem and as a symbol of its identity, Captain Félix Boyer's 1943 version of "Le Chant des Africains" (lit. 'The Song of the Africans').[68] This was a 1915Infanterie de Marine marching song, originally titled "C'est nous les Marocains" (lit. 'We are the Moroccans') and dedicated to Colonel Van Hecke, commander of a World War I cavalry unit: the7e régiment de chasseurs d'Afrique ("7th African Light Cavalry Regiment"). Boyer's song was adopted during World War II by the Free FrenchFirst Army that was drawn from units of theArmy of Africa and included manypieds-noirs. The music and words were later used by thepieds-noirs to proclaim their allegiance to France.
The "Song of the Africans" was banned from use as official military music in 1962 at the end of the Algerian War until August 1969. TheFrench Minister of Veterans Affairs (Ministre des Anciens Combattants) at the time, Henri Duvillard, lifted the prohibition.[69]
french colonization of algeria.
surrender of abdel al kader.
french invasion of algeria.
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