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This reminded me of the forced photographs that Marc Garanger took of Berber (Kabyle) woman for identification cards for France during the Algerian Revolution [

This reminded me of the forced photographs that Marc Garanger took of Berber (Kabyle) woman for identification cards for France during the Algerian Revolution [1]. My ancestral village in Kabylie was similarly emptied out with forced relocation and napalmed when my dad was a kid, so it's always wild to see these photographs. [1] https://time.com/69351/women-unveiled-marc-garangers-contested-portraits-of-1960s-algeria/ https://time.com/69351/women-unveiled-marc-garangers-contest...

rightbyte 3y ago
That is terrible to hear. I haven't connected that war to the Vietnam war really. But essentially it is the same thing but without the US coming in afterwards? Did he say the village was burned down (by hand), or that the French air force fire bombed it?
- mtalantikite 3y ago
  Oh yeah, there are actually a lot of connections between Vietnam and the Algerian Revolution. Many Algerians (and other groups colonized by France in Africa) were brought to fight the Viet Minh, and when captured, were spared and asked why they weren't also fighting their colonizers. There was often anti-colonial re-education that happened. [1][2] In terms of our exact village, I don't recall if it happened by air or hand (or both), but he definitely has talked about the French air force dropping napalm and helicopters landing on the football field they played on as kids when accessing the mountains. I'll ask him. He was already living in Bejaia at the time (he was 5), and one day 10 or so family members showed up to live with them (in their ~1000 sqft house, much of which is a courtyard), saying the village was emptied out and destroyed. I go to the land where the village was whenever I'm visiting and really there's just an old two room stone mosque still standing, a tapped well for water, and a couple off grid homes that some hermits live in. [1] https://caukieucollective.com/remembering-the-algerian-war-for-independence-and-solidarity-with-vietnam/ https://caukieucollective.com/remembering-the-algerian-war-f... [2] https://vvaveteran.org/37-6/37-6_algeria.html https://vvaveteran.org/37-6/37-6_algeria.html

rightbyte 3y ago

That is terrible to hear. I haven't connected that war to the Vietnam war really. But essentially it is the same thing but without the US coming in afterwards? Did he say the village was burned down (by hand), or that the French air force fire bombed it?

mtalantikite 3y ago
Oh yeah, there are actually a lot of connections between Vietnam and the Algerian Revolution. Many Algerians (and other groups colonized by France in Africa) were brought to fight the Viet Minh, and when captured, were spared and asked why they weren't also fighting their colonizers. There was often anti-colonial re-education that happened. [1][2] In terms of our exact village, I don't recall if it happened by air or hand (or both), but he definitely has talked about the French air force dropping napalm and helicopters landing on the football field they played on as kids when accessing the mountains. I'll ask him. He was already living in Bejaia at the time (he was 5), and one day 10 or so family members showed up to live with them (in their ~1000 sqft house, much of which is a courtyard), saying the village was emptied out and destroyed. I go to the land where the village was whenever I'm visiting and really there's just an old two room stone mosque still standing, a tapped well for water, and a couple off grid homes that some hermits live in. [1] https://caukieucollective.com/remembering-the-algerian-war-for-independence-and-solidarity-with-vietnam/ https://caukieucollective.com/remembering-the-algerian-war-f... [2] https://vvaveteran.org/37-6/37-6_algeria.html https://vvaveteran.org/37-6/37-6_algeria.html