Information AboutPied-noir |
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| algerian war | |
| french algeria | |
| contemporary french history | |
| history of algeria | |
| pieds-noirs | |
| human migration | |
| colonialism | |
| former colonies of france | |
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''Pied-noir'' (plural: '''''pieds-noirs''''') is a term for the former population of European descent of North Africa , especially Algeria , which was a French Department until its 1962 Independence . It also includes the Algerian Jewish population as well, some of whose ancestors had fled Spain after the '' Reconquista ''. Literally ''Pied-noir'' means "black foot" in French . Supposedly, one way the Colonists could be distinguished from the indigenous Algerians was by the black shoes the French wore. According to most scholars, however, the term is of unknown origin. One of the most famous ''pieds-noirs'' was Albert Camus . HISTORY European settlers started colonizing the Barbary Coast from 1830 when France Conquered Algiers from nominal Ottoman control. These settlers came from all over the Catholic parts of the western Mediterranean , particularly coastal and island regions in the present-day countries of Italy , France , Spain , and Malta . They became known as ''colons'' or ''pieds-noirs''. The Algerian Jews , however, had a different history. While a Jewish presence had existed since late Roman times, the majority had arrived as refugees from the '' Reconquista '' around 1500, when Sephardi Jew s and Muslims were expelled from the Iberian Peninsula . After centuries of '' Dhimmi '' status, the local Algerian Jews became associated with the European-Algerian community following the 1871 '' Décret Crémieux '', when they largely embraced French citizenship and identity and adopted French culture and language over the course of just one generation. Before 1962 ( Independence Of Algeria ), both the Europeans colons and the indigenous Jews of Algeria were listed under the name ''Européens'' (Europeans) for statistical or official purposes. They all considered themselves simply French , or Algerian , or African , each of these identities intertwined in their mind. The unofficial anthem of the ''pied-noir'' community is the Song of the Africans ('' Le Chant Des Africains ''). In 1959 , the ''pieds-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 of ''pieds-noirs'', such as the regions of Bône (now Annaba ), Algiers , and above all the area from Oran to Sidi-Bel-Abbès . Oran had been under European rule since the 17th century, and the population in the Oran metropolitan area was 49.3% European and Jewish in 1959 . In the Algiers metropolitan area, Europeans and Jewish people accounted for 35.7% of the population. In the metropolitan area of Bône they accounted for 40.5% of the population. The Oran ''département'' of Oran, a rich European-developed agricultural land of 16,520 km&2 (6,378 sq. miles) stretching between the cities of Oran and Sidi-Bel-Abbès, and including them, was the largest area of ''pieds-noirs'' density outside of the cities, with the ''pieds-noirs'' accounting for 33.6% of the population of the '' Département '' in 1959 . The ''pieds-noirs'' and their indigenous allies, the '' Harkis '', felt betrayed by the act of Charles De Gaulle sanctioning Algeria's independence in 1962 and some of them fought a limited Civil War . The terrorist organization OAS (''Organisation de l'Armée Secrète'') set up by a group of those who had served in the French army and by members of " Stay-behind " Gladio secret armies, was active in the first half of the 1960s and is well known for its role in the plot of the fictional The Day Of The Jackal . EXODUS In just a few months in 1962, 900,000 of these Europeans and native Jewish people left the country, the first prior to the referendum (held in Metropolitan France and for which by an unprecedented decision of the de Gaulle government they were not allowed to vote), in the most massive relocation of population in Europe since the Second World War . The motto among the European and Jewish community was "Suitcase or coffin" ("''La valise ou le cercueil''"). The French government had not planned that such a massive number would leave; at the most, it estimated that perhaps 200,000 or 300,000 might choose to temporarily go to metropolitan France. Consequently, nothing was planned for their return, and many had to sleep in the streets or in abandoned farms on their arrival in metropolitan France, where the vast majority had never set foot in their whole life. Some departing ''pieds-noirs'' destroyed their possessions before departure, in a sign of despair, but the vast majority of their goods and houses were left intact and abandoned. Tragic scenes of thousands of panicked people camping for weeks on the docks of Algerian harbors waiting for a space on a boat to France were common from April to August 1962. Some people who were refused the right to take their cars on board burned them on the spot in the docks. For most, departure was meant to be without an idea of return, and despair was general at leaving the land where they were born. The exodus accelerated after the massacre and kidnapping of 3 000 Pieds-Noirs in the streets of Oran on the 6th and 7th of July 1962 by the ALN ( Algerian ''Armée De Libération Nationale'' ) entering the country from Morocco after the cease-fire decreed by the French army. By September 1962, cities like Oran , Bône, or Sidi-Bel-Abbès were left half empty. All administration, police, schools, justice, commercial activities stopped in a matter of 3 months. About 100,000 ''pieds-noirs'' chose to remain, but they gradually left in the 1960s and 1970s, to the point that in the 1980s there remained only one or two thousand ''pieds-noirs'' in Algeria. On a smaller scale, a similar mass-flight of Portuguese settlers and '' Mestiços '' occurred when Angola and Mozambique won their independence - with similar consequences for the administration and economy of these nascent nations. After independence, most ''pieds-noirs'' and '' Harkis '' fled the country and settled in cities across southern France where they assimilated into the local Proletariat . However, many opted instead to migrate to New Caledonia integrating into the '' Caldoche '' community, or to Spain or North America . Some Algerian Jews eventually ended up in Israel , where they were granted instant citizenship and initial financial support from the Israeli state as '' Olim ''. IN FRANCE The French government left control of Algerian administrative records to the new Algerian government; for the ''pieds-noirs'', this led to a situation where hundreds of thousands could not access their birth or marriage certificates after independence, with some unable to prove that they were French, or unable to obtain legal papers. In the 1970's the French government finally sent a mission to Algeria to copy the birth, marriage, and death certificates in the main cities and towns of former European settlement, but village records were not copied, with the result that even today some ''pieds-noirs'' in France are still unable to prove their identity. More generally, the ''pieds-noirs'' felt rejected in France, where they were often portrayed as nasty colonialists, especially by the Communist Party . Famously, as the ''pieds-noirs'' arrived in Marseille throughout 1962, they were greeted by the words "The ''pieds-noirs'' to the sea!" ("''Les pieds noirs à la mer!''"), as painted by the Communist longshoremen (dockers) of the Port of Marseille on the Mole at the entrance of the harbor. Communist posters showing a brutal ''pied-noir'' whipping Arab workers were also a frequent sight in French cities at the time. In reality, though, the vast majority of Algeria's European and Jewish population was lower middle-class or poorer, with less than 5% of the ''pieds-noir'' population belonging to the economic elite of major merchants and land-owners. Their rejection by the French left meant that ''pied-noirs'' quickly became the strongest element within the far right in France. Despite this lack of initial acceptance, the major economic boom that France experienced in the 1960's allowed the ''pied-noirs'' to assimilate rather quickly and easily into their new home. More recently, the French government has acknowledged the trauma and suffering felt by the ''pieds-noirs'', with frequent ceremonies organized to commemorate their tragedy. Many ''pieds-noirs'' have received some compensation from the French government for the loss of their property in post-independence Algeria. The French government did, however, cap the amount of compensation, with the result that many ''pieds-noirs'' have never received full compensation for what they lost. In any case, the feeling among the majority of the exiles is that money could not compensate for their lost lives. It is not uncommon to hear of ''pieds-noirs'' requesting that, after death and cremation, their ashes be strewn on the Mediterranean Sea , in the hope that the currents will wash them up on Algerian shores. Symbolically, the ''pieds-noirs'' were allowed in the 1990s to use the old codes of their '' Départements '' in French Algeria for official purposes. Until recently, when filing papers, or obtaining social security numbers, they had to list number 99, the code for people born in foreign countries. Many ''pieds-noirs'' found this insulting because they were born in Algerian ''départements'' that were considered, by the French state, to be French ordinary departments, unlike the other French Overseas Departments And Territories . Thus, on official documentation, they can now use the numbers 91, 92, and 93, the codes for the three old ''départements'' of Algeria. Other oddities still remain. For instance, since driving licenses in France are delivered by the prefect of the ''département'' for life, hundreds of thousands of ''pieds-noirs'' in France still carry a license with the stamp of one of the former ''départements'' of French Algeria on it, although these ''départements'' no longer exist. FAMOUS PIEDS-NOIRS
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