Pied-noir

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Pied-noir is a term for the former population of European descent of North Africa, especially Algeria. It is sometimes used to include the Algerian Jewish population as well. 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.

Contents

History

The Europeans had arrived as colonists from all over the Mediterranean (particularly France, Spain, and Malta), starting in 1830. The Jewish people had arrived in several waves, some coming in Roman times while most had arrived as refugees from the Spanish Inquisition, and had largely embraced French citizenship and identity after the [[d�cret Cr�mieux]] in 1871. Before 1962, both the Europeans and the Jewish people of Algeria were listed under the name Europ�ens (Europeans) for statistical or official purposes. They considered themselves just French, or Algerian, or African, each of these identities intertwined in their mind. Their unofficial anthem was 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 B�ne (now Annaba), Algiers, and above all the area from Oran to Sidi-Bel-Abb�s. 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 B�ne they accounted for 40.5% of the population. The d�partement of Oran, a rich European-developed agricultural land of 16,520 km� (6,378 sq. miles) stretching between the cities of Oran and Sidi-Bel-Abb�s, 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 d�partement in 1959.

The pieds-noirs felt betrayed by the act of Charles de Gaulle sanctioning the independence of Algeria and some of them fought a limited civil war. The terrorist organization [[Organisation de l'arm�e secr�te|OAS]] (Organisation de l'Arm�e Secr�te) set up by a group of these who had served in the French army 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 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 maybe 200,000 or 300,000 may chose to go to metropolitan France temporarily. Consequently, nothing was planned for their return, and many had to sleep in streets or 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 3000 Pieds-Noirs in the streets of Oran on the 6th and 7th of July 1962 by the ALN (Algerian Arl�e de Lib�ration Nationale) entering the country from Morocco after the cease-fire decreted by the French army. By September 1962, cities like Oran, B�ne, or Sidi-Bel-Abb�s were left half empty. All administrations, 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.

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 � 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 lead them to Algerian shores.

Symbolically, the pieds-noirs were allowed in the 1990s to use the old codes of their d�partements 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, when they were born, it was in Algerian d�partements that were considered, by the French state, to be an integral part of France (unlike other colonial areas.) Thus, on official documentation, they can now use the numbers 91, 92, and 93, the codes for the three old d�partements of Algeria. Other oddities still remain. For instance, since driving licenses in France are delivered by the prefect of the d�partement for life, hundreds of thousands of pieds-noirs in France still carry a driving license with the stamp of one of the former d�partements of French Algeria on it, although these d�partements do not exist anymore.

Famous Pied-Noirs

See also


References

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