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I know some very ignorant people blame Algerians for the war, for how bad it got. That makes me furious, because itâs severely neglecting the rest of the periodâthe horrible oppression throughout the entirety of the 130 year rule. (Threadâif youâre interested)
cw: colonialism https://twitter.com/ZealousZahra/status/1301950002579861505
cw: colonialism https://twitter.com/ZealousZahra/status/1301950002579861505
The world thinks the atrocities of French colonialism in Algeria were limited to the war for independence, but thatâs sadly not the case. 850k Algerians died during the conquests (1830-1875). Many more were displaced, assaulted, violated.
There are so many people around the world with Algerian ancestors who were exiled by the French. Many diaspora. Both of my own great grandmothers had to flee to Cyrenaica without the rest of their families during the early 1900s massacres. They left everything/everyone they knew.
The war breaks my heart, and I do wish people understood why it was instigated. Why it was necessary. It wasnât decided on a whim. Revolutions never are. They brew with each ounce of pain and heartbreakâit was inevitable. The colons just fooled themselves into thinking otherwise
This was hard to write, and Iâm not sure whether itâll ever be easy to talk about Algeria. Because unlike native Algerians, I havenât been taught about it. I discovered it all myself. But itâs why I write. I donât want our ancestorsâ pain to be erased or reduced to fading memory
