I know some very ignorant people blame Algerians for the war, for how bad it got. That makes me furious, because it’s severely neglecting the rest of the period—the horrible oppression throughout the entirety of the 130 year rule. (Thread—if you’re interested)
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 that’s 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 wasn’t decided on a whim. Revolutions never are. They brew with each ounce of pain and heartbreak—it was inevitable. The colons just fooled themselves into thinking otherwise

This was hard to write, and I’m not sure whether it’ll ever be easy to talk about Algeria. Because unlike native Algerians, I haven’t been taught about it. I discovered it all myself. But it’s why I write. I don’t want our ancestors‘ pain to be erased or reduced to fading memory