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Are the People Backward? Algerian Symbolic Analysts and the Culture of the Masses

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Are the People Backward? Algerian Symbolic Analysts and the Culture of the Masses FOCUS 64 Introduction Between the end of March and the begin­ Are the People Backward? ning of May 2016, the Algerian journalist Algerian Symbolic Analysts and Kamal Guerroua published a series of art­ icles in the French­speaking daily newspa­ the Culture of the Masses per Le Quotidien d’Oran, in which he com­ plained about the difficulty of changing the mentality of the Algerian people. Faced with what he described as a pathetic, fatalist and passive society, he asked successively: “Why can’t we change?,” “Are our youth really lazy?,” “Who must change ... and how?” and finally “But why are we like this?”1,2 While Guerroua is presented alternately as a Thomas Serres scholar, a journalist or a novelist, he illus­ Tristan Leperlier trates the activity of a composite social cat­ egory that participates in diagnosing the This article studies representations of the two aspects of this activity: first, attempts Algerian population. Aiming at a social Algerian population promoted by franco- to determine who is responsible for the and political reform, these actors try to phone intellectuals in a context of long- ongoing crisis, and second, the reproduc- understand the characteristics of their standing crisis and uncertainty. Borrow- tion of cultural prejudices in a context of “people,” often by pointing to their so­ ing the category of symbolic analysts increased transnationalization. Moreover, called pre­modern or passive behaviors. from Robert Reich, it looks at the way in it argues that one can interpret the politi- This paper investigates the representa­ which novelists, scholars and journalists cal and intellectual commitments of these tions of the Algerian population promoted try to make sense of a critical situation by analysts by drawing on the triad concept by francophone intellectuals in a context diagnosing the culture of the Algerian of “Naming, Blaming, Claiming,” which of longstanding crisis and uncertainty. population as deviant or backward. Aim- has been used to study the publicization Borrowing the category of symbolic ana­ ing to encourage social and political of disputes. lysts from Robert Reich, it looks at the way reform, these actors try to understand the in which novelists, scholars and journalists characteristics of their “people,” often by Keywords: Algeria; Culture; Crisis; Post- try to make sense of a critical situation, pointing to their so-called pre-modern or colonialism; Symbolic Analysts sometimes by diagnosing the culture of passive behaviors. This article analyzes their fellow citizens as deviant or inher­ Middle East – Topics & Arguments #07–2017 FOCUS 65 ently backward. For Reich, symbolic ana­ sions in Algeria and beyond. The article historical context. Commentators have lysts are those who identify problems and will be divided into four sections. The first often described the gap between the uto­ solve them by manipulating symbols. In part presents the context of the civil war pian expectations that followed indepen­ Algeria, these actors are trying to solve that introduced the idea of a historical dence in 1962 and the realities of daily life, the problem of a persistent political and break and an increasing gap between which was increasingly marked by perva­ social instability in the aftermath of the secu lar intellectuals and the rest of the sive hardship. After the end of French civil war (1992­1999). In order to do so, society. The award­winning author Rachid occupation, the revolutionary elites they manipulate notions such as “the peo­ Boudjedra serves to illustrate this point. embodied the hope of colonized peoples ple” or the “Algerian culture” to under­ The second section focuses on the role of beyond Algeria, as they were committed stand the causes of the crisis and propose social scientists in the production of cul­ to fulfilling national independence, their own solutions. In the following turalist explanations for the absence of a achieving economic prosperity and rede­ pages, we study two aspects of this activ­ democratic transition. Here, some of the fining the global balance of power (Carlier ity: first, attempts to determine who is writings of Lahouari Addi allow us to study 311­16). During the rule of Houari Bou­ responsible for the ongoing crisis, and the production of a diagnosis that insists médiène (1965­1978), an authoritarian second, the reproduction of cultural pre­ on national political culture to explain the developmental state was in charge of judices in the postcolony given a context absence of democracy. The following part organizing the economy and planning the of increased transnationalization. Subse­ shows that a commitment in favor of polit­ country’s evolution. Internationally, Alge­ quently, we will see how this discursive ical change also leads some analysts to rian diplomacy was at its zenith, as its activity can be understood through the call for a disciplinary project directed at spokesmen advocated the forgiveness of prism of the process of “Naming, Blam­ the Algerian population in order to correct Third­World debt and the nationalization ing, Claiming” (Abel, Felstiner, and Sarat), its backward behavior. To illustrate this of resources. Yet, disillusions and woes a triad concept that explains the produc­ point, the paper invokes recent articles soon followed this early period of hope tion of public disputes. from journalist Kamel Daoud, published and ambition. A drop in oil prices and the As Guerroua’s case illustrates, the limits after the Arab Spring. Finally, the last sec­ subsequent economic crisis fed the dis­ between the literary, academic and media tion looks at the consequences of the enchantment of workers and students, fields can be especially blurry, since all of transnationalization of these figures, as resulting in a succession of strikes and these fields are subsumed in the broader their analyses are appropriated and instru­ riots at end of the 1980s and an uprising field of intellectual production. In this art­ mentalized outside of Algeria. in October 1988 (Chikhi, “Algérie”). The icle, our main symbolic analysts are a nov­ latter marked a clear break in regard to elist, an academic and a journalist. They The 1990s as a Historical Break the dominant conceptions of historical have all reached a level of national and To understand the production of diagno­ progress espoused by intellectuals from international recognition that allow them sis of the Algerian people by our symbolic revolutionary or reformist backgrounds. to intervene regularly in public discus­ analysts, one must start by looking at the The following years saw the constant Middle East – Topics & Arguments #07–2017 FOCUS 66 de gradation of the political situation and historical failure, rather than a form of dis­ responsibility as intellectuals and, at the the rise of the Islamic Salvation Front dain for the masses. same time, they search to attribute blame (Front Islamique du Salut, FIS) as the main During the civil war, Algeria witnessed the at the national level in terms of finding political party in the country. The interrup­ development of a descriptive literature those whose moral and political failures tion of the electoral process by the army that analyzes the mental state of the have brought the country to crisis (Mil­ in January 1992 exacerbated the tensions, popu lation and the supposed illnesses of stein). This investment in politics is espe­ and the country fell into a spiral of polit­ the country (corruption, violence, funda­ cially evident for a novelist such as Rachid ical violence, leading to the disaggrega­ mentalism). This tendency was high­ Boudjedra. A former nationalist militant tion of the national community. At the lighted by the rise of a new generation of during the war of independence, the nov­ same time, Algeria faced a structural authors, such as Yasmina Khadra and elist born in 1941 was ostracized by the adjustment program, the dismantlement Boualem Sansal, who excelled in the regime for a few years in the 1960s before of public services and an economic liber­ genre of the crime novel—a kind of writing returning to Algeria. Writing both in alization that benefited crony capitalists that is well­suited to describing psycho­ French and in Arabic, he became a major (Brahimi El Mili). logical and cultural deviance. In their figure in the national literary field and a This historical context allows us to better works published at the end of the 1990s, close counselor of many ministers situated grasp the position of our social category. both of these writers described a society to the left of the ruling coalition. Yet, the Once belonging to the elite, these actors tortured by paranoia, intolerance, histori­ victory of the FIS during the legislative were suddenly confronted with increased cal confusion and cynicism (Khadra; elections of December 1991 endangered competition in the intellectual field (nota­ Sansal). While very different in style, both him both as an individual associated with bly by Islamist figures), a growing precar­ Khadra and Sansal were products of the the governing elite and as a secular intel­ iousness resulting from structural adjust­ developmental state’s elite schools in the lectual. In 1992, a few months after the mil­ ment, and Jihadi violence against secular 1970s; Khadra was trained in Cherchell’s itary coup, Boudjedra published a pam­ figures. Some of them left the country military academy, and Sansal graduated phlet entitled “FIS de la haine,” in which he because of the war. While they had been from the Polytechnic School of Algiers. As moved away from his position as a novelist trained to become a vanguard leading the such, they were confronted with the gap to offer a stylized but nonetheless virulent way to social and intellectual advance­ between official promises and the reality account of the country’s political situation. ment, they were brutally confronted with of crisis. While they described a patho­ As a communist, Boudjedra had often cri­ the crisis experienced by the country dur­ logical and morbid society, they also ticized the conservatism of Algerian soci­ ing the 1980s­1990s (El Kenz).
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