Katia Kameli's Algerian Novel

A visual history of the unseen and the unspoken

- Louise Darblay

"There is not occupation of territory, on the one hand, and independence of persons on the other,' radical theorist Frantz Fanon wrote in A Dying Colonialism (1959), to describe what violence settler colonialism did to Algerians' sense of self. 'It is the country as a whole, its history, its daily pulsation that are contested, disfigured.' This year, Algeria (and its former coloniser) celebrated 60 years since it reclaimed its independence, and while the trauma of colonisation is giving way to a more peaceful memory, the country's ensuing attempts at a nation-building project have been plagued by corrupt politicians, military interference, censorship - and a bloody civil war. Decades of regressive and repressive politics led to an unprecedented countrywide protest movement, the Hirak, which in 2019 took to the streets to oppose President Abdelaziz Bouteflika's candidacy for a fifth presidential term and demand the reform of the whole political system into a democratic one. The contested election of Abdelmadjid Tebboune as president that same year has resulted in an increased crackdown on the movement, with the arrest of hundreds of activists, journalists and politicians.