This is a particularly sensitive issue. Algiers transmitted a list of goods to be returned by France, during a fifth meeting of the commission of French and Algerian historians, set up to work on the period of French colonization, according to a press release sent on Monday, May 27, to the AFP.
The Algerian side presented, during work held last week at the National Archives Center in Algiers, “an open list of historical and symbolic goods from 19th century Algeria, preserved in different French institutions, offered to the restitution to Algeria in the form of symbolic gestures”.
The Algerian part of the mixed commission “invited the French part to convey its concerns regarding the restitution of cultural, archival and other property”, according to the press release. “The implementation of tangible actions will materialize the active and strong desire to take into account all dimensions of the history of the colonial period,” underlines the document. French historians are committed to “transmitting to President Emmanuel Macron the list transmitted by the Algerian side, so that the goods which can be returned to their land of origin can be done so as quickly as possible”, adds the press release.
At the heart of Algiers’ concerns
On May 7, the Algerian President, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, affirmed that the question of memorial issues must be addressed in a “bold” manner, in a message during the commemoration in Algeria of the massacres that began in Sétif on May 8, 1945.
“The issue of memory cannot be the subject of concessions or compromise, and will remain at the heart of our concerns until its objective, bold and equitable treatment of the historical truth,” declared Abdelmadjid Tebboune.
In December, the Algerian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ahmed Attaf, indicated that the postponement of the Algerian president’s state visit to France depended on the resolution of several issues, including that of memory. Ahmed Attaf had notably criticized the refusal of the French authorities to return the burnous and the sword of Emir Abdelkader, hero of the resistance to French colonization.
The creation of the joint commission, with ten members, was announced in August 2022 in Alger by the French presidents Emmanuel Macron and the Algerian president Abdelmadjid Tebboune, to “look together at the historical period” going from the start of French colonization (1830) to the end of the war of independence (1962). A new meeting is planned for July in France.