weekend update
happenings:
thursday I sat in on a book club that meets at the Bibliothèque Biomedicale, a private library/study hall for medical students that's run by the "Pères blancs," French Catholic priests who've been here since Algeria was a French colony. The Pères still run a number of libraries and educational facilities in Algeria, and although their presence isn't nearly what it was before independence, they still provide important resources for students and young people.
the Père who runs this library is a French-speaking Spaniard who spent a number of years in West Africa and a couple of years in Cairo before coming to Algeria - I think he's been here two years. he's relatively young, and very good at Arabic; he's the one who directed me to the teacher who gives Arabic lessons downtown.
Anyway he runs a book club - a "literary circle" :) - that meets monthly at the Bibliothèque - each month, the participants decide on a theme, and each participant reads a book of his or her choice to present to the group the next month. This month's theme, conveniently, was "Algeria," so I brought along my half-read copy of Alistair Horne's A Savage War of Peace (a good history of the Algerian War of Independence) and my cousin Nibras (who hates reading but loves a good conversation) to contribute to the circle.
It's an interesting group - about fifteen people, most of whom are medical students (Algerian). there's also a third-year undergrad majoring in spanish-english translation, a second-year law student, and a high schooler. The non-students include a middle-aged francisante Algerian nurse; a young French woman who moved here to work at the Bibliothèque; an elderly French woman who moved here with her husband a few years ago; and a Rwandan nun - and then the Père himself.
Most had chosen novels or memoirs by Algerian authors - about the War of Independence, about the civil war of the 1990s, about being Berber (or Amazight, the pc term for Berber), about being female, about being in love. really interesting topics, each of which led to really interesting conversations, the most dynamic of which centered around the relationship between Algeria and France and between Algerians and the French - the students of the group frustrated at the fact that France has been slow to recognize that the war of independence in fact was a war (and not a "police action") and to take responsibilty for the atrocities committed therein; the elders of the group (including the Algerian nurse) eager to "turn the page," forgive and forget. the older french woman and the Algerian nurse both remarked that this generation - my generation - seems much more bitter than theirs about colonization and the war. the students admitted as much: the high schooler talked about how colonization is taught in school as a dark period, how the French are painted as heinous figures who exploited the country and the people in the name of liberté, égalité, democracy, etc.
which isn't wrong - in a general sense, it's exactly what happened. if people today are still resentful - or more resentful, even, than in the past - it's because conditions haven't progressed to the point where Algeria is on equal footing economically or politically with France. Algerians still migrate to France in droves looking for work (Algeria was at a 30% unemployment rate in 2000 - it's still at more than 20% today)
identity was also a major talking point - Algeria's identity as a nation of Berber/Amazight-Arabs, where virtually no one is "pure" Arab or "pure" Berber; Algeria's linguistic identity; Algeria's attempts to establish for itself an official history that satisfies all of its social groups.
the conversation was all in French.
thursday evening I had dinner with the director of the future Centre d'Etudes Maghrebines en Algerie, a soon-to-be-operational branch of the US-based American Institute of Maghrib Studies (AIMS and CEMA are both private research groups run by academics who study North Africa). The CEMA director is very cool, a PhD student from the University of Texas at Austin who's been here since March trying to get the center off the ground.
The center itself is located in an old dorm building at one of the University of Oran campuses at the city's periphery. The building was donated to CEMA by the state, but it was in such poor condition when they received it that Bobby, the director, has been working with contractors and construction crews for the better part of a year to renovate the interior.
it's almost done - he showed me photos and floor plans of the site: a central computer area, a small library/documentation center, a conference room, an office for the director, another for the assistant director, and four small offices for individual visiting researchers. the grand opening date is set for the end of March, and it looks like it'll happen, which is good news.
Saturday I met him and his fiancée, an American of Latin American descent, and his assistant director, a young Kabyle (Berber) from Algiers, to go carpet shopping for the center. His fiancée is really sweet - she's been here all of four days, so after browsing carpets she and I headed off to buy her a cell phone card and left Bobby and Karim, the assistant director, back at Bobby's apartment. this was liberating - a chance, finally, to walk around the city and the Front de Mer without cousins or family - a little bit of independence gained :).
saturday evening, French class was interrupted by two tiny "tremblements de terre" - echoes of an earthquake that hasn't happened yet. that was exciting - I've never lived on a fault line, and there's a fairly significant one not far from Oran.
and finally: Friday evening, Khalil, my cousin's 14-month old son, took his first steps. thursday his mom and I had been at the hammam, where we met another young toddler running after her mother. "How old is she?" my cousin asked the mother. "Thirteen months." "Thirteen months? And running? Mine doesn't even walk yet!" - and my cousin gave Khalil (who accompanied us at the hammam) a dirty look and a light swat on the bottom. So he's gotten the message, it seems.
thursday I sat in on a book club that meets at the Bibliothèque Biomedicale, a private library/study hall for medical students that's run by the "Pères blancs," French Catholic priests who've been here since Algeria was a French colony. The Pères still run a number of libraries and educational facilities in Algeria, and although their presence isn't nearly what it was before independence, they still provide important resources for students and young people.
the Père who runs this library is a French-speaking Spaniard who spent a number of years in West Africa and a couple of years in Cairo before coming to Algeria - I think he's been here two years. he's relatively young, and very good at Arabic; he's the one who directed me to the teacher who gives Arabic lessons downtown.
Anyway he runs a book club - a "literary circle" :) - that meets monthly at the Bibliothèque - each month, the participants decide on a theme, and each participant reads a book of his or her choice to present to the group the next month. This month's theme, conveniently, was "Algeria," so I brought along my half-read copy of Alistair Horne's A Savage War of Peace (a good history of the Algerian War of Independence) and my cousin Nibras (who hates reading but loves a good conversation) to contribute to the circle.
It's an interesting group - about fifteen people, most of whom are medical students (Algerian). there's also a third-year undergrad majoring in spanish-english translation, a second-year law student, and a high schooler. The non-students include a middle-aged francisante Algerian nurse; a young French woman who moved here to work at the Bibliothèque; an elderly French woman who moved here with her husband a few years ago; and a Rwandan nun - and then the Père himself.
Most had chosen novels or memoirs by Algerian authors - about the War of Independence, about the civil war of the 1990s, about being Berber (or Amazight, the pc term for Berber), about being female, about being in love. really interesting topics, each of which led to really interesting conversations, the most dynamic of which centered around the relationship between Algeria and France and between Algerians and the French - the students of the group frustrated at the fact that France has been slow to recognize that the war of independence in fact was a war (and not a "police action") and to take responsibilty for the atrocities committed therein; the elders of the group (including the Algerian nurse) eager to "turn the page," forgive and forget. the older french woman and the Algerian nurse both remarked that this generation - my generation - seems much more bitter than theirs about colonization and the war. the students admitted as much: the high schooler talked about how colonization is taught in school as a dark period, how the French are painted as heinous figures who exploited the country and the people in the name of liberté, égalité, democracy, etc.
which isn't wrong - in a general sense, it's exactly what happened. if people today are still resentful - or more resentful, even, than in the past - it's because conditions haven't progressed to the point where Algeria is on equal footing economically or politically with France. Algerians still migrate to France in droves looking for work (Algeria was at a 30% unemployment rate in 2000 - it's still at more than 20% today)
identity was also a major talking point - Algeria's identity as a nation of Berber/Amazight-Arabs, where virtually no one is "pure" Arab or "pure" Berber; Algeria's linguistic identity; Algeria's attempts to establish for itself an official history that satisfies all of its social groups.
the conversation was all in French.
thursday evening I had dinner with the director of the future Centre d'Etudes Maghrebines en Algerie, a soon-to-be-operational branch of the US-based American Institute of Maghrib Studies (AIMS and CEMA are both private research groups run by academics who study North Africa). The CEMA director is very cool, a PhD student from the University of Texas at Austin who's been here since March trying to get the center off the ground.
The center itself is located in an old dorm building at one of the University of Oran campuses at the city's periphery. The building was donated to CEMA by the state, but it was in such poor condition when they received it that Bobby, the director, has been working with contractors and construction crews for the better part of a year to renovate the interior.
it's almost done - he showed me photos and floor plans of the site: a central computer area, a small library/documentation center, a conference room, an office for the director, another for the assistant director, and four small offices for individual visiting researchers. the grand opening date is set for the end of March, and it looks like it'll happen, which is good news.
Saturday I met him and his fiancée, an American of Latin American descent, and his assistant director, a young Kabyle (Berber) from Algiers, to go carpet shopping for the center. His fiancée is really sweet - she's been here all of four days, so after browsing carpets she and I headed off to buy her a cell phone card and left Bobby and Karim, the assistant director, back at Bobby's apartment. this was liberating - a chance, finally, to walk around the city and the Front de Mer without cousins or family - a little bit of independence gained :).
saturday evening, French class was interrupted by two tiny "tremblements de terre" - echoes of an earthquake that hasn't happened yet. that was exciting - I've never lived on a fault line, and there's a fairly significant one not far from Oran.
and finally: Friday evening, Khalil, my cousin's 14-month old son, took his first steps. thursday his mom and I had been at the hammam, where we met another young toddler running after her mother. "How old is she?" my cousin asked the mother. "Thirteen months." "Thirteen months? And running? Mine doesn't even walk yet!" - and my cousin gave Khalil (who accompanied us at the hammam) a dirty look and a light swat on the bottom. So he's gotten the message, it seems.