Dear Dorlev,
Let's begin with the fact (mentioned also in the comments), that
Algerian immigrants to France, that is Arabs, were never and are not
called "pied noir". Pied Noir ("Black foot") refers to people of
European origin, born in the North African colonies, especially
Algiers (and settled there by or with the support of the colonial
French government, 1830-1962). Numidie mentions, that "The French" is
approximate. Although for all but 18 of those 130 years Algeria was
deemed an integral part of metropolitan France its pied-noir
population was of predominantly non-French origin. It was Maltese,
Sicilian, Spanish. " (http://www.numidie.co.uk/saturdaytimes.htm )
Pierre Jelenc writes: "The phrase "pied-noir" seems to have originated
in West Africa, Senegal probably, and originally was applied to the
French civil servants, who usually wore black leather shoes. The
expression seems to have died out late in the 19th century.
Then -- and it is not sure whether it was a spontaneous reinvention or
a
new application of a remembered obsolete idiom -- it reappeared in
Algeria
well into the 20th century and became widespread only in the late
30's-
early 40's, now applied to native Algerians of European stock where it
was
said to reflect the popularity of Spanish-style black espadrilles
(canvas
sandals).
There is a discussion of the question by Xavier Yaccono in "Les
Pieds-Noirs", a book published about 10 years ago, the name of whose
editor escapes me right now. "
(http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=es&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&selm=5hk8bv%242e2%40panix2.panix.com)
One of the most famous "PIed Noir" is Nobel prize winner Albert Camus.
Other famous pied noirs are Arcady Alexandre (French actor), singer
Enrico Macias.
Regarding their lives today, sociologist Richard Alba found, that "the
pied-noir
population exhibits signs of rapid integration with the native French,
while the Maghrebin population remains apart. A logistic regression
analysis reveals that, based on a few characteristics of their
parents, one can distinguish the Maghrebin from the pied-noir second
generations with a high degree of accuracy". (Source:
http://www.albany.edu/~areilly/albany_asa/confweb02/abs/Alba.html ).
Politically, "The far-right National Front has found a solid core of
support for its anti-Arab polemics among the descendants of the 1.3
million pied-noir settlers in Algeria who were forced to move back to
France after the war. "
http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/fralgier.htm
Another site describes tells: "in 1962, almost all of them (nearly one
million) came back to France, which was an unknown Northern country
for most of them ; most of them were not rich colonialists but
ordinary hard-working people ; one generation later, many have been
very successful in business ; they are friendly and outspoken (and
exuberant...) and constitute a community with a strong culture,
particularly the Jewish (sepharads) which now outnumber the
traditional French Jewish community (ashkenaz). For a funny picture of
this community see the film "La vérité si je mens".
http://perso.club-internet.fr/hwelty/France/Society.html
Books:
The Pied-Noirs: 1960-2000: A Case Study in the Persistence of
Subcultural Distinctiveness
by R. Averell Manes (Hardcover - May 2001)
I hope that helps. I searched throughout the web looking for this
term. If you need any clarifications on this answer, please let me
know. |
Clarification of Answer by
politicalguru-ga
on
22 Apr 2003 05:16 PDT
Dear Dorlev,
Let me apologise for the late response, due to Easter. The material I
found is mostly in French. You might want to use online translators
such as http://world.altavista.com if you don't control the language,
but please be aware that these translators sometimes distort texts
beyond recognition.
The period between 1870 and 1902 was an interesting one regarding the
Pied Noir. In 1870, the Jews of North Africa, despite being in origin
different than the classic Pied Noir, received an equal status to that
of the Europeans, under the Cremieux decree (see for example this
Jewish-Pied-Noir site: www.zlabia.com/pied-noir.htm , in French). From
1871 and onwards, Alsatian refugees arrived to North Africa, adjoining
the already existing European community (see this French site "les
pieds noirs - les rapatriés d'Algérie"
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/felina/doc/alg/piedsnoirs.htm).
Interesting answers to your questions in this specific period could be
found in "Nostalgerie"
(http://perso.club-internet.fr/gagomez/attatba/nostalgerie/nostalgerie.htm).
This site found several other probable sources for the term (military
academy slang, name for the people who stepped on grapes - to make
wine, or to the deportees arriving to Algeria from Europe since 1848
and until 1874 to do mine-work). In general, this word, when existed
before 1955 was a derogatory term: no Pied Noir would define
themselves as such, but as "French-Algerian", "d'Algerianists", etc.
The Arabs, too, called them "Romans" or "Nazeretians". (May I point
here that this is the only source that refers to the names of Pied
Noir in the past).
So, in an interesting twist that is beyond the realms of the period
you're interested in, the formerly derogative term became a symbol of
self identity, and was used in the political level to such extent that
there is a party that calls itself "Pied Noir" in France (maybe
similarly to the usage of "Queer" among politically activist
homosexuals and lesbians?).
Since, as mentioned before, the "Nostalgerie" is the only site
discussing this issues in this period, that I have been able to find,
I encourage you to address the manager of Pied-noirs.org, Roger Vella
at http://www.pieds-noirs.org
I hope this helps to clear up the picture.
|
