1D54D74C4B788B01A39CE8E6899019C7 Cultural diplomacy and political goals: “Cheb Macron's” ode to Algerian gas -->
U3F1ZWV6ZTQxMzQwNzAyOTQ1X0FjdGl2YXRpb240NjgzMzMxMjYxMjY=
recent
أخبار ساخنة

Cultural diplomacy and political goals: “Cheb Macron's” ode to Algerian gas

moustafa
Home

Macron's attempt to relate to popular Algerian music backfires

Originally published on Global Voices

 

French President Emmanuel Macron standing with Boualem Benhaoua the owner of Disco Maghreb at his studio Disco Maghreb. Algeria's city of Oran, 27 August 2022. Screenshot from a video by AFP. Fair use.

French President Emmanuel Macron's three-day visit to Algeria ended on August 29, with a historic stopover in the city of Oran, during which he visited the fortress and the Church of Santa Cruz, two of the most important Christian monuments in Algeria. Then he headed to Disco Magreb, a famous music record shop, which is seen as the home of popular Algerian raï music. Macron’s stop aimed at winning the hearts of the Algerian youth, after nearly two years of cold relations between the two countries.

Evidently Macron has some awareness of raï music: in the picture in this tweet, Macron is carrying a cassette for Cheb Hasni who was assassinated by two unknown people in 1994 at the height of his youth and fame, shocking Algerians.

Emmanuel Macron photographed with a legendary Cheb Hasni cassette, it's too crazy

Disco Maghreb has an interesting story. It closed its doors nearly 20 years ago, despite being one of the biggest brands in which icons of the Algerian raï world, such as Cheb Khaled, Cheb Mami and Cheb Hasni.

Even so, Disco Maghreb had not drawn its last breath yet — quite the contrary, it was reborn after Franco-Algerian artist DJ snake released a music video called Disco Maghreb, that used a mix of chaoui, Al-Nayli, Al-Qasbah, and Al-Rai rhythms. The video pays tribute to Snake’s Algerian roots — his mother is Algerian. The artist explained in a tweet that he imagined Disco Maghreb to be “a bridge between different generations and origins, linking North Africa, the Arab world and beyond.

Since its upload on YouTube on May 31, the video has garnered nearly 86 million views, and that number is still growing. 

A warm official welcome but an indignant public reception

In his journey, Macron sought to focus on the future, and on revitalizing cooperation and partnership between the two countries. For his part, Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune welcomed the “positive dynamic” in the relationship between the two countries, stressing the promising prospects for improving the special partnership linking them.

Despite the warm official reception, and the widely celebrated stopover at Disco Maghreb, the Algerian people had a different opinion. Hundreds of Algerians gathered around Macron’s car in Oran, shouting insults, slogans such as “one, two, three…viva l'Algérie” (long live Algeria), and accusations that the Algerian gas is all Macron cares about. Macron apparently misunderstood the message, and returned a cheery hand gesture to express his gratitude, after which he had to cut short his impromptu walkabout.

The episode was captured on video, and went viral:

Our people in Oran received the French president, Emmanuel Macron with this slogan “Vive l'Algerie”. We don’t have anyone to kiss his hand and other parts.

This caricature summed up the stopover at Disco Maghreb and the reaction to it:

Cheb #Macron was in Oran on Saturday to visit a Christian shrine and the legendary #Raï Disco Maghreb store. The president tried his luck on an impromptu walkabout, which was cut short for security reasons. Decidedly, Algeria and France, what a beautiful love story.

“Cheb Macron” became the center of mockery by the Algerian youth soon after:

This picture mocks the man who visited Algeria as a president and left it as “Cheb Macron”

He left you a president and returned to you as “Cheb Macron.” You must be proud.

Algeria and France, a thorny “love story”

Macron's indignant reception by the Algerian people is not at all surprising. From the popular Algerian perspective, France’s relationship with Algeria is not the “love story” that Macron described during his visit. It is closer to a tumultuous, tedious, and thorny one, marred by an atrocious history of colonization that lasted for 132 years, and which ended in an eight-year brutal revolution, which the Middle East and North Africa unwaveringly refers to as the revolution of 1.5 million martyrs. Algeria snatched its independence from the French in 1962.

Algerian influencer PIC| pictures from history (PIC| suwar min al Tareekh), expressed displeasure following Macron’s statements when he described Algeria’s relationship with France as “a love story that has its share of tragedies:”

#France and #Algeria, a dramatic love story, sometimes you have to fight in order to come back and reconcile. How can such people be allowed to enter a country where they committed massacres.  They call the killing of more than a million martyrs a dramatic love story?

Macron was the first French president after Algerian independence to come close to acknowledging the French colonization of Algeria, and the brutal methods France used to suppress the revolutions. He denounced colonialism as a “crime against humanity,” as early as February 2017, during a trip to Algeria.

He went further than that. On July 24, 2020, he commissioned Algerian-born historian Benjamin Stora to write a report with the aim of “commemorating colonization and the Algerian War.” However, in January 2021, the Elysee refused to apologize for the occupation of Algeria or the bloody war that ended French rule, after receiving the report. The decision sparked criticism on the streets of Algeria, even as the Algerian government kept silent.

A few months later, in October 2021, a political storm led to a straining of ties between the two countries. It followed statements by Macron in which he questioned whether there had been an Algerian nation prior to the French colonial rule, and stated that the Algerian “political-military system” rewrote the history of France's colonialism based on “a grudge against France.”

These statements coincided with France's celebration of the “harki,” the Algerians who fought in the French army to suppress the Algerian revolutionaries. In addition, France decided to reduce the number of visas granted to people from Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia.

The response of the Algerian authorities at the time was immediate and firm: Algeria banned French planes from using its airspace, reduced trade exchanges, and summoned the French ambassador to Algeria, forcing Macron to finally extend a hand of peace in order to calm things down, but without an official apology.

An ode to Algerian gas

The most recent visit, and the attempts to win the favor of the Algerian people, indicate that there has been a change in Macron's position on Algeria. His condescending attitude changed to a strong desire to improve relations between the two countries, in the face of a long and harsh winter awaiting Europe, following Russia’s decision to cut off gas, in retaliation for sanctions against its invasion of Ukraine.

Macron's office insisted that Algerian gas was not a priority on the visit's agenda; still, the head of the French energy firm Engie, Catherine MacGregor, was on the French delegation. Energy expert Jeff Porter of North Africa Risk Consulting said Macron's trip had at least two goals: “Feeling out Algeria's energy sector stability and potential additional export capacity… and trying to woo Algiers away from some of its other diplomatic relationships,” including Russia and China.

Algérie Black Liste summed up the goals of Macron’s visit to Algeria with a caricature of a cassette tape bearing the image of Cheb Macron. The list of songs include: “Harsh winter,” “Give me a lighter,” Russia did not turn around,” and “The gas went to my head,” among others.

“

Written by Mariam Abu Adas, Faizah Falah فايزة فلاح



No comments
Post a Comment

Post a Comment

NameEmailMessage