Africa: The Battle of Algiers

Around the mid twentieth century, Africa saw an increase in independence movements and decolonization efforts. Even up to the 1960s, some European powers still had a colony in Africa, such as France. In 1954, the National Liberation Front (FLN) in Algeria started a guerrilla campaign to gain independence from France. Much later in the decade, South Africa, who gained their independence from Great Briton in 1930, struggled with a racial system called Apartheid. This was used to suppress the native black population, and through racial segregation, the minority white population came into power. This paper will focus on these two events in African history and how the international community comprehended the reality of the two situations. In the case of the Algerian War of Independence, the different strategies that both the FLN and France used will be analyzed by the impact they had on the United Nations and the international community. Secondly, the use of song and culture in South Africa by the native population will be examined, and in particular the effects the Mayibuye Cultural Ensemble and the Amandla Cultural Ensemble had on international audiences and how useful it was in revealing the state of the population under Apartheid rule. Primarily, the films The Battle of Algiers and Amandla! will be used to provide a context, and thus the films will be portrayed through an international viewpoint.

The Battle of Algiers began with with the hiding of rebels in the Casbah, and then flashed back the beginning of the conflict in 1954. The FLN began it's guerilla warfare against French policemen, and in 1956 three separate bombs were planted in civilian areas by the FLN to protest French rule. One should note that women played a crucial...

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...errilla attacks and stage strikes in order to appeal to the UN, and after a while it worked, but it took about five years for the international community to recognize the FLN was the legitimate rulers of the state. This was mostly because they staged attacks on civilians as well as their French oppressors, so both sides were at fault. The ANC realized that they could mobilize and use those who were exiled from South Africa to raise awareness of the apartheid state, and thus used culture and song to portray the events to an international audience. Each group was ultimately successful in their movements, and their pleas to the international community never fell on deaf ears. Thus, while the FLN and ANC took completely different routes, they were both able to garner attention to their respective movements, which helped both groups get on the path towards independence.