Testimonies of Forgotten Memory: The Dialectic of Loyalty and Enmity – A Reading of Unpublished Revolutionary Songs from Jijel

Abstract

The Algerian popular memory has preserved a rich and abundant popular heritage that has embraced the hopes and sufferings of ordinary people, faithfully conveyed the vicissitudes of time and the hardships they endured, and recorded their innovative ways of confronting them. This is particularly significant given that Algeria experienced serious political circumstances throughout its long history, the harshest, most influential, and longest-lasting of which was undoubtedly the brutal French colonial occupation (1832–1962), which made every effort to strip Algerians of their distinctive Islamic and Arab identity through brutal and prohibited methods.