Got a phone call the other night from an Algerian I used to know. It was late and I was a bit drunk, so I didn't believe it was him and was very short and rude. He had a wicked old dad who'd murdered a few Frenchmen during the war of independence, or claimed he had.
Then I realized I had recognized his voice and that it had indeed been him. Attempts to call back failed, so I have written an apologetic letter and addressed it to the two addresses I have for him, one a poste restante in a small desert town, the other an address in the capital which may not be good any more. Can't get the doubtless very expensive postage stamps over the weekend, so I can't post them until tomorrow afternoon at the earliest.
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His elder brother was a member of the Securite militaire, sort of secret police. He was a smallish, pale-faced, very handsome geezer who drank like a fish and drove like a maniac. One night in Algiers, with me aboard, he overcooked it and shunted the car in front.
Its driver got out angrily but the brother flashed his SM card and the poor geezer had to swallow and go off tail between legs. I felt very ashamed but no one else did.
Despite the much-vaunted 'socialism' of Boumedienne's Algeria it was plainly a fascist state.
Last edited by: Armel Coussine on Sun 14 Aug 16 at 16:55
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I have many memories of those days in Algeria, entertaining for the most part but somewhat sinister nevertheless. One is of a large party of Russians eating in the best restaurant in Algiers. Can't remember why I was there because the prices were a bit high for me, and the food wasn't really all that good. I generally ate in more modest establishments.
More than once got horrendous diarrhoea and was as sick as a dog. People were sympathetic but the prevailing paranoia made me suspect someone had put something in my food. With hindsight I don't think they had, just a matter of unfamiliar bacteria.
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I must read Day of the Jackal again.
Armel, can you recommend some other books from the period? Thanks
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Many parts of "Fight or Flight. Britain, France and their Roads from Empire" (2014) by Martin Thomas. This is a comparative history, a scholarly work but superbly written and reads like a novel. A relevant stark film is Pontecorvo's "The Battle for Algiers" (1966).
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>> A relevant stark film is Pontecorvo's "The Battle for Algiers" (1966).
Gillo Pontecorvo, 'The Battle of Algiers'. As you say ambo, stark monochrome movie, relentlessly grim and quite terrifying. Not totally accurate historically, the odd fanciful detail, but pretty close. You wouldn't have wanted to be there.
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>> Armel, can you recommend some other books from the period? Thanks
Sorry Ian, but I can't. Must seem stupid but there it is.
I seem to remember not liking The Day of the Jackal much. Macho in a way that didn't appeal to me. But I don't have a clear memory of it.
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I don't have a clear memory of it.>:)
So many things in the past I can't remember maybe a good job.
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From the past - Armel Coussine
