A-Infos (en) France, Monde Libertaire - Zohra, are you there? (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

The book opens with a scene of great violence. The father, a Kabyle 
worker employed by the Normandy Metallurgical Society, accompanied by 
his infant son, the author, is rejected by the baker, who publicly 
rants: "Here, we don't sell French bread to Arabs." A whiff of the 
Algerian War, of stupidity, of racism. The description of the scene, 
with its harshness, will shock more than one reader. This is testimony. 
This phrase, "The Bread of the French," appears as the title of Xavier 
Le Clerc's recent book published by Gallimard. Xavier Le Clerc changed 
his name; he was called Hamid Aït-Taleb, and you'll understand why after 
reading it. He recounts the life of his emigrant family, leaving the 
mountains of Kabylie to live in the suburbs of Caen in Normandy, a clash 
of lives. He recalls the recruitment methods of agents of French 
companies who came to Algeria to seek labor, and these men who emigrated 
to France were no longer considered anything more than "wogs," to use 
the baker's phrase. Life in France was difficult for these illiterate 
adults. With the weight of the Algerian War, the looks, the gestures, 
the words, the contempt. Xavier Le Clerc understands that school was his 
lifeline. "And on my school desk, my life played out. The lines of my 
notebook traced the border separating me from my illiterate parents. I 
knew that writing wasn't about producing beautiful, silly rhymes, but 
about entering another world."

He calls upon these authors who understood this Kabylie, including, of 
course, Albert Camus with his report, "The Misfortunes of Kabylie," 
published in Alger Républicain in 1939, but also his friend Louis Guilloux.

A Past That Doesn't Pass

Le Pain des Français incorporates three approaches. The life of this 
family in France, the conquest and exploitation of Algeria, and the 
encounter with the skull of a seven-year-old child killed during 
repression by the French army. Xavier Le Clerc understands that the 
skeletons of men and women are preserved in the basements of the Musée 
de l'Homme in Paris. You may remember the Hottentot Venus, Xavier Le 
Clerc evokes the martyrdom of her. Bugeaud's conquest of Algeria was a 
series of crimes, as the texts and testimonies demonstrate. A past that 
does not pass! In 1871, a major revolt broke out in Kabylie. Some were 
deported to New Caledonia, where they were reunited with Louise Michel, 
one of the few who paid them any attention. Heads were cut off and the 
skulls were shipped like trophies to France. They are offered like 
gazelle horns, elephant tusks, wild animal skins... The human person was 
only an animal, an object. And the numbered skull of this seven-year-old 
child, whom Xavier Le Clerc calls Zohra, ends up in the Musée de 
l'Homme. A dialogue is established between the author and this child. 
The conquest of Algeria is evoked, the families who took refuge in 
caves, smoked and walled up, the savagery of "pacification" as they 
called it, the absurdity of colonization. Few were those who, at that 
time, that of the Third Republic, denounced these facts. Let us remember 
that some collected human bones, and not for museums. Let us remember 
that the skeletons were exhumed from cemeteries and crushed, used to 
stabilize roads, or even as a basis for fertilizer production. The 
administration reallocated land, changed the names of people who thus 
lost their identity. The settlers refused any opening. The Blum-Violette 
project was rejected, as was dialogue with Ferhat Abbas. Violence 
ensued, and the rest is history. Xavier Le Clerc confides in this child 
about her life, her choices, and the resulting difficulties. A text also 
imbued with beautiful poetry. To Zohra, he writes: "Who remembers you, 
our hamlet with its molten gold horizon, crossed by a thousand black 
birds? And you carry away forever, in your vertigo, the beauty of a 
world that was supposed to disappear at dawn."

* Xavier Le Clerc
Le pain des Français
Ed. Gallimard, 2025

https://monde-libertaire.fr/?articlen=8479
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