President Macron wants to distance himself from France's colonial past. However, the crimes committed in Algeria over a period of 132 years have not been forgotten and Paris still does not want to apologise.
During Algeria’s war of independence (1954 - 1962), 1.5-million Algerians lost their lives seeking freedom.
It was a 15-day campaign of violence.
Martial law was imposed, 44 villages were destroyed and French troops indiscriminately murdered men, women, children and the elderly.
France also carried out 17 nuclear tests in the Algerian desert in the 1960s.
Radioactivity caused the deaths of an estimated 42,000 Algerians, as well as extensive damage to the environment.
France incessantly tried to erase Algeria’s identity.
It closed mosques as well as religious schools, and enacted discriminatory laws to usurp the locals’ land.
The colonial authorities frequently resorted to torture - including electric shocks and the use of water wells as prisons.
In 1880 - 1881, France took the skulls of 37 Algerian resistance fighters and kept them in the Museum of Mankind in Paris.
They were returned over a century later.
France carried out the Seine massacre in 1961.
Police shot Algerians in Paris protesting the occupation of their country - killing an estimated 200-300 people. The authorities tried to cover it up by throwing the victims’ bodies in the Seine River.
France never apologised for its crimes.
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AFRICAN STREAM RESPONDS TO NBC ACCUSING US OF 'MISINFORMATION'
African Stream has been anticipating the day when self-appointed media watchdogs would come for us. 🧵
Well, America's National Broadcasting Company (@NBCNews ) recently had its knives out - after we were named in a new report by Onyx Impact as one of an number of platforms allegedly targeting Black communities with 'misinformation.'
@NBCNews The fact that NBC couldn’t cite a single example of this in our case didn’t seem to bother the broadcaster much.
Generations of Western archaeologists have for a long time overlooked the history of one of the greatest, earliest known civilisations in the world - the Kingdom of Kush - treating it as a mere appendage to Egypt, a mere footnote in the story of pyramids. Today, there is still much to learn about Kush. This week’s Facts of the Week cast light on the kingdom’s history and reveal just how advanced a civilisation in its own right it really was.
Mumia Abu-Jamal, a political prisoner, has been fighting to get out of prison for 42 years. His loved ones have attempted for several years to win his freedom so he can obtain medical treatment for a long-term deteriorating skin condition, as well as other ailments. They have accused the prison of medical neglect.
Abu-Jamal became a Black Panther Party member at age 14 after white racists and a police officer assaulted him in 1968. During his time with the party, the FBI surveilled him through the Counterintelligence Program, better known as COINTELPRO. He then left the party in 1970.
Abu-Jamal started working for radio stations in 1975 and was recognised for reporting on the Philadelphia Police Department's harassment of the MOVE Black revolutionary group.
However, National Public Radio affiliate WHYY's management accused him of not maintaining objectivity and asked him to resign in 1981.
After being accused of shooting Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner on 9 December 1981, Abu-Jamal was sentenced to death in 1982. Multiple legal attempts over four decades have failed to get him out of prison.
It’s hard to imagine, but Israel once attacked a US spy vessel - off the coast of Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula - using fighter jets and motor torpedo boats. It happened on June 8th, 1967, during the six-day Arab-Israeli war.
Tel Aviv claimed it thought the boat belonged to Egypt (then The United Arab Republic) - one of the countries it was fighting.
34 crew members of the USS Liberty lost their lives - with 171 injured. Yet the US didn’t retaliate. (When news of the attack came in, it sent war planes to defend the boat - but recalled them before they reached it.)