Pieds-noirs (France)

Last modified: 2008-12-26 by ivan sache
Keywords: pieds-noirs | feet: 2 (black) | oran | algiers | constantine | gavino (jean-paul) | francais d'algerie |
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• Presentation of the Pieds-noirs
• No pied-noir flag
• Tricolor flag with two black feet
• Flag of "The French of Algeria"

• France
• Algeria

Presentation of the Pieds-noirs

"Pieds-noirs" (sometimes written "pieds noirs"), lit. "black-foot", is the name given to the colonists of French nationality who lived in Algeria before the independence, and, mostly, to those of them repatriated (known in French as rapatriés) after the independence.
The name "pied-noir" does not seem to have been widely used before 1955. Moreover, in the beginning of the 20th century, "pied-noir" was used to designate the firemen of steam ships, who mostly worked with bare feet coloured in black by coal, and Arabs of Algeria, since most firemen at that time were Algerian Arabs [Grand Robert de la Littérature Française].
Before the troubles that preceded the independence of Algeria, the colonists' community of Algeria did not use a specific name but "Algerians" or "Northern Africans", calling the natives "Arabs" or "Moslims". The Moslims who remained faithful to France are not called "pieds-noirs" but "harkis".

In 1959, there were some 1,025,000 pieds-noirs in Algeria. Between spring and September 1962, some 900,000 of them, feeling abandoned and betrayed by the French government, especially by General de Gaulle, during the preparation of independence, left Algeria to France in quite chaotic conditions. The government had expected only 200,000-300,000 temporary rapatriés and did very little to help the newcomers, most of them having never been to continental France before and having no relatives there. The massive input of these people caused significant resentment in France, the pieds-noirs being considered as responsible of the defeat. Most pieds-noirs belonged to the lower classes (workers, shop owners); they suffered more from the war, getting very low compensation, if any, from the French government for their lost goods, than they had supported it. However, they quickly showed their skills and solidarity and became famous as hard workers, accepting jobs that nobody else would have cared to do. Their contribution of the development of France in the 1960-1970s has been widely recognized, especially in the big towns of the south of France, such as Nice, Montpellier, Perpignan, Toulon and, most of all, Marseilles. The need to house all these people partially explain the swift urbanization of the Mediterranean coast and its negative consequences for the environment.

The pied-noir community is today fully "integrated" to the French society, which is not at all the case of the "harkis". While considering themselves as French, and being legally so - Algeria was not part of the colonial Empire but made of departments with the same status as the continental ones - the pieds noirs have developed in Algeria their own culture. After the repatriation, they have proudly preserved their immediatly recognizable accent and idiomatic language, called pataouète, and fed with Catalan, Spanish, Italian, Arab and Provencal roots, reflecting the diversity of the pied-noir population. There were significant local differences, for instance the region of Oran was mostly inhabited by pieds-noirs of Spanish origin while the eastern part of Algeria was mostly under Italian influence.
The popular heritage of the pieds-noirs has been illustrated by several humorists and actors, such as the duo Robert Castel and Lucette Sahuquet and Marthe Villalonga. Playing with stereotypes (the pied-noir couple, the Jewish mother...), these artists have often been scorned exactly as the pieds-noirs had been in the 1960s, considered as naive, noisy and ignorant people, not really worth being welcomed in France. In a more subtle way, with much less stereotypes, Alex Métayer has developed a very personal re-enaction of the life in Algeria, often plyaing all the characters in his shows, from the great- great mother to the Jewish musicians singing "My funny Valentine" with an incredible pied-noir accent. Even more famous, Guy Bedos has concealed his pied-noir roots in most of his shows, but they are still there; during the War of Algeria, he refused to take the arms "against his brothers" and produced the show Coup de soleil (Sunburst) on ther eve of the First Gulf War, featuring "the Arab" Smaïn and "the Jew" Michel Boujenah. Another emblematic defender of the pied-noir heritage is the singer, guitarist and peace militant Enrico Macias (b. 1938 to a Jewish family in Constantine). The athlet Alain Mimoun (b. 1921), winner of the marathon in the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne and famous for his friendly rivalry with Emil Zátopek, and since then a kind of national hero, is probably the most emblematic pied-noir of "lower" origin.
However, Algeria and especially Algiers, was also a hotspot of culture, for instance during the Second World War. The writers and philosophers Albert Camus (1913-1960, awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1957), Louis Althusser (1918-1990, the "pope" of structural marxism), Emmanuel Roblès (1914-1995) and Jacques Derrida (1930-2004, the founder of deconstruction) were all pieds-noirs.

A sizeable part of the pied-noir community did not accept the independence of Algeria and its sad consequences for them and turned into a very revendicative fraction, especially in the south of France. These people were lured by xenophobic parties such as the Front National, which considered them as a potential reservoir of votes. Very visible in the media, the radical pieds-noirs contributed to the image of the pieds-noirs, as a whole community, as racist people, which most of them are not. The pieds-noirs have formed several associations, some of them actively supporting radical positions, other asking for the recognition of their culture and heritage and the compensation of their losses in Algeria, a case still not fully resolved.

Ivan Sache, 13 August 2008

No pied-noir flag

There is no flag representing the whole pied-noir community and widely used by them. This seems logic since the pieds-noirs first defined themselves as French and cherish the French national flag; moreover, their wide political and geographical scattering prevent them to appear as a united community. While several pieds-noirs are involved in politics, the few attempts to set up a specific pied-noir party all failed. The Parti Pied-Noir (PPN), founded in 1999 by André Cherid (d. 2007) never reached a national and even local visibility.

Ivan Sache, 13 August 2008

Tricolore flag with two black feet

Pied-noir flag, two variants - Images by Marc Pasquin, 13 August 2008

A colour photo of a group of pilgrims from the Diocese of Fréjus-Toulon visiting Rome, dated 1 November 2007, shows a French Tricolor flag with two black feet placed vertically.
Another photo of unkonwn origin shows the flag with the two black feet placed horizontally.

The two black feet are used on several websites as a pied-noir symbol, sometimes placed on a Tricolor background. There are cloth patches and insignia with this design but there are very few evidence of real flags. For instance, the ADPN (Association Diffusion Pied Noir) uses posters with a French Tricolore flag charged with two black feet placed vertically inside a white heart bordered in black.

Ivan Sache & Marc Pasquin, 13 August 2008

Flag of "The French of Algeria"

Flag of the French of Algeria - Image by Ivan Sache, 13 August 2008

A drapeau des Français d'Algérie has been designed by the singer Jean-Paul Gavino, a representative of the radical trend of the pied-noir community.
The flag is vertically divided blue-white-black. Blue represents the Mediterranean Sea, white the white towns of Algeria, and black the pain of mourning and exile. The coats of arms of the three main towns of Algeria are placed in the middle of each stripe, respectively Oran, Algiers and Constantine. The motto N'oublie / jamais / l'Algérie (Never forget Algeria) is written in black letters in the white stripe.
The flag is shown as square but is indeed sold in three sizes with proportions 2:3 (30 x 45 cm; 80 x 120 cm; 100 x 150 cm).
There is a photo of the flag presented by Jean-Paul Gavino during a concert in Cannes in 2007, showing the flag with proportions 2:3 and the lesser arms of the three towns (without the mural crown and the supporters).

The arms of Oran are described and illustrated in great detail by Edgar Attias.
Oran, allegedly founded by Andalous seamen in 902, was fiercely disputed between the Spaniards and the Beys of Mascara, who settled there in 1792 and were expelled by the French on 4 January 1831. The Spanish heritage of Oran also contributed to the design of the municipal arms. In 1921, Captain Baudin sent a letter to the editor of L' Écho d'Oran, exposing the inconsistency in the representation of the arms in different places of the town. It seems that the "official" arms of Oran were those painted on the ceiling of the meeting room of the Town Hall, but that the Municipal Council had never discussed arms nor adopted any. The inconsistency was solved only on 29 May 1936, when the Municipal Council officially adopted arms based on the painting of the town hall's ceiling. The greater arms of the town, as represented on Gavino's flag, were designed by the "official" heraldist Robert Louis and adopted by the Municipal Council on 6 May 1960, with the following blason:

Écartelé au premier de gueules au coq d'argent la patte dextre posée sur une boule d'or au deuxième d'or à la nef antique de sable, la proue en tête de lion, équipée d'argent pavillonnée de France moderne, posée sur une mer ondée d'argent et d'azur, au troisième de sinople au croissant d'or surmonté d'une étoile aussi d'or. Au quatrième contre-écartelé I et IV de gueules à la tour d'or au II et III d'argent au lion d'argent, au chef du tout : d'azur semé de fleurs de lys d'or.
Ornements extérieurs : L'écu sommé d'une couronne murale à cinq tours, ouverte de quatre pièces, ajourée et maçonnée de sable est supporté par deux lions d'or arm&ecute;s et lampassés de gueules, le tout posé sur un entablement d'argent retenant un pampre tigé et feuillé d'or, fruité de pourpre de cinq pièces.

Quarterly I. Gules a roaster argent the dexter foot on a ball or, II. a nave antique sable, a lion's head in prow and sails argent, with an ensign of France modern, sailing on a sea wavy argent and azure, III. Vert a crescent or surmonted by a mullet of the same, IV. Quarterly 1. and 4. Gules a tower or 2. and 3. Argent a lion gules, a chief azure semy of fleurs-de-lis or.
Ornaments: The shield topped by a five-towers mural crown [...] masoned sable, is supported by two lions armed and langued gules [...].

The arms of Algiers are described by Georges Ortéga as follows.
The municipal arms of Algiers were adopted by the Municipal Council on 10 February 1862, after a coat of arms painted on the wall of the former Gate of the Marine, discovered on 5 July 1830 during the seizure of the town by the French. The so-called Byzantine, heart- shaped shield was kept and a Latin cross was added to the existing crescent and lion. The coat of arms is blazoned as follows:

Taillé d'azur et de sinople à la barre d'or brochant sur la partition chargée en chef d'un écusson de gueules à la croix latine d'argent et en pointe d'un lion au naturel contourné, ayant la patte antérieure dextre posée sur un boulet du même. L'azur chargé au chef dextre d'un navire à voiles d'argent contourné, soutenu d'un croissant du même. Le sinople chargé d'une gerbe liée d'or posée en barre. Le tout enfermé dans une bordure d'or.
Ornements extérieurs. L'écu timbré d'une couronne à cinq tours créneléées d'or couvertes en dôme et, celui-ci sommé d'un croissant du même, ouvertes chacune d'une porte de style mauresque de gueules. L'écu posé sur un rayonnement de feuilles de phénix d'argent retenues en pointe par un lien d'azur aux retroussis d'or. La croix de guerre 1939-1945 appendue en pointe de l'écu (citation à l'ordre de l'armée, décision 92 du 11 novembre 1948).

Per bend sinister azure and vert, a bend sinister or all over in chief an escutcheon gules a Latin cross argent in base a lion contourned proper the dexter forepaw on a ball of the same. The bend sinister azure charged in chief dexter with a nave with sails argent contourned supported by a crescent of the same. The bend sinister vert charged per bend sinsiter with a garb banded or. The whole shield fimbriated or.
Ornaments: The shield topped by a five-towers mural crown or [...], the towers roofed by a dome topped with a crescent, all or. The shield placed on radiating leaves of phenix argent in base a band azure. The War Cross 1939-1945 appended in base of the shield [Mention in Dispatches, Decisions #92, 11 November 1948].

The arms of Constantine are described and illustrated by Serge Gilard (Constantine d'hier et d'aujourd'hui website) and blazoned as follows:

Coupé d'azur et de gueules au chevron d'argent brochant sur la partition, accompagné en pointe d'un poisson aussi d'argent posé en fasce.
Couronne murale de cinq tours d'or chargée d'un cheval gai courant contourné de sable.

Per fess azure and gules chevrony argent in base a fish of the same. Topped by a five-crenels mural crown charged with a horse rampant contourned sable.

According to R. Le Viavant (De Cirta à Constantine de 1836 à 1962, ACEP Ensemble, Montpellier), azure represents the sky of Algeria, gules the desert or the gorges of oued (river) Rhumel, which were described by the writer Guy de Maupassant as "a chasm red as if the eternal flames had burned it." The chevron represents the confluency, upstream of Constantine, of the oueds Rhumel and Bou Merzoug, and, maybe, the spurs of the Arab riders. The fish is a barbel, common in the Algerian oueds and representing the Rhumel. The mural crown states that Constantine is a town and represents also the antique town of Cirta. The black, Numidian horse represents the famous black mare Halilifa, which contributed to the lift of the siege of the town by the Tunisians in 1700.
In the Armorial des Communes de l'Algérie Française, Nicolas Vernot and Jean-Paul Fernon point out that the original meaning of the arms of Constantine might have been blurred by the several variations observed in their representation. The date of adoption of the arms is unknown: the French municipality of Constantine was founded in 1854 and the coat of arms was placed on the facade of the town hall, built between 1895 and 1902. The authors of the Armorial believe that Le Viavant deliberately concealed the colonial meaning of the arms, since he forgot to mention that the arms use the French national colours and explicitely rejected the Christian symbolism of the fish. The arms indeed seem to include a topographic representation of Constantine, built on a spur (chevron) separating red gorges (field gules), dominating the Rhumel (field azure) rich in fishes. The chevron might also represent a oued confluency or curve, but the most salient feature of Constantine is its location on a spur. The fish has probably a Christian meaning intended to add legitimity to the first colonists, recalling also that Constantine the Great, after whom the town was named, was the first Christian Roman Emperor. The Arab riders are recalled more by the horse than by the chevron; the Halilifa mare indeed allowed her rider to escape from the besieged town and ride to Algiers to get help. Another possible explanation for the horse is the local stud farm. The arms of Constantine were redrawn by Robert Louis in 1947.

Ivan Sache, 13 August 2008