The Preservation of Historic Architecture in North African Cities: An Overview? This paper will discuss contemporary North African thinking about which urban buildings should be preserved, and how, in the three Maghrebi countries. The work -- published and practical -- of both architects and activists will provide a vantage point on local understanding and appreciation of historic buildings, in particular, and of the region's history, in general. These insights derive from a conference to be held in Oran, Algeria, in May, 2017, attended by scholars, activists, and architects from Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia. This paper will serve as the introduction to the conference papers when they are published as an edited volume.

This paper will trace the interconnected histories of two neighboring monuments in the center of Algiers. One is a mosque from the Ottoman era, the other is the equestrian statue of Duc d’ Orléans (Ferdinand Philippe), the latter placed strategically in front of the seventeenth-century mosque in 1845. The culminating image of the oppositional pair was charged with shifting meanings from the colonial days to the present time, depending on the viewers and the political climates. Even when the pair was physically separated following the Algerian independence, collective memory on both sides of the Mediterranean maintained the association obstinately and continued to ascribe new missions to the unlikely duo. My contextual visual and spatial analysis aims to provoke questions about the relationship between built forms and ideological positions.

In Algeria, monuments from the era of French colonialism met several fates: they were preserved intact, stored locally elsewhere (warehouses and cemeteries), entirely destroyed, seemingly disappeared, replaced with Algerian counterparts, or “repatriated” to France. In addition, the public squares in which they were erected were often architecturally repurposed and rearranged to accommodate post-independence commissioned Algerian monuments after Algerian independence from France in 1962. This presentation focuses on a few case studies of military monuments, war memorials and their surrounding public spaces that were created in colonial Algeria to commemorate the combat veteran. These monuments often included the role of the conscripted Algerian” native” who also died for France in large numbers during two world wars. One of my examples concerns the 10-metre high column topped by sculptures of three soldiers first erected in Oran, western Algeria in 1927. In its partial repatriated form in Lyon, France, a reconstituted war memorial of Oran with the figurative representation of three soldiers became a site for commemorating the lost French Algeria with increasing number of memorialization days by decreasing numbers of the those “repatriated” settlers. In Oran, the remaining column supporting the memorial was transformed into a monument to the martyrs of the Algerian revolution. What are the ways these multiple and multi-sited versions of the same war memorial become a lieu de mémoire? Was the post-independence Algerian state project to revamp colonial-era monuments an example of the decolonization of architecture and space, or yet another instance of culture wars and the politics of recognition? And why, in the last decade, have local Algerian associations for the preservation of the urban architectural heritage, taken up the cause of preserving colonial era monuments and architecture?

Architectural relics of the modern colonial era dot the cityscapes of former colonies the world over, and they often feature largely in the projected urban identities of cities in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East today. Tunisia is no exception. The complex relationships between extant architectures of colonialism and current users, designers, and preservationists are shifting within the context of contemporary globalization. Though ties between France and Tunisia are less overt than they once were—now taking the form of international development loans, professional and educational exchanges, tourism programs, popular culture and the media—they are nonetheless significant in their sustained influence. This paper will explore the nature and products of potential neocolonialism in post-colonial heritage management practices, using several case studies from Tunis. In considering projects such as renovated museums, curated medina walking tours, and the Avenue Bourguiba in Tunis, the paper will also consider resistance to European impositions in the creation of new practices, urban and professional identities there. What do we mean by “neocolonial” in the built environments context? Is it fair to characterize contemporary relationships demonstrated through these projects in Tunis as neocolonial? What can be gained from such a distinction, and what might it tell us about the broader North African context and historic preservation in general?

In France during the Algerian War of Independence, several hundred FLN militants were condemned to death and approximately two dozen executed in various prisons such as Paris, Lyon, Metz, Lille and Dijon especially between 1958 to 1961. These FLN militants, known by Algerians as moudjahid were members of the strike forces (« Groupes de choc », political branch of the FLN) and the Special Organization (« Organisation spéciale », military branch of the FLN). Although French law slowly recognized their status as political prisoners, nonetheless they were treated as common criminals (droit commun). Famously they fought against several opponents in France: Algerian collaborators with the French authorities in France, Messali militants, and the French police. They were guillotined and their bodies first buried anonymously in the section of those condemned to death in French cemeteries. Since Algeria became independent in 1962 and primarily between 1969-1972, the Algerian government rapatriated the bodies of these Algerian militants who has been guillotined in France during the Algerian War. France and Algeria signed a secret treaty of repatriating these bodies. This presentation will track the itineraries of these separated bodies in which the guillotined heads were not buried with their body. I present the chronology of burials in the nameless graves, the exhumations, and the new inhumation in El-Alia cemetery of Algiers from the point of view of Algerian heritage and patrimony. I examine their locations in the new martyrs’ cemetery established after independence, the cenotaphs, sculptural styles and associated ceremonies of commemoration and mourning. Included in my discussion are revived debates by the Algerian Association of the Death Row militants during 2012 concerning the actual integrity of the reburied corpses.