The Algerian case was especially egregious in its cultural impact. Algeria was formally annexed to France, and its choice lands settled by tens of thousands of Europeans. A whole new francophone administrative and ruling elite of Algerians emerged with intimate ties to the colonial authorities. Their own worldview began to incorporate large elements of French culture, and they gradually grew alienated from the Arab roots of the country. This elite ultimately came to constitute a built-in social time bomb. In principle, such acculturation into more technically and administratively advanced French society could have benefited Algeria, but after a brutal eight-year armed struggle for independence, the Frankified elite found itself in a highly ambivalent situation: were they more French, or Algerian? A broader question arises: is it a service to a society to educate its elite in an entirely different language than the rest of the countrys population? If a linguistic difference is perpetuated to create a permanent cultural gap between the elite and the rest of the population, it will produce serious political and social conflicts when new native elites arise who are educated in their native Arabic and confront the old francophone elite in a power struggle. Language, and even culture, then becomes a divisive rather than uniting element. These issues have not yet been resolved in the agony of contemporary Algerian politics. ~ Graham E. Fuller, A world without Islam, 2012, pp 285-286.
Posted on: Mon, 02 Dec 2013 05:35:07 +0000
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