Soccer, post-colonial and post-conflict discourses in Algeria: Algérie-France, 6 Octobre 2001,“ce n'était pas un simple match de foot”

摘要

This paper reports an analysis of press articles of selected Algerian francophoneudnewspapers, which were published before, during and after a ‘friendly’ soccer gameudbetween the French and Algerian national teams on 6 October 2001, in the Stade deudFrance in Paris. The paper seeks to identify how the ‘identity’ and sense of belongingudof French-Algerians, known also as Beurs, Maghrebins, les émigrés de France, orudFrançais-plus was located, negotiated in the Algerian journalistic discourse. Itudconsiders the manner in which concepts such as ‘culture’, ‘locality’ ‘nationhood’ andud‘citizenship’ were mobilized to define or situate the identity of Algerian immigrantsud(or those of Algerian origin) in comparison with that of Algerian (local-national)udidentity. The ‘friendly’ soccer game between the two national teams become audsymbolic space, another occasion, for remembering the French-Algerian colonialudpast. Moreover, it represented an opportunity to reposition Algeria in theudinternational (sporting) arena, and more importantly, to reassert social ties betweenudAlgerians, as part of the post-conflict process for national reconciliation. This wasudthe product of more than ten years of generalised violence, which has been termed theud‘second war’ (also la guerre sans images) of Algeria, after the first war forudindependence against French colonialism.