The term algerianism has had two meanings in history, one during the French colonial era, and another one after the independence of Algeria.

[edit] French period

During the French colonial era, algérianisme was a literary genre with political overtones, born among French Algerian writers who hoped for a common Algerian future culture, uniting French settlers and native Algerians. The terme algérianiste was used for the first time in a 1911 novel by Robert Randau, "Les Algérianistes".^[1] A Cercle algérianiste was created in France in 1973 by Pieds-Noirs, with several local chapters. It has for "purpose to safeguard the cultural heritage born from the French presence in Algeria." ^[2]

[edit] Post-independence period

In Algerian contemporary politics, algerianist is a political label given to Algerian nationalists whose aim is to make of Algeria a real nation-state beyond the ethnic and cultural differences between Arabs and Berbers, and not just a political and cultural satellite of the Middle East or France.

The modern Arabic language actually has two distinct words which can be translated into English as "nationalism": qawmiyya قومية, derived from the word qawm (meaning "tribe, ethnic nationality"), and wataniyya وطنية, derived from the word watan (meaning "homeland, native country"). The word qawmiyya has been used to refer to pan-Arab nationalism, while wataniyya has been used to refer to patriotism at a more local level (sometimes disparaged as "regionalism" by those who consider pan-Arabism the only true form of Arab nationalism).^[3] Algerianim is the Algerian patriotism, against panarabist nationalism and Kabyle separatism (neo-Shu'ubiyya).

[edit] Notes and sources

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