Black Holes, Dark Matter, and Buried Troves: Decolonization and the Multi-Sited Archives of Algerian Jewish History (original) (raw)

2015, American Historical Review

Amidst the denouement of the Algerian war of independence (1954-1962), a variety of international parties, including officials in Israel, France, and Algeria, competed to micromanage, acquire, and steward documents pertaining to the small community of Jews in the Algerian Sahara. Reflecting back on the unique colonial history of southern Algeria, this paper reconstructs the ways in which French colonial classifications haunted the post-colonial era, continuing to affect Jews of southern Algerian origin long after the Algerian Sahara ceased to be home to Jews and Algeria became a sovereign nation; and argues that in the era of decolonization, the struggle to control papers pertaining to Saharan Jewish history abetted a spectrum of local, communal, and national projects. Moving outward, the article meditates on that which is unique—and that which is generalizable—about archives of the post-colonial era, suggesting that they are uniquely multi-sited, yet political, contentious centers of conversation. It concludes by exploring contemporary echoes of its case study apparent in the political intricacies that surround various extant and/or endangered North African and Middle Eastern Jewish archival collections.