Making Peace with Your Enemy
Subtitle: Algerian, French, and South African Ex-Combatants
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Published: 2019
Place of publication: Philadelphia (Pennsylvania), USA
Language: eng
Translated from: fre
Translation of: Le pardon et la rancoeur: Algérie/France, Afrique du Sud, peut-on enterrer la guerre?
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 376
ISBN-13: 9780812251104
Description: "Reconciliation between political antagonists who went to war against each other is not a natural process. Hostility toward an enemy only slowly abates and the political resolution of a conflict is not necessarily followed by the immediate pacification of society and reconciliation among individuals. Under what conditions can a combatant be brought to understand the motivations of his enemies, consider them as equals, and develop a new relationship, going so far as to even forgive them? By comparing the experiences of veterans of the South African and Franco-Algerian conflicts, Laetitia Bucaille seeks to answer this question. She begins by putting the postconflict and postcolonial order that characterizes South Africa, France, and Algeria into perspective, examining how each country provided symbolic and material rewards to the veterans and how past conflict continues to shape the present. Exploring the narratives of ex-combatants, Bucaille also fosters an understanding of their intimate experiences as well as their emotions of pride, loss, and guilt."
Table of contents: title: South Africa: Sparing the Losers; title: Algeria: The Victory over Colonialism; title: France and the Algerian War: Forgetting or Endless Confrontation?; title: South African Ex-Combatants: The Constraints of Reconciliation and the Law of the Market; title: The Ex-Combatants of the FLN: An Eternally Privileged "Revolutionary Family"; title: The Ex-Combatants of the OAS: From Exile to Overintegration; title: Collective Discourse; title: Perpetrating Violence; title: The Intimate Ordeal of Torture; title: Offering Forgiveness/Demanding Apology; title: Extricating Oneself from Domination