Colonial divide-and-rule pitted Kabyles against Arabs in Algeria

Evidence

In the past, the Kabyle and the Arab had little love for each other, and — in the best colonial tradition — it was often the policy of French administrators to set one off against the other. More orthodox in religion than the Kabyles, the Arabs were at the same time perhaps more supple in their mental processes, and shrewder businessmen. As townsmen and lowlanders they had had the most contact with French culture, and had also suffered, directly, the most in that it was largely their patrimonial lands that had come within the grasp of the colons. — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 150 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

There were two further inconsistencies. To begin with, in having imposed upon them by the French the Arab judicial system, the Berber Kabyles had been made to accept a social structure that had been alien to them in the first place. Secondly, in 1870 the Crémieux Decrees had made the exception of conferring automatic French citizenship upon the whole Jewish community of Algeria. Here, for Muslims, was a constantly open wound: why should the Jewish minority be open to political privileges denied to the indigenous majority? — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 100 (#expands, via linked claim)

We do not here consider rural areas where the woman is often unveiled. Nor do we take into account the Kabyle woman who, except in the large cities, never uses a veil. For the tourist who rarely ventures into the mountains, the Arab woman is first of all one who wears a veil. This originality of the Kabyle woman constitutes, among others, one of the themes of colonialist propaganda bringing out the opposition between Arabs and Berbers. — Frantz Fanon, A Dying Colonialism, 239 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Si Chérif’s Arab-Kabyle feud defected a whole katiba to the French; French colonial policy deliberately divided Kabyle against Arab populations — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 150; Kabyle women’s non-veiling became a colonial propaganda tool to divide Arabs and Berbers — Frantz Fanon, A Dying Colonialism, 239 (+4 more)

Related

• French colonial policy deliberately divided Kabyle against Arab populations (similarity 0.92)
• French laws granted Jews citizenship while imposing alien judicial structures on Kabyles (similarity 0.87)
• Si Chérif’s Arab-Kabyle feud defected a whole katiba to the French (similarity 0.85)
• Kabyle women’s non-veiling became a colonial propaganda tool to divide Arabs and Berbers (similarity 0.85)
• Arab-Kabyle rivalry forced collective revolutionary leadership from the start (similarity 0.84)
• The F.L.N. feared a sectarian Arab-Kabyle split exploit by the French. (similarity 0.84)
• Colonial Algeria contained three distinct peoples speaking different languages (similarity 0.83)
• The Arab-Kabyle split was the F.L.N.’s chief nightmare exploited by the French. (similarity 0.83)
• Algerian Berbers were mostly Arabised by 1954 but remained a warlike, unruly people (similarity 0.82)
• Colonialism deliberately fostered division between Algerian Jews and Moslems (similarity 0.82)
• Algeria split between Europeanised coast and Muslim-populated mountain interior (similarity 0.81)
• Muslims and pieds noirs were separated by incompatible religious, cultural and economic orientations (similarity 0.79)
• Algerian Jews were caught between European and Muslim worlds (similarity 0.79)
• The Crémieux Decrees granted Jews citizenship while denying it to Muslims (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• French colonial policy deliberately divided Kabyle against Arab populations #corroborates (0.95) — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 150
• French laws granted Jews citizenship while imposing alien judicial structures on Kabyles #expands (0.65) — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 100
• Kabyle women’s non-veiling became a colonial propaganda tool to divide Arabs and Berbers #expands (0.60) — Frantz Fanon, A Dying Colonialism, 239
• Arab-Kabyle rivalry forced collective revolutionary leadership from the start #expands (0.55)
• Colonial Algeria contained three distinct peoples speaking different languages #expands (0.40) — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 159