The Soummam Congress in French ended Algerian reticence about the colonizer’s language
Evidence
It was after the Congress of the Soummam, in August 1956, that the French became aware of this phenomenon. It will be remembered that on this occasion, the political and military leaders of the Revolution met in the Valley of the Soummam, precisely in the sector of Amirouche, the then Commander, to lay the doctrinal foundations of the struggle and to set up the National Council of the Algerian Revolution (CNRA). The fact that the discussions were carried on in French suddenly revealed to the occupation forces that the traditional general reticence of the Algerian with regard to using French within the colonial situation might no longer exist, when a decisive confrontation brought the will to national independence of the people and the dominant power face to face. — Frantz Fanon, A Dying Colonialism, 312
Categorization
- XREF: Pairs with the widely-cited political milestone; useful grounding for Fanon’s broader claim about language in revolution. — connects to: Combat in 1956 stripped both Arabic and French of their fixed colonial meanings; French language and emotional ties lingered in post-independence Algeria