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No other North African legend had been adopted, transformed, and used by as many social groups as that of the Kahina myth. In this book, Abdelmajid Hannoum examines the role the myth played in what may be called an ideological conquest. Since its inception in the 9th century, the Kahina legend has provided the ideological armature for use in anticolonial struggles, North African nationalism, Berber nationalism, and Arab feminism. But the Kahina story has also provided the ideological justification for incursions into North Africa by various groups who used the legend to articulate the region as Arab, sometimes French, sometimes Berber, and sometimes Jewish. His book further explores the processes and context in which memories of the past are transformed and shaped, not only by those recounting the legend orally, but by historians writing about North Africa, Islam, and French colonial rule in the region.
In the tradition of Edward Said's
Orientalism, Abdelmajid Hannoum's study of the Kahina myth is a vibrant account of the spread of Islam, Arab, and French colonialism in the North African region.
Colonial Histories, Postcolonial Memories, through its innovative methodology and extensive use or oral accounts, is also an illuminating exploration of the complexities involved in the production of historical knowledge.
List of contents
ContentsAcknowledgmentsxiiiIntroductionxv
1From Memory to History1
2Colonial Histories29
3From History to Fiction71
4Post-Colonial Memories111
5Literature and History161Conclusion185Bibliography191Index207
About the author
Abdelmajid Hannoumis Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Simon's Rock College of Bard. He has taught in the Department of Anthropology at the New School for Social Research in New York City.
