Oral, Manuscript, and Printed Expressions of Historical Consciousness in Colonial Algeria

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Periodical article

Title:	Oral, Manuscript, and Printed Expressions of Historical Consciousness in Colonial Algeria
Author:	Christelow, Allan
Year:	1990
Periodical:	Africana Journal
Volume:	15
Pages:	258-275
Language:	English
Geographic terms:	Algeria France
Subjects:	colonialism oral traditions historical sources History and Exploration Education and Oral Traditions
Abstract:	This paper adapts some of the insights of oral tradition scholarship to the study of a society - Algeria - in which oral tradition has long coexisted with written tradition. It analyses some of the different ways in which the spoken, written, and printed word affect historical consciousness. Three early 20th-century sources are examined in particular: the discussions of the 'diwan', or council of saints, a manuscript prophecy found in 1917 and allegedly written by Muhammad Abu Ras al-Nasiri, and an early printed work, 'The garden of news and the stroll through ideas' (1901), by Abu Bakr Ben Ahmad Ben Bu Talib al-Hasani. A comparison of the three sources contributes to an understanding both of the localization and of the limited scope of the Algerians' resistance during World War I. Notes, ref.