Abstracts History

“We Do Not Know Which Path to Take” Mahieddine Bachetarzi, Music, Theater, and Salafist Nationalism in Interwar Algeria (1919 – 1939)

by Philip DeVries

Algerian nationalism in the interwar period did not emerge via a simple progression, nor as a unitary awakening; it was a polyvocal and multivalent movement comprised of disparate Muslim Algerian, Jewish Algerian, and European voices. The outward appearance of a singular movement is due in no small part to the cooption and monopolization of nationalist discourse by the Islamic reformist organization, the Association des oulémas musulmans algériens (AOMA), and their followers, including the Muslim musician and playwright, Mahieddine Bachetarzi. Indeed, while AOMA clerics and affiliated historians created the exclusively Arab-Muslim story of Algerian history that prevails today, cultural figures like Bachetarzi were instrumental in disseminating and naturalizing the AOMA’s narrative in musical and literary works. By examining Bachetarzi’s life and work, and by engaging with his personal memoirs with unprecedented depth and rigor, this paper demonstrates both the ‘constructedness’ of Algerian nationalism and the importance of culture to nationalist messaging.