Aïssa Touati's Childhood Memoir of the Algerian War Published by Gallimard

Gallimard has published "Une enfance dans la guerre d'Algérie," a memoir by Aïssa Touati, transcribed by Régis Guyotat and prefaced by Pierre Guyotat. The book recounts Touati's childhood in the rural douar of Ouled Seddik, near Algiers, during the Algerian War of decolonization (1954-1962). Born in 1945, Touati lived as a young shepherd in a remote hamlet of about ten dwellings without water or electricity, supporting the FLN's mobile companies (katiba) by sheltering and feeding fighters. His older brother Ramdane joined the ALN and died as an independence hero. The narrative offers a ground-level perspective contrasting with urban revolutionary elites, focusing on daily life and survival. Régis Guyotat met Touati in 1969 in France and recorded their conversations to fulfill Touati's wish to leave a testimony. The preface by Pierre Guyotat, who served as a conscript in Algeria, provides historiographical context. The review by Pascal Convert criticizes French amnesia regarding the war, noting that France only recognized it as a war in 1999, and cites the 2012 inauguration of a stele honoring General Bigeard, a known torturer, in the presence of the defense minister under President Hollande, as evidence of ongoing denial.