The family of Abdelkader ibn Muhieddine, known as the Emir Abdelkader or Abdelkader El Hassani El Djazairi, has rejected the plan to build a statue in his honour in France.
Emir Abdelkader (1808-1883) was an Algerian religious and military leader who led a struggle against the French colonial invasion in the mid-19th century.
According to Abdelkader’s grandson, Mohamed Boutaleb, the family rejected “the construction of a statue of the Emir in France, where he was imprisoned and held hostage.”
French historian Benjamin Stora had submitted a report on the memory of colonization and Algerian war to President Emmanuel Macron on January 20. In the report, Stora recommended building a statue of AbdelKader.
Boutaleb said the proposed statue was in France’s interest not Algeria’s, adding that the family has prepared “an electronic petition to collect signatures to reject the proposal contained in the French report.”
He said the name of the Algerian Emir is known internationally and his political and resistant standing does not need a statue in France, which occupied his country for 132 years.
While France claims that Emir Abdelkader came to it for the sake of tourism, the historic truth is that he was subjected to imprisonment, hostage detention and assassination attempts with other prisoners in France.
Boutaleb called on Algerian authorities to intervene and stop what he called a “French maneuver” to falsify the history of one of the most prominent symbols of the Algerian resistance.
Abdelkader – a writer, poet, philosopher, politician and fighter against French colonial forces – was imprisoned in France in 1847 where he remained until 1852.
After his freedom, he settled in Istanbul until his death in 1883 at the age of 76.
In 1965, his body was transferred to Algeria and buried in the capital, Algiers.