avid Prochaska’s “The Other Algeria: Beyond Renoir’s Algiers” reveals what Algeria was really like during the late nineteenth-century. Renoir’s trip, as we have seen, was strongly influenced by his preconceptions of the country and its people and left Renoir without a true understanding of what was going on around him. Especially since his two trips to Algeria consisted solely of Algiers, a large port city which consequently contained a large amount of tourists and Europeans (Prochaska 120), Renoir probably only saw the French influences on this Arab country.
Algeria’s history consists of years of colonization under the Berbers, Romans, Arabs, Turks, and, of course, the French. In the 1880’s the French influence reached its peak, resulting in a mish-mash of cultures not only from Algeria’s Arab and Islamic heritage with French culture, but also from the French attempt to reconcile Algeria with its Roman past (Prochaska 121). Years of colonialism were creeping back into Algerian society. Additionally, the French mode of settler colonialism resulted in a strong population of Europeans living in Algeria, changing its cities and implanting their own traditions (Prochaska 122). This was particularly evident during Renoir’s stay in Algeria, the period from 1870 to 1920, when a “Europeanization” of Algeria took place (Prochaska 123).
This transition manifested itself most clearly in the very places Renoir visited. Algiers was subjected to French colonial urbanization; as large French buildings went up, Algerian structures were at best left to “benign neglect” (Prochaska 128). In the Casbah, where Algerians attempted to cling to their Arabic and Islamic heritage, the French created the Marine district, the very place in which Renoir stayed during his visits (Prochaska 128). Traditional marketplaces, or souks, were replaced by government buildings such as the Place du Gouvernement, close to where Renoir stayed during his visits (Prochaska 131). Various mosques were changed into cathedrals and churches, while other Algerian structures were expropriated for military use. Major streets were transformed into Parisian-style arcades. And while the French did preserve some of the country’s Islamic heritage, such as the mosque of Sidi Abd-er-Rahman, they still maintained control over the structures (Prochaska 128-134).
Overall, Algeria and Algiers became places of comfort for European tourists, a more exotic version of their own countries ready to be made into their own Oriental oasis. This was the place Renoir visited, and his experience could not and would not be removed from the profound influences of French colonialism in Algeria.
Images: Geiser, Jean. Algiers— Beginning of the rue de la Marine. Collection of David Prochaska.
Freres, Neurdein. Algiers— La Place du Gouvernement. Collection of David Prochaska.