The Harkis, Algerians who served in the French military during the Algerian War of Independence, are an understudied group amid the complex transnational webs which defy political and cultural boundaries in the postcolonial world. Their stories – recently collected in a wide ranging series of interviews by Vincent Crapanzano – are striking case studies in the context of the primacy immigration and cultural questions hold in contemporary France, so often personified by Muslim immigrants from the former colonies of the Maghreb. The Harkis have been received in France with a mixture of embarrassment and resentment. For the left, they were condemned as local enforcers of Algerie c’est la France. For the right, their presence was a reminder of the failed colonial war and a living denouncement of colonial tropes. On the other hand, politicians across the spectrum have addressed the Harkis as potential allies who could represent their vision of France. Viewed as traitors in the former colonies, they are an uncomfortable reminder of the French Empire’s broken promises. This article presents a brief history of the Harkis and their role in the history and memory of the Algerian War. By exploring the plight of the Harkis in the context of this volume’s focus on forced migrations and in light of a half-century of postcolonial scholarship, I hope to bring further attention to neglected corners of the colonial landscape and the complex web of choices facing those who directly experience political and cultural struggle. These individuals are almost exclusively neither intellectuals nor political actors, but people alternately courted and denounced by all sides during and in the decades following the Algerian War while attempting to fulfil a variety of material needs and non-material demands. Their motivations, choices, and degrees of agency were as diverse as the tumultuous world of anti-colonial struggle and postcolonial tension they endured. Their stories and location in the postcolonial landscape raise questions regarding the boundaries between individual experience and collective identity as well as how histories of decolonization have been constructed.

The Harkis, Algerians who served in the French military during the Algerian War of Independence, are an understudied group amid the complex transnational webs which defy political and cultural boundaries in the postcolonial world. Their stories – recently collected in a wide ranging series of interviews by Vincent Crapanzano – are striking case studies in the context of the primacy immigration and cultural questions hold in contemporary France, so often personified by Muslim immigrants from the former colonies of the Maghreb. The Harkis have been received in France with a mixture of embarrassment and resentment. For the left, they were condemned as local enforcers of Algerie c’est la France. For the right, their presence was a reminder of the failed colonial war and a living denouncement of colonial tropes. On the other hand, politicians across the spectrum have addressed the Harkis as potential allies who could represent their vision of France. Viewed as traitors in the former colonies, they are an uncomfortable reminder of the French Empire’s broken promises. This article presents a brief history of the Harkis and their role in the history and memory of the Algerian War. By exploring the plight of the Harkis in the context of this volume’s focus on forced migrations and in light of a half-century of postcolonial scholarship, I hope to bring further attention to neglected corners of the colonial landscape and the complex web of choices facing those who directly experience political and cultural struggle. These individuals are almost exclusively neither intellectuals nor political actors, but people alternately courted and denounced by all sides during and in the decades following the Algerian War while attempting to fulfil a variety of material needs and non-material demands. Their motivations, choices, and degrees of agency were as diverse as the tumultuous world of anti-colonial struggle and postcolonial tension they endured. Their stories and location in the postcolonial landscape raise questions regarding the boundaries between individual experience and collective identity as well as how histories of decolonization have been constructed.