Veterans, Memory and Transnational Networks of Solidarity: Connected Histories of Yugoslavia and Algeria
Episode 231
Veterans, Memory and Transnational Networks of Solidarity: Connected Histories of Yugoslavia and Algeria
Centering
on the exchanges between Yugoslav Partisans and Front de Libération Nationale
(FLN) during and after the Algerian war of independence, the lecture explores
the role of memory and war legacies in Yugoslav socialist internationalism and
anti-colonial solidarity. The lecture focuses on the narratives of the shared
struggle for liberation, the sharing of the Yugoslav experiences of the
People’s Liberation War (1941-1945) and the postwar building of state socialism
in Algeria, and transfers of knowledge in war commemoration. The memory of the
People’s Liberation War – the antifascist struggle and socialist revolution
during the Second World War in Yugoslavia – played a connecting role with
liberation movements such as the FLN. The war memory surfaced in the Partisans’
deep identification with the Algerian liberation struggle, and different
spheres of Yugoslav assistance to Algeria were based on the wartime and postwar
experiences in Yugoslavia. Medical assistance represents an illuminating
example, focusing on the care for the wounded and disabled Algerian soldiers,
based on the Yugoslav know-how in the establishment of military medicine and
disability care for the Partisans. Finally, veterans’ internationalism
developed between the two countries in the 1970s, involving exchanges in the
field of war remembrance.This episode was recorded on the 02nd of December 2025 at the Centre d'Études Maghrébines en Algérie (CEMA)
Prof. Sidi Mohamed Lakhdar Barka, Professor of Comparative Literature from the Department of English at University of Oran 2 moderated the lecture.
To see related slides please visit our web site www.themaghribpodcast.com
We thank our friend Ignacio Villalón, a doctoral candidate at the University of Crete / Institute for Mediterranean Studies, for his guitar performance for the introduction and conclusion of this podcast.
Bibliographie Suggérée
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DeGeorges, T. (2009). The Shifting Sands of Revolutionary Legitimacy: The Role of Former Mūjāhidīn in The Shaping of Algeria’s Collective Memory. The Journal of North African Studies, 14(2), 273–288. https://doi.org/10.1080/13629380902745199
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