Algerians in France, 1954-1962

Fifty-one years after the October 1961 massacre of Algerian protesters in Paris, four Algerians who lived in France during the Algerian war talk about their bitter struggle for the independence of their homeland in a FRANCE 24 documentary.

Fifty years have passed since the end of the brutal 1954-1962 war that led to Algeria’s independence from France. For the numerous Algerians living in France during the gruesome eight-year conflict, it was a dangerous time marked by political activism and often bloody repression – and an era that has long been silenced.

In an in-depth report produced in partnership with France’s Cité nationale de l’Histoire de l’immigration, FRANCE 24 journalist Florence Gaillard talks to four Algerian expatriates – two political activists, a cabaret dancer and a witness to the infamous October 1961 Paris massacre – about living in exile and the struggle for independence.

Video: Karim Hakiki

By FRANCE 24