Moments and memories: football and state narratives in Algeria

Abstract

A Nation’s memory is selective and sheds light only on a selection of narratives of memory and process of memorizing that serves a nation’s interests. At the core of the Algerian state formation, the question of memory and historical legitimacy occupied a distinctive position. The Algerian state built its memory on a series of ‘coherent’ narratives that fall within three distinctive themes: (1) the struggle of Algerian people mobilized around the nationalist party and liberation; (2) a process that mobilizes Algerian people around socialist, anti-imperialist ideologies and (3) more recently, the narrative focused on the notion of national reconciliation following almost ten years of quasi-civil war. In all these themes, football has been used to invoke and exercise the memory of the state. It has also provided football fans, mainly the youth, with a platform to counter and subvert the official memory. Through an analysis of six historical matches/moments, this essay intends to highlight the significance of these particular dates/events in the collective memory and popular culture of the country.