Algériens nous sommes... qué! Histoire de l'Algérianisme

This small book traces the entire history of French literature from Algeria and the Algerianist movement, from its origins in the 1920s to the present day.

In addition to a bibliography on the subject and a list of Algerianist literary prizes from the past and present, this work also reproduces in the appendix the small booklet L'Algérianisme published by Jo Sohet in 1991, then national president of the Cercle algérianiste.

One of the most famous lines of Cagayous, the turbulent and mischievous hero of Musette (alias Auguste Robinet), was the answer he gave, while visiting the Universal Exhibition in Paris, to a stranger astonished by his Algiers accent who asked him if he was French:

"Algerians we are... qué!"

Maurice Calmein was born in 1947 in Oran. In 1960, his family settled in Toulouse where, from the age of twenty, he was active in associations of French people from Algeria. As president of the Amicale Universitaire Pied-Noir, he met Jean Pomier, one of the founders of the Algerianist movement, with whom he became friends despite their sixty-year age gap. He later founded the Cercle algérianiste himself, and Jean Pomier served as its honorary president.

Maurice Calmein is the author of several books on Algeria, including the novel Le Sel des Andalouses. He served as the editor of the journal L'Algérianiste for more than ten years.

Collection France-Algeria 30.