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On December 18, Algerian and regional football fans celebrated their national team victory at the 2021 FIFA Arab Cup in Qatar. Meanwhile, in Paris, the “City of Light”, Algerian supporters were violently attacking French police and dozens were arrested.
The Paris Police Prefecture has banned “fans of Algerian, Egyptian, Qatar or Tunisian football teams or those who play in this way” from gathering on a parameter set around the famous Champs-Élysées Avenue. The order was made in view of the celebrations that will take place in the Arab Cup final after the victory in Tunisia or Algeria.
This was in stark contrast to the measures taken by the French police to adapt the festivities after the 2018 World Cup victory. Instead of banning the fans, the then police chief welcomed them to the Champs-Élysées and ordered the perimeter of the police to protect them.
It is not surprising that French police have resorted to racial profiling as a way to ensure “public safety”. However, criminalizing “Arab behavior” is an honest form of racial discrimination.
It is clear in France that it is “liberté, egalité, et fraternité” if you are not of Arab or African descent, of course. It is a country where generations of marginalized communities originating in the former colonies have been subjected to excessive police and surveillance, racist politicians and systemic barriers to work, education and public life, such as various coverage bans and closures. Mosques and Muslim institutions.
Despite the police ban, attempts by Algerian fans to celebrate in Paris must therefore be seen as a protest and resistance to what it means to be Arab, Muslim, Maghreb or black in France. Underneath this protest is also a critique of racial logic underlying the post-colonial notion of Frenchness.
This was evidenced by the level of support received by the Algerian national team that played in the Arab Cup. It is called the A ‘team and is made up only of players from Algeria or other Arab leagues who have no formal contractual relationship with France. Although the “first team” competes in the African Cup and the World Cup, often based on players who have developed or are currently playing in other leagues in France and Europe, this Arab Cup team is completely “independent”.
For example, the importance of Amir Sayoud – who started his career at the Algerian clubs Guelma and ES Sétif before playing for USM Alger and CR Belouzdad in the historic clubs – was the winner of the last match, and not, let’s say. Manchester City’s $ 8.3 million star, Riyad Mahrez, was not lost among fans.
This is because, for many, the A ‘group represents a renunciation of one of the main features of neocolonialism: the former colonies’ dependence and continued domination of colonial power even after formal independence.
In addition to the pride of national achievement, the celebrations among North African fans showed a remarkable policy of inclusion throughout the tournament. Fans of the Al-Bayt stadium in the city of Al Khor, where the last match was played, carried banners with the flags of all the participating nations sewn together. In the stands of Tunisia and Algeria, fans carried the flags of Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia side by side, symbolically representing the Greater Maghreb. Followers also waved the Amazigh flag next to the national flags.
Perhaps most notable, throughout the tournament, fans made it a point to place the highest Palestinian flag of all time. One of Algeria’s most famous players during the tournament, Youcef Belaïli – who developed into a young player in the Algerian home league with MC Oran – asked the fans for the Moroccan flag and held it with the Algerian and Palestinian flags. And after the final match, Algerian coach Madjid Bougherra said: “We offer the Arab Cup to the Palestinian people and to our people in Gaza.”
At the heart of this policy of inclusion seen in the Arab Cup is the resistance to the legacy of the colonial policy of division and conquest of Europe that sowed divisions within nation-states after the creation of modern national borders.
Although the French authorities have tried to present Maghreb citizens and immigrants as separatists, it is the logic of colonial modernity that uses division and exclusion.
On the contrary, the spirit of resistance among the Algerians in France and the policies of inclusion among the many fans and players of the tournament have only shown a deep sense of border flexibility and a welcome margin.
Moreover, the players have shown that they are not just gladiators at the behest of the state, they are ambassadors of the political and historical agency. They are helping to see the future that celebrates the uniqueness of the national experience, accompanied by a deep sense of inclusion.
The lesson and challenge that the Algerian victory poses to all – including those French leaders who want to ban celebrations – is spreading the notion of belonging, to cultivate a porous boundary between oneself and another and to cultivate an ethic of “knowing”. This ethic is linked to a policy of resistance, as evidenced by the supporters of the Maghreb in Paris, who opposed these edicts that sought to exclude and expel them from public space.
In my country, Algeria, this policy and ethics should challenge us to take into account our attitude towards migrants and refugees, which has not always been welcome, and to spread our spirit of inclusivity not only to the Maghreb and Palestine. – as we need – but also to the south of the rest of the African continent.
Although French President Macron has spoken about the shared history between the north and the south of the Mediterranean, one wonders why the celebrations of “supporters of Algerian, Egyptian, Qatar or Tunisian football teams” were not the reason for the French celebrations. , as well.
In France, the visible policy of inclusion will surely be a cause for terror among the political establishment, which sees its racial right-wing candidates fighting in a racist brawl. But this show of inclusion in the Arab Cup can also provide an opportunity for reflection.
In fact, what the demonstrations of player and fan inclusion are showing is that the former colonies are not ready to subscribe to a fragmenting colonial and nationalist policy. The prospect of adopting an inclusive policy could be profound.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial attitude of Al Jazeera.
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