Black people in contemporary Algeria


" I shall never have believed that the Africans were racists between them. " Racism. The word is strong and shocking. Nevertheless, the Africans behave as such. " And you! The Black! Nigro! Yal' kahlouche! " They are the terms used by the Algerians to address the Africans. As if they were not African themselves. As if they were superior.

Djabraïl developed a shape of autism. So he heard expressions on the verge of the racism. In front of this situation, he wants to hear nothing more Algerians. Djabraïl lives in The Kasbah with his malian fellow countrymen. They pay 100 DA the overnight stay in a dilapidated house, while they gain 150 DA a day. " It is the only place where we are accepted, the majority of hotels refuse to take the risk of accommodating us ", he confides. Djabraïl is a little surprised when we asked him this question: " how behave the Algerians with you? " He sketchs a derisive smile: " I shall not speak about the wickedness of the adults. We are used to it. What frightens me, it is the behavior of the children. That of insults in their mouth! We cannot walk any more only in the street, we arrange to circulate all the time in group. Too much hatred. Too much aggression. I am so scandalized that I do not answer any more their remark. " His friend Abedou-Allah blushes when we asked him to repeat us the insults which they undergo in everyday life. " these insults still argue in my eardrums, but it is difficult to me to repeat these horrors especially in front of a woman. It is inconceivable to see angels sellingproducing such a poison. I reprimand their parents who educated them in the hatred and the intolerance. "

Our presence becomes thus an occasion for these clandestine to tell their life in Algeria here. A group of immigrants of various countries surrounds us. These people tell us in turn the Algerian inhospitality with which they are confronted. I was walking when a police officer challenged me for a simple paper checking. I showed him my certificate of applicant of asylum, it tore it then it threw it to me to the face before embarking me by hustling me. It was necessary to call upon the UNHCR, which had to engage a lawyer to leave me prison ", entrusts one of them. A Senegalese abounds in the same direction: "I spent the other evening in a lane, there was in a corner a group of teenagers. I said salam alikoum. Nobody condescended to return my safety to me and some returned it to me with stones." Bouba, a Native of Niger, known as: "In the bus, people seem badly at ease our involved. When one enters a store to buy something, an article of 40 DA climbs to 50, it is y nothing to be included/understood!" It speaks to us lengthily about his galère in the hotels. "One allows oneself to excavate our small luggage without our knowledge. Often, us are stolen." Some are found without any penny. Their money is often stolen during the crossing. In Dély Ibrahim, with some encablures of the university center, Algerian manoeuvres and workers accost us. "Engage us, do not trust us with the Africans. One makes a better job ", declares an Algerian builder. He specifies that with the arrival of the immigrants, the market of masonry dropped. "One gained up to 1 200 DA per day. Because of these Africans, the market of manpower fell from half ", he continues. Questioned on the place of regrouping of the foreign employees, he refuses to indicate the place to us. "I do not know where they are. Why you insist to see them?" question it. With some steps, in a small isolated lane, far from the regrouping of the Algerians, the Africans gathered. "Before, one remained close to the fac to be made recruit beside the Algerian employees, but they finished by us driving out as if it were a place reserved for them. We moved side of the mini-market. We had right to a shower each morning to move away us ", known as Clément. Whereas the Algerian employees win 700 DA the task, the African worker has only 300 DA for the same task.

"Currently, I do not employ Africans but I call upon them from time to time. They are robust, workers and do not require excessive wages. I pay them 25 DA per transported bag, that makes them 150 Da per day. It is well!" declare Nacer, contractor with the Kasbah. Djabraïl works in this moment at khalti Zineb. He entrusts to us that after being exploited, he was made engage by a lady. "Se took care of me as if I were a member of her family, she gives me to eat and pays me even the days of rest", entrusts it. Khalti Zineb reveals us that she engaged the young Malian, time to restore her house to The Kasbah. "It is my son who brought back him following the departure of our manoeuvre. He works well and I give him what he deserves. I pay him 50 DA for each course, without forgetting work inside the house. He manages to win up to 700 DA, like our ex-employee ", she says. Unfortunately, Youcef did not have the same chance. He worked at a contractor who exploited him during months before delivering him to the police. "After a short stay in prison, I was released. I feel myself more disorientate in Algeria than in Europe ", he concludes
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