Cultural Hybridity and the Challenge of Reconstructing a National Identity in Algeria

Abstract

This research aims to discover the possible ways of reconstructing a national identity in a postcolonial community. Taking Algeria as a sample; this thesis offers a deep analysis of the pre-colonial era and the prevailing educational system at the time. Algeria was the nation that experienced the longest era of colonialism; after 132 years of French dominance and more than seven years of war, Algeria gained independence, but with a heavy load of dependency on France and a loss of identity. During the colonial period, and through education, France implemented the Francization policy, through which it sought to strike at the foundations of Algerian national identity in order to create an individual easy-tomanipulate and easy to assimilate. Algeria tried to fight this policy and regain its identity after restoring its national sovereignty, so it resorted to Arabization and Islam as the main and essential components of Algerian identity, but after the black decade and the change of government policies, in addition to globalization, the requirements of the era changed and Algeria was forced to resort to new solutions to restore its national identity.