Institutional Racism

The French colonial state, as he conceived it and as it took shape in Algeria, was a twotiered
organization, quite unlike the regime in mainland France. It introduced two
different political and legal systems which, in the last analysis, were based on racial,
cultural and religious distinctions. According to De Tocqueville, the system that should
apply to the colonizers would enable them alone to hold property and travel freely, but
would deprive them of any form of political freedom, which should be suspended in
Algeria. “There should therefore be two quite distinct legislations in Africa, for there are
two very separate communities. There is absolutely nothing to prevent us treating
Europeans as if they were on their own, as the rules established for them will only ever
apply to them”.
Following the defeats of the Muslim army in the 1840s colonization continued apace. By
1848, Algeria was populated by 109,400 Europeans, only 42,274 of which were French.
The leader of the colons delegation, Auguste Warnier (1810–1875), succeeded during
the 1870s in modifying or introducing legislation which facilitated the private transfer of
land to settlers and continue the Algerian state's appropriation of land from the local
population and distribution to settlers. Europeans held about 30% of the total arable
land, including the bulk of the most fertile land and most of the areas under irrigation. In
1881, the Code de l'Indigénat made the discrimination official by creating specific
penalties for indigenes and organizing the seizure or appropriation of their lands. By
1900, Europeans produced more than two-thirds of the value of output in agriculture
and practically all agricultural exports. The colonials imposed more and higher taxes on
Muslims than on Europeans. The Muslims, in addition to paying traditional taxes dating
from before the French conquest, also paid new taxes, from which the colons were
normally exempted. In 1909, for instance, Muslims, who made up almost 90% of the
population but produced 20% of Algeria's income, paid 70% of direct taxes and 45% of
the total taxes collected. And colons controlled how these revenues would be spent. As
a result, colon towns had handsome municipal buildings, paved streets lined with trees,
fountains and statues, while Algerian villages and rural areas benefited little if at all from
tax revenues.
In Education
The colonial regime proved severely detrimental to overall education for Algerian
Muslims, who had previously relied on religious schools to learn reading, writing, and
engage in religious studies. Not only did the state appropriate the habus lands (the
religious foundations that constituted the main source of income for religious institutions,
including schools) in 1843, but colon officials refused to allocate enough money to
maintain schools and mosques properly and to provide for enough teachers and
religious leaders for the growing population. In 1892, more than five times as much was
spent for the education of Europeans as for Muslims, who had five times as many
children of school age. Because few Muslim teachers were trained, Muslim schools
were largely staffed by French teachers. Even a state-operated madrasah often had
French faculty members. Attempts to institute bilingual, bicultural schools, intended to
bring Muslim and European children together in the classroom, were a conspicuous
failure, rejected by both communities and phased out after 1870. According to one
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