From Harlem to Algiers

Abstract

In 1959, african american intellectual and activist hoyt fuller made a brief stopover in Algeria on his way to visit the newly independent African republic of Guinea. In an excerpt from a journal of his experiences, he recounts, “Algeria was an armed camp, with the French colonial masters firmly in control. Soldiers and gendarmes were everywhere, arms at the ready, and many of the public buildings were ‘protected’ from guerilla assault by layers of barbed wire.” He continues, “I had entered the city from the liner, Foch, with two young Africans, one from Abidjan, the other from Brazzaville, and we had moved about with relative freedom until we reached the famed Casbah, the incredible labyrinthine quarter made famous over the world by Hollywood’s film, Algiers, starring Charles Boyer and Hedy Lamarr. The armed guard at the entrance to the Casbah politely but firmly turned the three black visitors away, offering no explanation beyond the simple statement that entrance was forbidden.” After his two African companions decided to return to the passenger ship, Fuller again attempted to enter the Casbah by himself, this time successfully so. As he explains, “In Paris, an Algerian friend had given me the name of a young freedom fighter in the Casbah and I set out to locate him.” Fuller eventually found this young freedom fighter and his comrades, with whom he “drank coffee and talked of African liberation. Afterwards,” he relays, “they walked with me down a twisting ‘street’ to the entrance above the great plaza. We said goodby. As I strolled out, a guard stopped me.

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