The Colonization of Names: Symbolic Violence and Franceā s Occupation of Algeria

Benjamin Brower

ISBN 10: 0231216017 / ISBN 13: 9780231216012

Published by Columbia University Press, 2025

About this Item

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Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Colonization of Names: Symbolic Violence and Franceā s Occupation of Algeria
• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Publication Date: 2025
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0231216017
• ISBN 13: 9780231216012
• Binding: Paperback / softback
• Condition: New
• Weight: 526 grams

About this title

Synopsis

French colonization dismantled Algerian names. Under the occupation that began in 1830, not only were Algerian towns and streets renamed in honor of French figures, but personal names were forced to follow French conventions and norms. Colonial authorities simplified and transformed Algerian names to suit their administrative and legal purposes, crudely transcribing and transliterating Arabic and Berber. They imposed a two-part name and surname model that stripped away the extended family ties and social context inherent to precolonial naming practices.

This groundbreaking history of personal names in nineteenth-century Algeria sheds new light on the symbolic violence of renaming and the relationship between language and colonialism. Benjamin Claude Brower traces the changes Algerians’ personal names suffered during the colonial era and the consequences for individuals and society. France’s imposition of new names, he argues, destabilized Algerians’ sense of self and place in the community, distorted local identities, and compromised institutions such as the family. Drawing on previously unstudied records, Brower examines different northwestern African naming traditions and how colonialism changed them. With the aid of literary and critical theory, he develops new insights into the name and its relationship to power and subjectivity. A rigorous theoretical and historical account of symbolic violence, The Colonization of Names unveils many unseen forms of harm under colonial rule.

About the Author

Benjamin Claude Brower is associate professor of history at the University of Texas at Austin. He is the author of A Desert Named Peace: The Violence of France’s Empire in the Algerian Sahara, 1844–1902 (Columbia, 2009).