Originally written November 29, 2017. References can be found at the bottom of the page.
In an interview with Jean Paul Sartre that was published in Le Nouvel Observateur in late June and early July of 1975, Sartre described Camus as “probably the last good friend I had”[1] after having been briefly asked about the famous rivalry that surfaced in the 1950s between the two after many years of friendship. Jean Paul Sartre and Albert Camus first met in June 1943 and by November of that same year they had become best of friends and bonded frequently over their mutual love for theater among other things.[2] Although they were friends and Sartre described them as being really close for approximately three years, he said in the same interview, “we could not go far on the intellectual level because he grew alarmed quickly”.[3] The two men could not reconcile their views on the Algerian War, the subject that dominated debates between French intellectuals throughout the 1950s. The beginning of the rift between Sartre and Camus is usually dated to 1952 when Camus’ philosophical text The Rebel was reviewed in Les Temps Modernes by Jeanson who criticized Camus for placing human suffering on a metaphysical level and ignoring the historical and political conditions that led to suffering of natives in colonies, and Sartre agreed fervently with this criticism.[4] After briefly touching upon their shared views on the negative effects of colonialism in Algeria, this article will describe the differences in Camus’ and Sartre’s beliefs regarding the pieds noirs and the Muslims in Algeria. Secondly, it will describe how this fundamental disagreement led them to advocate for entirely different solutions. Lastly, this article will describe the different manner in which they decided to use their positions in society as public intellectuals to attempt to influence the outcome of the conflict.
Before delving into their differences, it is must be said that both Sartre and Camus agreed that the French government had mistreated the Muslims of Algeria. In Sartre’s text “Colonialism is A System”, he described in detail how the colonialism of the French in Algeria had destroyed the well-being and livelihood of Algerians. He argued that colonization had “turned the Algerian population into an immense agricultural proletariat.”[5] Sartre condemned the French state for needing only a century to take two-thirds of their land and described the story of Algeria as “the progressive concentration of European land ownership at the expense of Algerian ownership.”[6] The main argument of his text was that poverty of the Algerians was a systemic effect of colonialism that could only be removed if the French presence in Algeria was removed entirely.[7]
Camus had been writing about the problematic situation in Algeria far before it erupted into a war. In articles published by Camus in the Alger Republican in 1939, he brought attention to the famine suffered by Algerians in Kabylia.[8] In 1945 he was still publishing articles on the subject in Combat arguing that the French government was not sending nearly enough grain to deal with famine in the country and was not afraid to point out that that the rations given to natives was less than the rations given to Europeans.[9] In a statement released by Camus in 1958 now called “Algeria 1958”, Camus reiterated his contempt for the injustices of colonialism. He echoed Sartre’s opinion of the negative effects of colonialism including “the obvious injustice of the agrarian allocation and of the distribution of income.”[10]
Although both Camus and Sartre agreed that the French government had mistreated the Muslims of Algeria, they had significantly different opinions on the nativity of Muslims and the pieds noirs. For Sartre, the Arabs in Algeria had the rights to the land and Europeans in Algeria were merely “an undifferentiated bloc of beneficiaries of a cruel system of exploitation.”[11] Camus, who was a pied noir himself, held a very different perspective on who constituted the natives of the land. In “Algeria 1958”, after describing what he found legitimate about the Arab demands, he described what he found illegitimate about their demands. He wrote the following: “one has to admit that, as far as Algeria is concerned, national independence is a conception springing wholly from emotion. There has never yet been an Algerian nation.”[12]He went on to state that the Europeans living in Algeria have an equal right to be part of “that virtual nation.”[13] In fact, he considered Algerian national independence to be an example of growing Arab imperialism supported by the Soviets in their anti-Western strategy.[14] Camus believed that the Arabs in Algeria all wanted to be French until around 1948 when the faked elections held in that year discouraged them from wanting to be a part of the French nation.[15]
Camus’ perspective that the pieds noirs were natives of the land and Sartre’s staunch opposition to all European ownership of land in Algeria led them to support radically different solutions to the Algerian question. Camus’ understanding of Algerian history explains why he would not accept any solution that denied, as he put it, “the right of 1,200,000 autochthonous French people to exist, and to exist in their native land without ever again being subjected to the discretion of fanatical military leaders.”[16] Camus believed that the inequality between the pieds noirs and the Muslims could be resolved through reform. He repeatedly argued that proper reform could be done by finally assimilating the Muslims by giving them the privileges of citizenship that they deserved. For instance, in 1958 he endorsed the solution proposed by Marc Lauriol, a professor of Law, who proposed to turn France into a federation similar to the one in Switzerland.[17] As early as 1939 he had been arguing for true proportional representation in Algeria, education reform, and higher wages for Muslims.[18] In 1945 he wrote, “the Arabs seem to have lost their faith in democracy, of which they were offered only a caricature.”[19] The gist of Camus’ proposed solution was reform that would lead to a restoration of their faith in democracy and much needed equal treatment. For Sartre, reform was not only an unacceptable solution but he deemed it unrealistic. Firstly, he emphasized the lack of demand in France for the sort of assimilationist reform proposed by Camus since such reform would guarantee Algerians basic rights, which would be counterintuitive to the very purpose of France’s presence in Algeria.[20] He also argued that since the colonists are the vast minority in Algeria, they would never accept a truly democratic system that would keep them out of power.[21] Secondly, he argued that necessary reforms such as education reform would be too expensive for mainland France and could only be achieved by an independent and industrialized Algeria.[22] Sartre most likely would have considered Camus to be a “neocolonist” and a “fool who still believes that the colonial system can be overhauled.”[23] Sartre made it clear throughout his writing that the only acceptable solution was an independent Algeria.
With these views in mind, Sartre and Camus envisioned very different political roles for themselves as public intellectuals amidst the chaos of the Algerian War. By the 1950s, Sartre viewed the role of public intellectual as instrumental to achieving political objectives. Sartre’s writings always emphasized that humans are defined by their actions, not their feelings or thoughts. In his famous 1945 lecture Existentialism is a Humanism, Sartre spoke of a student of his who decided to stay with his sick mother instead of heading to England to join the Free France movement, and how the student’s love for the mother was confirmed not through his feelings but through the action of staying with her.[24]Sartre eventually applied the same sort of emphasis on choice and action to his view of how public intellectuals should attempt to actively influence politics. In fact, Sartre began seeing the written word as quite meaningless and, according to de Beauvoir, Sartre considered abandoning literature altogether to become more engaged in protesting French colonialism in Algeria.[25] Sartre felt guilty about his lack of activism in the past and started to believe that to have an influence on history one must take part in political action.[26] Ultimately, he argued that it was the role of the French intellectual to slay colonialism.[27]
This change in attitude explains why Sartre increasingly engaged in political action. Sartre and his staff at Les Temps Modernes were updated almost daily of the events occurring in Algeria.[28] Along with continually articulating his support for the FLN and Algerian independence, he also helped organize demonstrations.[29] He helped organize a silent demonstration at the beginning of October 1961 and participated in the mass demonstrations at the end of 1961 and the beginning of 1962.[30] Sartre was also a signatory of the “Manifeste des 121” which proclaimed a refusal to fight for France and also proclaimed support for the FLN.[31] Although he never joined his colleague Francis Jeanson in helping the FLN directly, Sartre supported the FLN to such a strong extent that he said “if Jeanson, had asked me to act as a courier or shelter any Algerian militants and I could have done so without putting them in danger, I would have done so without a moment’s hesitation.”[32] This sort of public and avid support for the Algerian nationalists resulted in him receiving numerous death threats and even getting his apartment bombed twice by the Organisation Armee Secrete (OAS) terrorist group.[33] Most significantly, he fully endorsed and wrote the Preface for Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth, which accepted the most intense form of action, violence, as the appropriate response to French colonialism.
In the Preface for Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth, Sartre argued that Fanon showed how violence is the inevitable and appropriate response of natives towards colonists. Regarding this violence, he said: “this irrepressible violence [of the colonists] is neither a storm in a teacup nor the re-emergence of savage instincts nor even a consequence of resentment: it is man reconstructing himself.”[34] Further, Sartre says that for the colonized, killing is a necessity as it allows them to “eliminate in one go oppressor and oppressed.”[35] The logic behind this was that, according to Sartre, the acts of the colonists put the natives in a position “of intolerable contradiction” which he described as “demanding yet denying the human condition” and that this contradiction was unavoidably explosive.[36] Essentially, he argued that the violence of nationalist groups was simply European violence on the rebound.[37] Although Camus passed away in 1960 and did not live to react to Sartre’s increasingly extreme stance of support for the FLN, he surely would have been opposed to this stance as he once wrote in response to the violence of the FLN, “when the oppressed take up arms in the name of justice, they take a step toward injustice.”[38]
Camus viewed his political role as a public intellectual very differently. Unlike Sartre who actively supported one side of the conflict, Camus came to adopt the role of some sort of neutral political mediator. He responded to accusations of not choosing a side by saying, “but I have chosen. I have chosen a just Algeria, where French and Arabs may associate freely.”[39] Camus believed that in the context of such a conflict like the Algerian War, “the intellectual has the role of distinguishing in each camp the respective limits of force and justice” and that the public intellectual must try to pull people away from fanaticism.[40] Of course, he was only able to act in such a neutral way because he believed both sides of the conflict were partly right whereas Sartre considered the French to be completely in the wrong. In an article called ‘The Roundtable’, Camus claimed that the “enemy is invisible” and believed that if they would just meet and attempt to negotiate that they might no longer feel the need for combat.[41] He wrote articles aimed at both sides of the conflict trying to point out that both sides held reasonable concerns but also held incorrect and fanatical beliefs about the situation. He bashed the Algerian nationalists for making innocent Frenchmen suffer, writing that the responsibility of the disaster lies with French governments and not the “eighty percent of French settlers [who] are not colonists but workers and small businessmen.”[42] In a “Letter to an Algerian militant”, Camus argued that all acts of violence by the FLN simply strengthened anti-arab elements.[43] Similarly, in a private letter to the French president, Camus stated that the execution of Algerians risks leading to more terrorist attacks.[44] In another article, he tried to convince French Algerians to accept the “Arab character” of Algeria and to push for reform to help their Arab countrymen instead of sitting back and waiting for the situation to resolve itself.[45]
Along with trying to convince each side to be more reasonable, Camus tried to unite both sides by calling for an end to violence against innocent civilians. The translator of the Algeria Chronicles suggested that Camus hoped his compassion would inspire compassion in others.[46] In his Nobel Prize for Literature acceptance speech, Camus said the “writer cannot put himself today in the service of those who make history; he is at the service of those who suffer it.”[47]This is a clearly different from Sartre’s growing desire to be able to influence history through political action, as mentioned earlier. In his Preface to the Algerian Reports, Camus wrote that he was careful with what he wrote because he could not fathom his words leading to bloodshed.[48] Throughout the Algerian War, Camus called for mutual understanding and a de-escalation of violence in the name of humanity.[49] Camus denounced brutality on both sides, and in 1956 he gave a lecture in Algiers calling for a civilian truce.[50] In this lecture he stated that he was not a political man, but that his function as a writer inclined him to step on the podium to make it known that the death of innocent citizens was never tolerable.[51] He pleaded for the end of the murder of innocent people and hoped that such an agreement on both sides would eventually lead to a “proper climate for a healthy discussion that would not be spoiled by ridiculously uncompromising attitudes.”[52]
Camus was not as neutral to the conflict as he sometimes presented himself to be. In the Preface to the Algerian Reports he acknowledged this and wrote, “I may be mistaken or unable to judge fairly of a drama that touches me too closely.”[53] He tended to condemn the violence of the FLN much more than the violence of the French State and even refused to sign petitions that condemned the use of torture by the French army.[54] His attachment to his people, the pied noirs, was made clear when he stated bluntly “I believe in justice but I would put defending my mother before justice.”[55] He admitted he feared pointing out the mistakes of the French army as it would possibly incite ‘insane criminals’ to throw bombs into crowds that may include his family.[56] This fear probably explains Camus’ 29-month silence, from June 1956 to June 1958, which, according to Kaplan, became a “metonymy for cowardice.”[57] Although Camus did not publically sign petitions condemning the use of torture by the French army, he wrote two private letters in September and October of 1927 to Rene Coty, the President of France, asking that he pardon the Algerian prisoners in custody.[58] Camus also explained his public absence in the letter: “I have resolved to take no public step that might, despite the best intentions in the world, aggravate rather than improve the situation.”[59]
The cause of the famous quarrel between Camus and Sartre was a bitter disagreement over the situation in Algeria. Although they both agreed on the mistreatment of the Algerians by the French, Camus favoured immense reform to successfully integrate the Algerians, while Sartre favoured a completely independent Algeria. These positions were direct reflections of their opinions on the nativity of the pieds noirs and the Muslims. Their positions on the matter translated into how they took advantage of their role as public intellectuals and engaged with the public. Sartre, with his emphasis on action, eventually endorsed the violence of the FLN and did all he could to raise awareness of injustices of the French army. Camus, on the other hand, presented himself as a neutral mediator and attempted to phase out the fanatical ideas of both sides while trying to unite them in the name of putting an end to the killing of innocent civilians.
Bibliography
Primary Sources
Camus, Albert. Algerian Chronicles. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2013.
––– “A Clear Conscience ” In Algerian Chronicles, 125-127. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2013.
––– “A Truce for Civilians” In Algerian Chronicles, 140-144. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2013.
––– “New Perspectives on Camus’s Algerian Chronicles by Alice Kaplan” In Algerian Chronicles, 1-18. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2013.
––– “The Adversary’s Reasons ” In Algerian Chronicles, 133-135. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2013.
––– “The Misery of Kabylia” In Algerian Chronicles, 37-40. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2013.
––– “The Political Malaise” In Algerian Chronicles, 101-106. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2013.
––– “The Roundtable ” In Algerian Chronicles, 123-124. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2013.
––– “The True Surrender” In Algerian Chronicles, 129-131. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2013.
––– “Translator’s Note” In Algerian Chronicles, ix-xii. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2013.
––– “Two Letters to Rene Coty, President of the Fourth Republic” In Algerian Chronicles, 209-211. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2013.
Camus, Albert. Resistance, Rebellion and Death. New York: Alfred A. Knopff, 1961.
––– “Algeria 1958” In Resistance, Rebellion and Death, 143-153. New York: Alfred A. Knopff, 1961.
––– “Appeal For A Civilian Truce” In Resistance, Rebellion and Death, 143-153. New York: Alfred A. Knopff, 1961.
––– “Letter to an Algerian Militant” In Resistance, Rebellion and Death, 126-130. New York: Alfred A. Knopff, 1961.
––– “Preface to Algerian Reports” In Resistance, Rebellion and Death, 111-125. New York: Alfred A. Knopff, 1961.
Sartre, Jean Paul. “Colonialism is a System.” International Journal of Postcolonial Studies, June 1, 2001, 127-40. Accessed November 18, 2017.
Sartre, Jean Paul. “Existentialism is a Humanism.” Lecture, Club Maintenant, Paris, October 29, 1945.
Sartre, Jean Paul. 1977. Life/Situations: Essays Written and Spoken. New York, NY: Pantheon Books.
Sartre, Jean Paul. 1961. “Preface by Jean Paul Sartre.” Preface to The Wretched of the Earth, xliii-lxii. New York: Grove Press.
Secondary Sources
Aronson, Ronald. 2005. Camus and Sartre: The Story of A Friendship and the Quarrel that Ended it. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Cohen-Solal, Annie. 1987. Sartre: A Life. New York: Pantheon Books.
Drake, David. 1999. “Sartre, Camus and the Algerian War.” Sartre Studies International 5, (1): 16-32. doi: 10.3167/135715599782358669.
Haddour, Azzedine. 2003. “The Camus-Sartre Debate and the Colonial Question in Algeria.” In Francophone Postcolonial Studies, 66-76. London: Oxford University Press Inc.
Just, Daniel. (2013). “The War of Writing: French Literary Politics and the Colonization of Algeria.” Journal of European Studies 43 (3): 227-43. doi:10.1177/0047244113492296.
Le Sueur, D. James, 2005. Uncivil War: Intellectuals and Identity Politics during the Decolonization of Algeria. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2005.
[1] Jean Paul Sartre. Life/Situations: Essays Written and Spoken. (New York, NY: Pantheon Books, 1977), 63-64.
[2] Ronald Aronson, Camus and Sartre: The Story of A Friendship and the Quarrel that Ended it, 9-10.
[3] Sartre, Life/Situations: Essays Written and Spoken, 64.
[4] Azzedine Haddour, “The Camus-Sartre Debate and the Colonial Question in Algeria.” In Francophone Postcolonial Studies, 66-76. London: Oxford University Press Inc, 69.
[5] Jean Paul Sartre. “Colonialism is a System.” International Journal of Postcolonial Studies, June 1, 2001, 132.
[6] Sartre, Colonialism is a System, 131.
[7] Sartre, Colonialism is a System, 136.
[8] Albert Camus. “The Misery of Kabylia” In Algerian Chronicles. (Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2013), 37.
[9] Camus, Algerian Chronicles, 89-98.
[10] Albert Camus, “Algeria 1958” In Resistance, Rebellion and Death, (New York: Alfred A. Knopff, 1961), 144.
[11] David Drake. 1999. “Sartre, Camus and the Algerian War.” Sartre Studies International 5, (1). 20.
[12] Camus, “Algeria 1958” In Resistance, Rebellion and Death, 145.
[13] Ibid.
[14] Camus, “Algeria 1958” In Resistance, Rebellion and Death, 146.
[15] Camus, “Algeria 1958” In Resistance, Rebellion and Death, 144.
[16] Camus, “Algeria 1958” In Resistance, Rebellion and Death, 147.
[17] Camus, “Algeria 1958” In Resistance, Rebellion and Death, 149.
[18] Camus, Algerian Chronicles, 53-65.
[19] Camus, “The Political Malaise” In Algerian Chronicles, 104.
[20] Sartre, Colonialism is a System, 139.
[21] Sartre. Colonialism is a System, 138-139.
[22] Ibid.
[23] Sartre, Colonialism is a System, 140.
[24] Sartre, Jean Paul. “Existentialism is a Humanism.” Lecture, Club Maintenant, Paris, October 29, 1945.
[25] Daniel Just. 2013. “The War of Writing: French Literary Politics and the Colonization of Algeria.” Journal of European Studies 43 (3). 5.
[26] Ibid.
[27] James D., Le Sueur, Uncivil War: Intellectuals and Identity Politics during the Decolonization of Algeria. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2005.), 41.
[28] Annie Cohel-Solal. Sartre: A Life. (New York: Pantheon Books, 1987), 368.
[29] Drake, Sartre, Camus and the Algerian War, 26.
[30] Drake, Sartre, Camus and the Algerian War, 27.
[31] Drake, Sartre, Camus and the Algerian War, 23.
[32] Drake, Sartre, Camus and the Algerian War, 25.
[33] Drake, Sartre, Camus and the Algerian War, 26.
[34] Jean Paul Sartre. “Preface by Jean Paul Sartre.” Preface to The Wretched of the Earth. (New York: Grove Press, 1961), lv.
[35] Ibid.
[36] Sartre, Preface to The Wretched of the Earth, liii.
[37] Sartre, Preface to The Wretched of the Earth, lii.
[38] Camus, “The Adversary’s Reasons ” In Algerian Chronicles, 134.
[39] Camus, “A Truce for Civilians” In Algerian Chronicles, 142.
[40] Ibid.
[41] Camus, “The Roundtable” In Algerian Chronicles, 124.
[42] Camus, “Clear Conscience” In Algerian chronicles, 126.
[43] Camus, “Letter to an Algerian Militant” In Resistance, Rebellion and Death, 129.
[44] Camus, “Two Letters to Rene Coty, President of the Fourth Republic” In Algerian Chronicles, 210.
[45] Camus, “The True Surrender” In Algerian Chronicles, 130-131.
[46] “Translator’s Note” In Algerian Chronicles, x.
[47] Just, The War of Writing: French Literary Politics and the War of Algeria, 7.
[48] Camus, “Preface to the Algerian Report” In Resistance, Rebellion and Death, 113.
[49] Drake, Sartre, Camus and the Algerian War, 21.
[50] Camus, “Appeal for a Civilian Truce in Algeria” In Resistance, Rebellion and Death,131.
[51] Camus, “Appeal for a Civilian Truce in Algeria” In Resistance, Rebellion and Death,137.
[52] Camus, “Appeal for a Civilian Truce in Algeria” In Resistance, Rebellion and Death, 138.
[53] Camus, “Preface to the Algerian Report” In Resistance, Rebellion and Death, 125.
[54] Drake, Sartre, Camus and the Algerian War, 21.
[55] Drake, Sartre, Camus and the Algerian War, 26.
[56] Camus, “Preface to the Algerian Reports” In Resistance, Rebellion and Death, 113.
[57] Alice Kaplan “New Perspectives on Camus’s Algerian Chronicles by Alice Kaplan” In Algerian Chronicles, 5.
[58] Camus, “Two Letters to Rene Coty, President of the Fourth Republic” In Algerian Chronicles, 209
[59] Camus, “Two Letters to Rene Coty, President of the Fourth Republic” In Algerian Chronicles, 210.
