CALLIOPE Postdoctoral researcher Karen Lauwers discusses her efforts to find the Algerian population's voice in archives produced by French authorities during colonization. Lauwers raises the question of why and how the French officers often seemed to miss cues of resistance. Based on her study it seems that native Algerian leaders were easily seen by the French as something alike Catholic clergy instead of the military leaders they actually were. Political news was transformed into strategic information or dismissed as rumors, as it was defined by the cultural preconceptions of those listening to the news in the first place.
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