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Divided rule: sovereignty and empire in French Tunisia, 1881–1938

between Tunis and the maquis, the very claim that Berrouane takes pains to debunk. Despite his suspicions, Sebkhi admits that there is no conclusive evidence of a plot. What these two accounts confirm is that the Algerian war has yet to give up all its secrets. The contrast between Sebkhi’s journal of the life of a liaison agent and Berrouane’s account of his service as an intelligence agent is dramatic. Though in a stressful position, the latter was relatively safe. Sebkhi was in constant danger on his risky missions, delivering confidential messages across difficult terrain often under the cover of night. Eventually he was wounded, captured and subjected to inhumane treatment in a prison camp. Sebkhi’s memoir is that of a simple foot soldier exposed to the rigours and hardships of war. The very title suggests that he considers himself lucky to have survived. His account is essentially oral history as related to the historian Daho Djerbal of the University of Algiers. As Djerbal puts it in a brief preface, Sebkhi provides a fresh, ‘quasi innocent’ (13) look at life in the maquis. In recounting his own story, Sebkhi speaks for many little-known maquisards from villages in Kabylia. Reflecting on a complex era, he sees ‘heroes and anti-heroes’ (59), courage and dishonourable infighting, self-sacrifice but also fratricidal violence, a just cause blemished by the ‘negative and unjust aspects of the revolution’ (50). In a brief epilogue, he admits to some anger and bitterness over the fate of the humble moudjahidine of the war. Sebkhi the rescapé and Berrouane the malgache both provide detailed accounts of their respective experiences. Both books contain numerous photographs that serve as visual history and annexes presenting documents of variable utility. Each book makes a distinctive contribution to the growing personal testimony about the period. While the two texts operate at different levels of the struggle, they come together in their fervent advocacy of a nation that is still in search of its identity.