288 Mediated Publics
thought of through “an extroverted notion of identity of place.”^48 The pro-
cesses of identification are also inflected by the Other, the external world.
This is clearly the case with language. In order to come to terms with colo-
nialism, the Arab language became the national language “against others”;
French, Algerian, Arabic and Berber languages were banished once again
from the nation.^49
The participants in my study do not challenge the status of the Arab
language. They say, “We need a language,” and “We cannot allow speak-
ers on television to say el vilou instead of bicycle or el cartable [satchel] or
l’icoole [school].” They do think, however, that the official language should
not be the only one to rule the airwaves. Paradoxically, they are seeking
less to boost the vernacular than to encourage education reform (even
among Kabyle participants and despite the Kabyle crisis^50 ). Their view is
that “the Arab language is not a scientific language” nor is it “a techni-
cal language”; it is not a language opening on to the world. The satellite
dish compensates for this lack and brings Algerians closer to France, their
“neighbor.” An essential ambivalence, even a “kaleidoscope of unstable
identities” appears vis-à-vis France, the Other par excellence, the Other
that is not solely an insurmountable difference, but also an alter ego. This
is not a case of “partial identities” that surface when a framework for
social organization is absent or inadequate, be it the state, the family or
the clan.^51 Rather, it is an ambivalence that is rooted in a strong and dual
sense of belonging, even if Algeria through its direct-action programs has
relegated the French language to the margins. France too has played a sig-
nificant role in the Algerian turn toward Arabicization and Islamist cur-
rents. This is true for Djamel:
It is the visa that botched it for people in Algeria... In impos-
ing the visa, [in 1988] France pushed Algerians to go else-
where... the Europeans perforce outlined new directions.
Young people fell back upon the Middle East, Syria, Egypt, the
Sudan They” brought us customs from Afghanistan, from... “
the Sudan. We were not used to these customs.rance is thus an alter ego, a mirror for Algerians who almost obses-F
sively ask themselves “how [France] is speaking about us, how it sees us,”
while “we know about every political event that takes place in France”