A Postcolonial Rural Landscape: The Algiers Sahel

The global decolonization that has taken place since World War II has produced major rural landscape changes in most former European-settled areas. This sequent occupance pattern is exemplified by a landscape analysis of the Algiers Sahel in former French Algeria. Through the findings of fieldwork carried out during 1955 and 1988 this study examines four significant changes since Algeria’s initial quest for independence. The Sahel’s European farms have been replaced by a sequence of unsuccessful cooperative settlement types. Low value hay and pasture crops have supplanted the ubiquitous vineyards. Rural population density has fallen by half. The region’s farming area has been progressively reduced by the runaway expansion of neighboring Algiers. Causes of this landscape transformation include the panicked departure of the European farming class, the loss of the French wine market, and the reform policies of the Algerian government.