By Tambay A. Obenson | Shadow and Act July 24, 2013 at 2:45PM
This should something worth tuning in to watch, when the series eventually airs, courtesy of Al Jazeera.
Details are sparse at the moment other than what's in the promo video below; but there's obviously enough there to give you some idea of what the doc series will focus on.
The effect of French colonization in Africa was on a par with that of the British. France had the highest number of colonies in Africa after Great Britain, including Algeria, Tunisia, Ivory Coast, and several others.
The French would prove to be particularly reluctant to grant independence to its African colonies, notably Algeria and Tunisia, which it regarded as being part of France itself rather overseas territories that could be allowed independence whenever their populations were deemed to be ready for it.
In the case of Algeria in particular the effect of French colonization in Africa was a very adverse one. A large number of French colonists had settled in Algeria between the 1840s and the 1940s and were vehemently opposed to giving independence to Algeria. The opposition to independence from the French colonists in Algeria caused a fiercely fought civil war and political crisis in France itself, and, eventually led to the Algerian war of independence, captured magnificently in director Gillo Pontecorvo's masterpiece, Battle of Algiers.
But there's plenty here for Al Jazeera to tackle (Algeria is just one example), past and present, so it's understandable why a lengthy documentary series is necessary.
Watch the promo below: