This article examines the strategic role of propaganda in the Algerian War (1954-1962), highlighting how the Front de Lib & eacute;ration Nationale (FLN) combined psychological strategies to wage a multidimensional struggle for justice and self-determination. Throughout the conflict and the years leading up to it, the FLN framed their resistance as a fight for justice, seeking to "sauvegarder notre dignit & eacute; humaine [et] pour defender nos id & eacute;es de justice et libert & eacute;" ("La Propagande", , 2). Confronted with a militarily superior French army, the FLN developed a propaganda system codified in the 1957 directive "La Propagande" to frame the conflict as a struggle against colonial injustice. Domestically, these efforts mobilized Algerians to the nationalist cause; internationally, they reframed the conflict as a moral and political indictment of colonialism, appealing to the United Nations and Afro-Asian solidarity movements. The FLN used propaganda as both a weapon of resistance and a tool for legitimacy. Through a critical analysis of FLN propaganda and directives in the French military archives held by the Service historique de la D & eacute;fense in Vincennes and the United Nations archives, this article argues that propaganda played a pivotal role in the Algerians' resistance and advancing the broader pursuit of justice and independence.
This article examines Jean-Pascal Zadi's film Tout simplement noir () and argues that its use of cringe comedy articulates a distinct conception of justice grounded in affect, spectatorship, and vulnerability. In a French context that officially espouses colorblind universalism, Zadi mobilizes discomfort to challenge the nation's racial contract and its politics of respectability, exposing how claims to justice are unevenly distributed along racial lines. Through the figure of its awkward protagonist, JP, the film stages a series of public failures that unsettle the viewer, transforming what might be dismissed as bad taste into a critique of who is seen, heard, and authorized to speak about injustice. By implicating the spectator in the protagonist's embarrassment, Tout simplement noir redistributes the affective burden of discomfort. It produces a form of "affective justice" in which unease becomes a mode of collective recognition rather than individual shame. The article ultimately argues that the film does not redefine justice as a juridical outcome or moral resolution, but as an ethical practice of spectatorship, one that emerges through shared vulnerability, the refusal of respectability, and the capacity to remain within contradiction.
