The consequences of the French nuclear tests in Algeria

Between 1960 and 1966, the French colonial regime detonated atmospheric atomic bombs and thirteen underground nuclear bombs and conducted other nuclear experiments in the Algerian Sahara. This secret nuclear weapons program occurred during and after the Algerian Revolution, or the Algerian War of Independence. The toxification of the Sahara spread radioactive fallout across Algeria, North, Central and West Africa and the Mediterranean and led to contamination that continues to this day.

Because the archives of the French nuclear program are still closed, the historical details remain largely unknown. Samia Henni, visiting professor at gta Institute, is now presenting contraband and leaked materials from these archives in a multimedia installation. The exhibition “Performing Colonial Toxicity” runs until April 2nd at the Department of Architecture. It is the result of a broader research project, for which a book almost six hundred pages long has been published.