Algeria's plague revisited
The Documentary Podcast
BBC
4.3 • 2.7K Ratings
🗓️ 6 August 2020
⏱️ 26 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
A mysterious illness appears out of nowhere. The number of cases rises exponentially, as the authorities attempt to downplay the severity of the disease. There is a shortage of medical staff, equipment and arguments about whether people should wear masks. People are forbidden to leave their homes and many are left stranded in unfamiliar places, separated from loved ones. Albert Camus’ novel The Plague set in the Algerian city of Oran under French colonial rule was published more than 70 years ago. But today it almost reads like a current news bulletin and seems more relevant than ever. This edition of Assignment revisits Oran in the age of the coronavirus and investigates the parallels between now and then. For the time being, it seems the pandemic has achieved something the authorities have tried but failed to do for the past year – clear the streets of protesters. Lucy Ash investigates Algeria’s plague of authoritarianism and finds that the government has been using Covid-19 as an excuse to crack down harder on dissent. Reporter: Lucy Ash Producer: Neil Kisserli Editor: Bridget Harney (Photo: Man using an Algerian flag as a mask at an anti-government demonstration in Algiers on 13 March, 2020. Credit: Ryad Kramdi/AFP/Getty Images)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I'm Lucy Ash and this is assignment on the BBC World Service. The unusual events described in this chronicle occurred in 1940 something in Iran. |
| 0:22.0 | Everyone agreed that, considering their somewhat extraordinary character, they were out of place there. |
| 0:28.0 | For its ordinariness is what strikes one first about the town of Iran, which is merely a large French |
| 0:34.0 | port on the Algerian coast. |
| 0:37.0 | The opening words of a 20th century classic by the Nobel Prize winning author Albert Camus. |
| 0:43.0 | It describes a catastrophic outbreak of bubonic plague in Algeria under French colonial rule. |
| 0:50.0 | It has small importance whether you call it plague or some rare kind of fever. |
| 0:56.0 | The important thing is to prevent its killing off half the population of this town. |
| 1:00.0 | Dr. Ricard said it was a mistake to paint town. |
| 1:03.0 | Dr. Ricard said it was a mistake to paint too gloomy a picture, and moreover, the disease hadn't proved |
| 1:08.2 | to be contagious. |
| 1:09.2 | Indeed, relatives of his patients living under the same roof had escaped it. |
| 1:14.0 | But others have died, Rieu observed. |
| 1:18.0 | You're looking at the problem in the wrong way. |
| 1:20.0 | It's not a question of vocabulary, it's a question of time. |
| 1:25.0 | Camus' account of officials dithering as the death toll mounts |
| 1:30.0 | has assumed a stark relevance in our age of coronavirus. |
| 1:34.0 | Although it was published 73 years ago, |
| 1:37.0 | the plague can feel like a news bulletin. |
| 1:40.0 | It's been flying off the shelves in bookshops around the world as readers struggle to make sense of what's happening today and why. |
| 1:51.0 | So how is Iran coping with this new COVID-19 plague and what are the parallels between now and then? Britain seven years before the North African country launched its war of |
| 2:08.8 | independence from France, Camus novel is firmly set in the colonial era and his cast list is devoid of native Arabs or Berbers. |
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