The LRB podcast is sponsored by Art and Ideas, a podcast series featuring J. Paul Getty Trust President Jim Cuno in conversation with artists, writers, curators and scholars.

In the latest episode, Ankar Moolstein, author of The Pen and the Brush, how passion for art shaped 19th century French novels, discusses the symbiotic relationship between authors

and artists in 19th century France. Search Getty Art and Ideas on Apple Podcasts, Google Play or other

podcast sources. Welcome to the LRB podcast. I'm Jeremy Harding, and I'll be talking to Elaine

Moctefie. Elaine's memoir about

Eldridge Cleaver and the Black Panthers in Algeria, who pitched up at the end of the

60s, was published recently in the LRB. It tells the story of an extraordinary encounter

between the leader of a radical movement forged in the heart of empire and a new regime

in Algeria that came to power after a long and bitter war with France. In 1962,

independent Algeria became a patron of third world struggles, an African Cuba, and it took

its mission seriously. It invited national liberation movements to open bureaus in

Algiers, the Viet Cong, the Southern African anti-colonial and anti-apartheid organizations,

the Palestinians. The list was long and illustrious. It even offered military training.

But when the Black Panthers showed up, nothing was straightforward.

Elaine Moctefi was living and working in Algiers at the time.

She helped Cleaver find his feet, and she welcomed the Panthers.

Most of what followed she saw at first hand.

Her sympathies lay with the liberation movements

and the exiled radicals from the United States.

But she was, in those days, a cautious supporter

with reservations of the new Algerian regime.

And hardly surprising,

...