ABSTRACT
Memory construction constitutes an integral part of the functioning of colonial processes and new colonial forms. Through the shaping of space, ritual, bodily practices, and historical narrative, it continues to mold the collective memory of colonial societies. At this juncture, the relationship between two distinct areas of social sciences; memory construction and neo-colonialism, opens a new field of discussion. Within the context of our study, this relationship finds its expression in the conceptualization of neo-colonial memory. The Abd el-Kader Museum exhibition, centered on the shared colonial history of France and Algeria and the symbolic figure of resistance, serves as the focal point of this study. The exhibition, held in 2022 at the Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilizations in Marseille, France, serves as the field of study conducted through participant observation. The aim of this study is to analyze, through the Abd el-Kader Museum exhibition, the relationship between memory construction, including distortion dynamics such as periodization, historiography, narrative construction, selective remembering, and forgetting, and neo-colonial processes. In this context, it is argued that neo-colonial memory construction is both a part of the efforts to appease the troubled past of the colonial period and a mechanism of cultural influence that ensures the continuity of colonial legacy and power inequalities. The exhibition, which periodizes Abd el-Kader’s life journey as resistance, captivity, exile, and legacy, presents his monograph as a defeated, captive, passive figure, yet also as a leader, a harmonious, peaceful person, and a religious figure.