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On Friday, July 26, the 2024 Paris Olympics were declared open. The opening ceremony was an elaborate evening, with lights, music, dance and some star-lit athletes taking the centre stage in the French capital. The opening ceremony, which was organised at river Seine, became the first-ever opening ceremony to take place outside of a stadium in the Olympic Games’ history.
The ceremony not only brought celebrities and sports personalities share a stage, but was also marred with controversies. In one of the instances, the Algerian contingent were reminded of a dark chapter of its colonial past as they took a boat ride into the river Seine.
The Algerian athletes, who brought red roses to the Parade of the Nations, threw them in the river to honour the victims of the 1961 police crackdown on Algerian protesters in Paris. Not only this, some of the members of the contingent also chanted, “Long live Algeria!” in Arabic as they honoured the victims of the incident.
Watch Algerian contingent honour victims of the incident:
According to some of the historians, around 120 protesters died and 12,000 were arrested as they demonstrated on October 17,1961 in support of independence from France. Some were even thrown in the Seine River by police.
Kachi Yahia’s grandson welcomes the commemoration by his country during Paris 2024
This tribute from the Algerian contingent was recognised by one of the family members of a worker, who passed away during this incident. Kaci Yahia, who was an Algerian worker from the Paris sewage system, was one of the casualties in the 1961 incident. However, his body was never recovered, his 28-year-old grandson, Yanis, who was watching the Paris 2024 opening ceremony, welcomed this gesture by the contingent.
“To make such a gesture, the day of the opening of the Olympics in Paris, is a monumental homage to the victims of October 17. It’s a moment of immense emotion,” he said.
