In that grim winter of 1954 she had observed the Aurès peasants "watch their goats dying for want of a little fodder … or starving workers eat their grain seed, their hope for the following year". She had been equally shocked by the heavy-handedness of the army's counter-measures.

XREF: Connects to broader histories of famines precipitating anti-colonial revolt — starvation of seed grain signals total desperation. SEED: The detail of peasants eating their seed grain could anchor an essay on how subsistence crisis functions as a revolutionary accelerant across colonial contexts. QUESTION: How did the army's heavy-handed counter-measures specifically escalate the situation into outright rebellion?

Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Alge…, loc. 346