If it was liberation that a haggard France was fêting that May day, that too was the magic word mobilising the Muslim community of Sétif. The difference was that the one was celebrating its return; the other, marching in quest of something it considered to be still denied it.

DEFINE: Contrasts how 'liberation' functioned as a mobilising slogan with diametrically opposed reference points: France seeking return, Algeria seeking advance.

Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Alge…, loc. 67