The social state in question in colonised Algeria. Mining officials and injured workers (1900s-1930s)

In the first third of the 20th century, the engineers of the Algerian mining department ramped up their supervision over an industry that wore out and exposed bodies, where social laws were applied at an early stage. The minutes and statistical reports that they produced regularly or in the event of serious accidents shed light on the transformation of the procedures for gathering data on work and on workers (both men and women) in a colonial situation. As cogs in a state apparatus, embodying its hesitations and ambiguities, these officials aspired to improve the safety of mines and quarries, and initiated compensation procedures for victims, but in the end they imposed few sanctions on companies, for whom accident prevention never became a priority. Through the almost clinical description of the accidents in their reports, we nevertheless get a glimpse of the hierarchies, the arduousness of the tasks assigned, and the dangers that were part of the daily routine of working in the mines.