L. S. Njeremani
A historical and sociological context
After watching the movie An Officer and a Spy, I was intrigued by the Dreyfus Affair. It provides some of the most detailed insights into society at large and the individual personality traits of what came to be the Dreyfusards and Anti-Dreyfursards. The Dreyfus Affair offers a magnified view of how habits shape the society’s psyche.
In summary, Captain Alfred Dreyfus was accused, in 1894, of being a spy and leaking French military secrets to Germany. He was publicly degraded in the presence of Rank soldiers and onlookers in the courtyard of the École Militaire and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil’s Island in French Guyana. When new evidence was presented pertaining to his innocence, the top military brass and political class were more concerned with losing face than the facts that would have exonerated Captain Dreyfus. They chose to exercise judicious closing of the official eye, going as far as mounting a coordinated campaign to discredit Lieutenant Colonel Georges Picquart, the man who unravelled the evidence together with the writer, novelist, journalist and playwright Emile Zola who published the details of the conspiracy via J’accuse an open letter published on 13 January 1898 in the newspaper L’Aurore.
I was impressed by the conduct of Lieutenant Colonel Georges Picquart and Emile Zola and their stand against State and military machinery to ensure liberty, equality and fraternity. In the current era and in many States around the world, very few would make the kind of moves they made and live to see the outcomes in their favor.
I went on to read the book The Dreyfus Affair: The Scandal that tore France in two, by Piers Paul Read. Allow me to profile the key players in the Dreyfus Affair and the role they played in trying to answer the question “Who were they?” and the socio-cultural and socio-economic conditions that influenced and prolonged the matter.
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