This book, presented in two parts and five appendices, is none other than a collection of archives that sheds light on an education rooted in the obscurity of the indigénat, transmitted to generations of Algerian children within the schools and colleges of the time of colonialism. The first part entitled "the instruction of Algerians at the time of colonial France", gathers fragments of the history of the formation of an Algerian elite under the gaze of colonialism, these original documents, were collected from the overseas archives of Aix-en-Provence and are published for the first time; it is an approach that follows the same methodology of the book of André Mandouze "The Algerian revolution through texts", Paris, Maspero.

The second part concerns an unpublished document distributed by the General Government of Algeria, entitled: "Answer to the Factum of Mekki Chadli on the Algerian question 1951", The original document is the property of Mr. Sid Ali Abdelhamid, former militant of the national cause and one of the founders of the CRUA "Revolutionary Committee for Unity and Action".

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