Kabyle, Algeria, from the Military Series (N224) issued by Kinney Tobacco Company to promote Sweet Caporal Cigarettes 1888

This small chromolithograph was printed by the Kinney Tobacco Company as a promotional insert for Sweet Caporal Cigarettes. It's part of a series depicting military figures from around the world. This image presents a Kabyle man from Algeria, barefoot and in traditional dress, holding a rifle. In the late 19th century, Algeria was under French colonial rule, a period marked by conflict and resistance. This image, circulated by an American company, participates in a visual rhetoric common at the time, one that exoticized colonized peoples. It reflects a Western gaze, reducing a complex culture to a single image, a flat representation intended to sell cigarettes. The man's posture and attire are presented as distinctly "other," reinforcing a narrative of difference that served to legitimize colonial power. Consider how this image might have been received then, and how we might see it now, in light of postcolonial critique.