"The very taboo issue of racism in Tunisia has never been the subject of a national debate"

Grandstand. Racism and populism, which are spreading throughout the world, have reached the top of the state in Tunisia. On Tuesday, February 21, the President of the Republic, Kaïs Saïed, shocked by taking up the theory of the great replacement, calling for “urgent measures” against sub-Saharan Africans, a source, according to him, “of violence, crimes and unacceptable acts”.

Unfortunately, he is neither the only nor the first in the country to display these ideas. For nearly a year, speeches inciting hatred and xenophobia have been spreading simultaneously in Tunisia and Egypt, at least. On social networks, campaigns calling for sending sub-Saharan Africans home are increasing. It must be said that, since always, the very taboo question of racism in Tunisia, in particular with regard to blacks, has never been the subject of a national debate. Most Tunisians define themselves as Mediterranean and North African, more rarely as African or black-skinned.

Very few know that all blacks in Tunisia are not only descendants of slaves, but that there has always been a black population, such as some very dark-skinned Berbers. Blacks, wherever they come from, are considered sub-human, solid and suitable for difficult jobs. They would be docile, hardworking, kind, trustworthy, tireless.

Taboo

Neither education nor the collective imagination encourages us to really think about the question of an existing racism like everywhere else. Rare are those who, for example, question the slavery statements of the Tunisian historian and geographer Ibn Khaldoun, born in Tunis (1332-1406), extolled, without nuances – author of the Prolegomena, he was the precursor of the sociology. Would the taboo also affect the academic world?

But Tunisia is currently experiencing an unprecedented crisis. It is then easier to blame the foreigner than to recognize his failures as leaders. Citizens feel the pie is too small to share with foreigners, even when the latter are doing jobs that the locals don’t want. It is on this soil that a party of the Tunisian right has developed, legalized in 2018, called the Tunisian Nationalist Party and which proclaims itself “protector of the fatherland”. His main thesis, taken up without complexes by Kaïs Saïed, is based on the denunciation of a plot aimed at “blackening” the populations of North Africa.

These claims are not based on any reliable statistics. This great fantasized replacement would distance Tunisia from belonging to the Arab-Muslim world. The militants of this party first made themselves visible on social networks, but today they largely occupy the traditional media terrain and the party has a militia acting throughout the territory. It confuses migrants, immigrants, asylum seekers, people in an irregular situation and victims of human trafficking. This speech clubbed and validated by the Head of State, but condemned by the African Union (AU), ends up convincing a large part of the population.

These allegations then immediately opened the floodgates of hatred and awakened racist demons. Those who prey on sub-Saharan Africans do not see black people as their fellow human beings, which allows them to beat them, burn down their homes and push women and infants into the streets.

No more milk, rice or semolina

Black Tunisian activists are also violently targeted. even threatened. The belief that they would be financed by European associations in order not to allow migrants to arrive on the Old Continent is there. Quite recently, journalist Mohamed Bouzidi, from the program “Bila 9ine3” (“without masks”), questioned Mrs. Saadia Mosbah, one of the two authors of this forum, virulently on this subject. The latter was indignant at the tone used. She had the feeling that he was talking to a gang leader.

Rights defenders are accused very directly by doctored videos, most often in a clumsy way, of participating in the “black conspiracy”. Commentators show an alleged lack of civility of sub-Saharans, video images in support, supported by hate speech against the Maghreb.

Today men, women and children can be held in pre-trial detention for four days. Fear settles in the various sub-Saharan communities, who find themselves in the street, thus creating a mass effect which will be presented as proof of the invasion of the country by a black population. Militias belonging to the Tunisian Nationalist Party roam the streets of Greater Tunis, Sfax or Medenine, ordering owners to put all sub-Saharan Africans on the streets and traders to no longer sell them milk, rice or semolina, under penalty of closure and legal proceedings, fines, or even imprisonment.

It is sad that this tragedy is taking place in the country where the Martinican psychiatrist and anti-colonialist activist Frantz Fanon practiced and began to develop his anti-racist thought. Moreover, all the hypotheses on the origin of the word Africa lead to Carthage and its surroundings: it is from Tunisia that this name would come, which is today that of an entire continent. What nonsense, then, that it is precisely a Tunisian leader who today expresses the will to divide a continent in full growth, within which migrations are a lasting, banal reality, and that nothing can ever stop!

Fear of retaliation

What is happening to Tunisia is serious and civil society is urgently organizing to express its strong disapproval. Young students are setting up an anti-fascist front in Tunisia, associations against discrimination, the Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights, communicate at the international level, but also ensure work as close as possible to the homeless often gathered in available churches. , at least at mealtimes. In Paris, a rally will be held in front of the Tunisian embassy on Friday, March 3.

The demonstration on Saturday, February 25, gathered only a thousand people: a few usual progressive activists, but many of them missed the call, probably for fear of reprisals, frequent today, against opponents. However, there is hope since new faces, in particular young people, were present.

It is never too late to call for unity, solidarity, calm and to propose a real economic and social project to a bloodless Tunisia, and whose many markets are made with sub-Saharan Africa.

Citizens need a clear vision of their future without looking for false leaders. Indeed, “deliverance from hate complexes will only be achieved if humanity knows how to renounce the scapegoat complex”, wrote Frantz Fanon in Black Skin, White Masks.