Black Tunisians bottom as violence against blacks escalates | Racism News

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Tunis, Tunisia In February, Tunisian President Kais Saied warned his country against a plan to change Tunisia’s demographic composition, making it another African country that no longer belongs to Arab and Islamic nations.

As part of this plan, hordes of irregular migrants from sub-Saharan Africa have traveled to Tunisia, bringing all the violence, criminality and unacceptable practices that entails.

The dubious warning, which was widely criticized and branded as racist by human rights groups as well as regional and international bodies, officially endorsed a mindset that has spread across the African country. North in recent years.

This has led to roundups of black sub-Saharan Africans, their eviction from rented properties, and the mobilization of African countries to repatriate their citizens.

And now, with reports of mobs forcing into the homes of black migrants and refugees, attacking the occupants with fists, clubs and machetes, Tunisia’s own black population, long accustomed to the bigotry that exists in many parts of their own society, is prepared for the onslaught.

About 10 to 15 percent of Tunisia’s population is black, according to anti-racism campaign group Mnemty. Some are descended from the indigenous Amazigh population of North Africa, while the ancestors of others migrated here from neighboring states, and others were brought to Tunisia as part of the country’s participation in the slave trade.

According to Mnemty, conditions have deteriorated since the shooting of President Saied in February.

It got worse, much worse, said Zied Rouin of Mnemty. Since Kais Saied’s speech, people have lost all sense of shame over their racism. If you’re racist, you’re racist, but people now feel okay to announce it. There is nothing [Black] people can do, no one to complain to. Blacks feel unprotected, while racists feel empowered. They feel they can do whatever they want.

The impact of the discourse, Rouin says, on Tunisian identity, appears to be long-lasting.

Zied Rouin says many black Tunisians avoid attending protests in defense of migrants, in an effort to differentiate themselves from sub-Saharan Africans [Simon Speakman Cordall/Al Jazeera]With this speech, President Saied defined what it was to be Tunisian. That is to say Arab and Muslim. Anything different from this [whether thats through skin tone or religion] is suspicious and subject to questioning, continues Rouin.

He leaned forward. Let me ask you a question, do you see a lot of black Tunisians at migrant advocacy events? No. They stay away from these events. They take pains to appear Tunisian and speak in [the Tunisian] dialect. They must let you know they are Tunisian before questioning them, he said.

Criminalize racism

Recent attacks on thousands of black refugees and migrants in the port city of Sfax and across Tunisia have been as fierce as they are brutal.

Throughout central Sfax, or huddled outside the offices of the International Organization for Migration in Tunis, crowds of black sub-Saharan Africans stand in the relentless sun, enduring temperatures that only dip below 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) at dusk.

In 2018, Tunisia made history by criminalizing racism. It was a first, not only in North Africa, but in the entire Arab world. Racism, long ignored by successive governments, is finally recognized and its victims offer a form of legal protection to all blacks, regardless of their country of birth, on Tunisian soil.

However, with no central strategy to roll it out and no funds to train the police in its use, its application has remained piecemeal.

Now, with black people, some bleeding, lying unprotected in the scorching summer heat, the 2018 law has arguably ceased to have any relevance, and some Tunisian nationalists are even calling for its repeal.

Racism is still there

Huda Mzioudet left Tunisia for Toronto, Canada years ago, returning during the summer months to conduct research on ancestral black identity in Tunisia.

She says the situation, which was already bad, has gotten worse.

It’s just always there, in everything you do, she says of her experience as a black Tunisian traveling in the south of the country. Also, racism is more pronounced now.

THE [Black Tunisians] I talk to are tired. They just want it to end. I do not know what to say. I am more and more pessimistic. This has been happening since [2011] revolution.

This revolt was born out of the need for jobs and social justice, but over the next few years the economy continued to collapse, unemployment remained entrenched and bread remains one of the main rallying cries of 2011. , like other staple foods that the government subsidizes. , in limited quantities.

And the future is uncertain, and worrying.

If we continue like this, it’ll be like a purge, sighed Rouin. This is going to take a lot of work. It starts with the government, but society will follow anyway, it will take a long time.

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