Becoming the ‘Abid: Lives and Social Origins in Southern Tunisia

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In 2011, after the popular uprising overthrew former President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, in Tunisia several issues came to the fore: among them, racism targeting “black” individuals. Few black rights associations emerged, and their struggle culminated in the promulgation of a law punishing racist acts and words in October 2019. The step is historical, and stems from Tunisia’s foreseeing policy concerning human and civil rights. In 1846, Tunisia was the first country to abolish slavery and the slave trade in the Ottoman Empire and in the Middle Eastern world. Becoming the ‘Abid addresses the issue of the legacy of slavery in a southern Tunisian governorate, where racism towards “black” individuals is still a painful experience and takes the form of professional, educational, and marital discrimination. Referring to the concept of “structural inequality”, the book goes beyond the simplistic idea that race is only related to phenotype, taking distance from the Western racial concepts, and highlights how processes of racialization are contextual, processual, and changing constructions. Table of contents Acknowledgments15 Introduction17 Post-2011 debates on race and racism in Tunisia 17 Ethnic boundaries in southern Tunisia 21 Southern Tunisian post-slavery hierarchies 23 Gosbah28 Methodology30 Outline34 Transliteration, names, and pictures 34 PART ONE 1. Notions and debates about slavery and race in Africa and in the Ottoman Empire African slaveries Islamic slaveries Race in North Africa Ottoman and Tunisian slavery 39 39 43 51 58 2. Abolition in Muslim countries and in Tunisia 67 Muslim abolitionism 67 Abolition and “collective manumission” 71 Tunisia’s early abolition 74 What happened to freed slaves? 79 Wala’85PART TWO Becoming the ‘Abid 3. Freeing the ‘abid99 Gosbah and the ‘Abid 99 People without an Arab origin 110 Becoming the ‘Abid 112 The seven brothers, or the ‘Abid Ghbonton’s foundation story 116 From slavery to wala’122 4. Marrying the ‘abid125 The origin of “blackness” 127 ‘Abid Ghbonton marriages and the tendency to isogamy 129 Interracial marriages 131 Hypo- and hyper-descent 136 Race-evasion strategies 139 5. Working as ‘abid145 Mohammed and Sana 145 Menial jobs 149 Sidi Bilal’s legacy 151 Stambeli155 Tayfa, the prestige of the ‘Abid 157 Tayfa, the modesty of the ‘Abid 163 Generational gaps 166 6. Today’s ‘abid169 Babūch, the gold of the sea 170 Djerba, the land of milk and honey 175 We don’t know how to do harga 180 2016 demonstrations 1837. Post 2011 activism The ‘Abid Ghbonton and black rights activists The category of “black” Tunisians The nation-building process The homogenisation of the category of “black” Tunisians After 2011: rise and development of black rights activism Black rights activists’ discourse Recent developments 187 187 191 193 205 198 208 211 Conclusion213 Glossary219 Bibliography225 Notes243