Although Tunisia is known for its intermingled civilizations and cultures, daily racist practices still overwhelm relationships among Tunisians.
Tunisia abolished slavery in 1846 and was one of the first signatories of international anti-racism conventions, yet many black Tunisians (who make up 10 to 15 percent of the population) speak of frequent microaggressions based on their race.
Although Tunisia is known for its intermingled civilizations and cultures, daily racist practices still overwhelm relationships among Tunisians.
Tunisia abolished slavery in 1846 and was one of the first signatories of international anti-racism conventions, yet many black Tunisians (who make up 10 to 15 percent of the population) speak of frequent microaggressions based on their race.
Marriages involving whites and blacks are forbidden in a number of Tunisian governorates due to an inferior view of blacks who are branded by “white” Tunisians with demeaning and racist descriptions, such as “nigger” or “pitch black”.
Shukran, 12, tried to commit suicide by throwing herself from the top floor of her house in the southern island of Djerba because of the discrimination she experienced because of her skin tone. She says she suffers from a psychological problem and an inferiority complex which has caused her to isolate herself from the outside world.
Walid, 27, from Tunis, says he has suffered from discrimination by his peers since early childhood because of the color of his skin, which has led him to be introverted and only mingle with other black-skinned boys. Whenever he leaves his neighborhood, he experiences racist name-calling. “Racism in Tunisia is not a new thing, but deeply-rooted in our culture,” says Walid.
Racial segregation
According to some human rights activists, racial discrimination has reached unprecedented levels, where even job applicants are selected on the basis of photographs. Chairperson of Manamaty Association Saadia Masbah, daughter of Tunisian singer Salah Masbah who previously raised the issue of racism, says such practices bring to mind the racial segregation confronted by blacks in South Africa and the United States in the 1960s.
“To this day, Djerba still has cemeteries for blacks and others for whites, a tradition that dates back to bygone centuries,” says Masbah. “There are even separate school buses for black children.”
Masbah argues that the Tunisian authorities further these practices in their administrative transactions, for example, by including the word ‘freed’ in a field in the civil registry of black Tunisians in reference to their being freed from slavery.
Racial discrimination also affects sub-Saharan Africans studying or working in Tunisia. Vanessa Lunda, a student from the Democratic Republic of Congo, says she has noticed how this issue is rampant in the country. Lunda criticizes the absence of a racism-criminalizing law, pointing out that the Tunisian authorities have not intervened to reverse degrading practices.
She expresses astonishment vis-à-vis the behavior of some Tunisians towards sub-Saharan African students. “Once, I called a taxi, but when the driver realized I was black he asked me to take another taxi,” she says.
Driven by these escalating grievances, Tunisian civil society started to act and presented a racism-criminalizing bill to the Tunisian Parliament. Chairperson of the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network Rami Saleh says the bill aims to “curb racist practices that suggest penetrated racism at several levels.”
“Racism is flagrantly perpetrated in Tunisia although the country has made great strides in terms of equality,” says Massoud Ramadan, member of the Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights. “It is high time a law was enacted to criminalize racial discrimination in a country known for its tolerance and also to work to change people’s mentalities.”
He calls on the Ministry of Education to introduce a program into several education levels to stop such practices and instill the values of tolerance and equality into students’ minds.
