Commemorating the abolition of slavery in Tunisia. The rights of black citizens and the history of slaves of European origin

Abstract

This article contrasts a policy of commemoration of slavery in post-revolutionary Tunisia with the gradual and very slow history of the demise of slavery in this country since the beginning of the 19th century. It explores the choice of the Tunisian state to commemorate the abolition of slavery in Tunisia with reference to the promulgation of a decree enacted in 1846, and the way in which the end of West and East African slavery became central to civic memory in Tunisia.The first part of the article is based on recent, innovative and stimulating scholarly research by Inès Mrad Dali, Séphanie Pouessel, Maha Abdelhamid and Marta Scaglioni on black communities in Tunisia. The second part relies on works on European captives and the Mamluks or Muslim slaves and servants of often Caucasian origin in the Maghreb.The first section places the issue of the commemoration of slavery in the context of the emergence of civic claims from black activists in Tunisia since the 2011 Revolution. The profound transformations that black communities have undergone since decolonization in the 1950s have shaped these claims. Indeed, the categories of national belonging to a Tunisian civic community, and therefore the debates on collective memory and the historical representations of the nation, have become more decisive for these anti-racist activists than the narratives of local origins which aimed to explain or even legitimize the subordinate positions of these communities, especially in the south of the country.The second section broadens the discussion to include Christian male and female captives and especially the cases of male and female slaves of Caucasian origin converted to Islam (Mamluks and Odalisques) in 19th-century Tunisia. This section shows that the descendants of European captives are less concerned with the commemoration of the abolition of slavery. Their role in the country's history is greater because of their contribution to the founding of the Tunisian nation and its state. The uneven integration of the descendants of slaves into Tunisian society, in addition to the separate relationship with the memory of slavery of these groups explain over a long period of time the presence today of the differential treatment of Tunisians on the basis of skin colour.The article concludes with two observations: Tunisian anti-racist activists wanted to fight against racist discourses and categories. From this point of view, they succeeded in advancing their cause by giving official status to the commemoration of the abolition of 1846. Henceforth, the fundamental and difficult question of the unequal distribution of resources in post-revolutionary Tunisia remains to be asked.