Remembering the Jewish Past through Song in Contemporary Tunisia

Abstract

This essay explores, through the medium of popular song, different ways in which Tunisian Jews and Muslims have attempted to come to terms with the rupture caused by the mass exodus of Jews in the years following independence. The introduction of commercial recording in Tunis in the early twentieth century gave rise to a new type of popular song called ughniyya whose exponents until World War Two were primarily Jews. With its simple strophic structures, earthy, colloquial language, themes depicting real-life situations, and its adoption of modes, rhythms and musical instruments from the wider Mediterranean and Levant, the early ughniyya provided the foundation for the future development of Tunisian popular song. In Jewish circles, the tunes were set to sacred Hebrew texts and sung in a variety of religious and celebratory contexts. With the rise of the nationalist movement the cosmopolitan ughniyya was denigrated as decadent and corrupt; following the mass exodus of the Jews, it disappeared from mainstream musical life. Yet the songs continued to be performed by Tunisian Jewish diasporic communities in France and Israel; on the island of Djerba, they remained the staple repertory of the iconic musician Yacoub Bsiri (1912–2009) who provided a continuing link with the vibrant musical culture of the protectorate era.Since the late 1980s, Tunisian Muslims have attempted to rediscover and rehabilitate the popular songs of the protectorate era, regarding them as a vital part of the Tunisian cultural heritage. While some have acknowledged and celebrated their former Jewish associations, others have ignored or actively erased them by presenting the songs as part of a timeless, anonymous rural folklore. The songs continue to be performed in both Arabic and Hebrew versions at the annual pilgrimage to the miraculous synagogue known as ‘the Ghriba’ on the island of Djerba, where Tunisian diasporic Jews reunite with Tunisian Jews and Muslims in a nostalgic celebration of their shared Jewish-Arab past.