The contemporary legacy of slavery in Southern Tunisia: the ‘Abid Ghbonton

Thanks to the far-seeing policy of Ahmed Bey (1837-1855), Tunisia was the first country to abolish slavery in the Ottoman Empire and in the whole Islamic world, but nonetheless slavery continued up covertly under the Islamic institution of wala, especially in rural areas. Moving through racial, economic, and cultural coordinates, newly-freed slaves in Southern Tunisia were relegated to inferior social strata throughout the French Protectorate period (1881-1957) and beyond. After independence, in fact, former dictator Ben Ali, like other Arab leaders promulgating a deep homogenization, modernization, secularization, and westernization of their countries, propagated an embellished image of Tunisia where stability and peace would reign. Nevertheless, discrimination based on skin color targeted mostly Black Tunisians, unmasking the bitter reality of dark-skinned citizens still bearing the legacy of slavery. Tunisians still use the word wassif or ‘abid to refer to Blacks, Arabic terms semantically connected to slavery. This paper aims at analyzing this racial stigmatization in the form of geographical marginalization and social segregation at the lowest ladders of society, and the quest for emancipation and recognition of younger Black communities, keeping an eye at the renewed political discourse after the 2011 uprising. The ‘Abid Ghbonton, a Black ethnic group living in the Southern Governorate of Medenine, embody this exclusion. Their region, at the border with Libya, has always been a transit and exchange area, where gold, camels, and slaves were commonly traded. Traditionally involved in the preparation of weddings, including a musical performance called Tayfa, they recently started renegotiating these traditional roles, since the execution of this accompaniment to the ceremonies perpetrates, in their eyes, a form of servile attitude towards the Whites. Younger generations followed emancipatory paths, like migration to neighboring Djerba and Libya, and began rethinking concepts like skin color, citizenship, religious belonging, exclusion, and inclusion.