Tunisian national movement

The Tunisian national movement was the sociopolitical movement, born at the beginning of the 20th century, which led the fight against the French protectorate of Tunisia and gained Tunisian independence in 1956.

Inspired by the ideology of the Young Turks and Tunisian political reforms in the latter half of the 19th century, the group of traditionalists—lawyers, doctors and journalists—gradually gave way to a well-structured political organisation of the new French-educated elite. The organisation could mobilise supporters to confront the authorities of the protectorate in order to advance the demands that it made of the French government. The movement's strategy alternated between negotiations and armed confrontations over the years. Support from the powerful trade unions and the feminist movement, along with an intellectual and musical cultural revival, contributed to a strong assertion of national identity which was reinforced by the educational and political systems after independence.

The movement was composed of many diverse groups, but from the 1930s was united by mounting social forces: a lower-middle class engaged in the capitalist economy, new Westernised elites, and an organised working class sensitive to social demands.[1]

The beginnings of the political movement

Ali Bach Hamba of the Young Tunisians

Background information: French protectorate of Tunisia

In 1881 a French protectorate was established in Tunisia. Over the following decades, a number of factors led to the beginnings of a national Tunisian movement. The economic development of the French protectorate required the formation of a Tunisian middle class; this group felt divorced from political and public life in the country.[2] Some of the Tunisian elite, now with greater contact with Europe, began trying to reconcile Islam with modern European ideas.[3] From Istanbul, Tunisian exiles including Ismaïl Sfayhi et Salah Chérif led a program of anti-colonialist propaganda.[4] Tunisia was the first state in the Arab world influenced by modern nationalism:[5] the movement against the French occupation started from the beginning of the 20th century.

In 1907 the Young Tunisians party was formed by Béchir Sfar, Abdeljelil Zaouche and the lawyer Ali Bach Hamba. These intellectuals, mostly of Turco-Tunisians origin, who had been to Sadiki College and in some cases had received a higher education in France,[6] were inspired by the Young Turks of the same period, taking from them the ideas of panislamism and panarabism.[2][7] They also based their principles on those of earlier reformers such as Hayreddin Pasha. The party, which consisted mainly of middle-class French-educated Tunisians, campaigned to safeguard Tunisia's Arab-Muslim heritage, preserve the character of the Tunisian state and restore the Tunisian identity, but it stopped short of challenging the protectorate.[8][9]

Also in 1907, Zaouche and Bach Hamba founded the weekly paper Le Tunisien,[2][10] initially in French followed by an Arabic version two years later. The paper called for equality of education, salaries and access to higher education, as well as measures to protect fellahs and artisans.[9] At the same time, Zaouche established a program for the vital sectors of education, justice and taxation, and championed it at the Tunisian Consultative Conference from February 1907.

Troops during the November 1911 riots

Relations between the Tunisian nationalists and the powerful Resident-General deteriorated rapidly. From 1908 Le Tunisian was banned. In spite of the censorship, public opinion remained sympathetic to the Muslim cause, thanks to the private madrasas (schools) developed by Abdelaziz Thâalbi. Moreover, the capture of Tripolitania and Cyrenaica by Italy in the Turco-Italian war stirred up unrest. 1911 saw the first confrontation with the authorities of the protectorate: in September the municipality of Tunis tried to register the cemetery of Djellaz, provoking hostility from the locals who saw this as a violation of their rights and an insult to their religion. Tensions grew, and on November 7, when security forces prevented Tunisians from entering the cemetery, a riot broke out. During the two days that followed, 11 people including 7 policemen were killed, and many people were injured in the Italian neighborhood of the city. 71 rioters were charged, and in June 1912 thirty-five were sentenced and seven received the death penalty.

The accidental death of an eight-year-old Tunisian child on February 9, 1912, killed by a tram from the French-run Tunisian tram company driven by an Italian driver, became a focal point for anger about discrimination by the tram company. Tunisians boycotted the trams and all Italian stores. (At this point Italians were the largest foreign community in Tunisia, with nearly 150 000 people, compared to a French population of just 40 000). They demanded damages, the dismissal of Italian drivers and the hiring of Tunisian ones, and an end to discrimination.

References

  1. ↑ Blandine Destremau, Agnès Deboulet et François Ireton, Dynamiques de la pauvreté en Afrique du Nord et au Moyen-Orient, éd. Karthala, Paris, 2004, p. 416 ISBN 2-84586-559-7
  2. 1 2 3 Pascal Le Pautremat et Charles-Robert Ageron, La politique musulmane de la France au XXe siècle. De l’Hexagone aux terres d’Islam : espoirs, réussites, échecs, éd. Maisonneuve et Larose, Paris, 2003, p. 90 ISBN 978-2-7068-1645-1
  3. ↑ (French) Relations franco-tunisiennes jusqu’à l’indépendance (Ambassade de France en Tunisie)
  4. ↑ Mahmoud Abdelmoulla, Le mouvement de libération patriotique de libération en Tunisie et le panislamisme (1906-1920), éd. MTM, Tunis, 1999, p. 121
  5. ↑ Michel Camau et Vincent Geisser, op. cit., p. 228
  6. ↑ Kinsey, David C. (1971), "Efforts for Educational Synthesis under Colonial Rule: Egypt and Tunisia", Comparative Education Review, The University of Chicago Press, 15 (2): 180
  7. ↑ Henri Grimal, La décolonisation de 1919 à nos jours, éd. Complexe, Paris, 1985, p. 72 ISBN 978-2-87027-157-5
  8. ↑ Omar Khlifi, op. cit., p. 11
  9. 1 2 Mahmoud Faroua, La gauche en France et la colonisation de la Tunisie (1881-1914), éd. L’Harmattan, Paris, 2003, p. 106 ISBN 2-7475-4919-4
  10. ↑ (French) "Première page du premier numéro du journal Le Tunisien paru le 7 février 1907 (Archives nationales de Tunisie)" (PDF). (370 KB)
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