Tunisia's government right now is... far-right

In this issue, I focus on the outcome of the elections in Nigeria (the tension is high) and anti-Black sentiments growing in Tunisia. Plus, some culture and sports news from Africa like Burkina Faso's film festival or the Tour de Rwanda, new historic discoveries in Chile and Egypt, a fascinating read on blockchain technology in Bangladesh, Vietnam's pop star TRONG's Eurovision Song Contest song, and so much more.

Tunisia is becoming a far-right country -- and very dangerous for Black people

President Kais Saied is one of the reasons why anti-Black sentiment is growing in Tunisia, as he has launched dangerous, unfounded attacks against migrants in an address to his National Security Council on February 21. (New Lines Magazine)

Why this matters:
Tunisia, with a population of about 12 million, is home to an estimated 20,000 Black migrants, many of whom crossed from Cameroon, Ghana, Guinea or the Ivory Coast into Tunisia illegally for jobs that citizens often reject. Others work or study legally. The president's attack also target the country's Black citizens; basically, anyone Black.

What did he say?
"Hordes of illegal immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa are still arriving, with all the violence, crime and unacceptable practices that entails," the president said a couple of weeks ago, calling on security forces to "quickly put an end to this phenomenon." He continued to claim that Tunisia's greatest threat comes from a "criminal arrangement" to "change the demographic composition of Tunisia" by flooding the country with refugees and migrants from sub-Saharan Africa. (The New York Times)

Oh... that sounds very similar to the far-right in Europe.
Yup. President Saied has also offered no evidence for this claim, which echoes the so-called "Great Replacement Theory" conspiracy theory, popular among far-right and white supremacist movements in Europe and North America. His political allies, the far-right Tunisian Nationalist Party, use the term ajasiyin -- derived from the Arabic for 'Africans south of the Sahara' -- as an insult. For them and for the president's other supporters, "to be Tunisian is to be Arab and Muslim, all of which are antonymous to being African," writes Shreya Parikh in the Review of African Political Economy. "By extension, to be Tunisian is to not be Black."

Oh...

Yeah, oh. "Saied's scapegoating statement ... has opened a floodgate of racialized terror and violence in Tunisia that previously bubbled just beneath the surface," reported New Lines Magazine. "Reports filled social media and private WhatsApp groups of the targeting of Black people -- whether from sub-Saharan countries or black Tunisians -- with verbal and physical abuse." As part of Saied's campaign, Tunisian police have arrested more than 500 immigrants in raids in recent days. (New Lines Magazine) Some migrants have reported being fired from their jobs, and at least 1,000 have been kicked out of their homes. Hundreds of people have sought protection outside the Tunis embassies of Ivory Coast, Guinea andMali, and the office of the International Organization for Migration. Various African states are chartering flights home for their citizens. (The Continent, issue 118)

What do Black people in Tunisia say?
Yasin Ahmed, a refugee from Darfur who lives in Tunis, told The Continent that the country had, overnight, become dramatically more hostile to black people. "Yes, being black, you feel fear always, especially at night," he said. "Some people throw stones at you, sometimes they call you a monkey. My friends have been beaten. There is a lot of discrimination, and I can't describe it all to you because I can't stand it when I talk about it." (The Continent, issue 118)

Has Tunisia always been racist?
Huda Mzioudet, a Black Tunisian rights activist and scholar, said the country's racism has been long-standing. Yes, Tunisia has abolished slavery a long, long time ago (in the 1840s), but Black citizens and those from elsewhere on the African continent have been treated poorly in the decades since. "Part of the problem is Tunisians' denial, rejection and minimizing of the issue of racism," Mzioudet said to New Lines Magazine's Erin Clare Brown. Mzioudet founded the Black rights activist group Adam in the years following the 2011 revolution.

Tell me more about Saied
Saied was elected president in 2019, and in 2021 he suspended the parliament and seized what are effectively dictatorial powers. In the past weeks, these powers were used to arrest some of Tunisia's most prominent politicians, journalists, activists, judges and others who have failed to bow to his wishes, accusing them of conspiring against the state. (Bloomberg, Al Jazeera)

What else is going on in Tunisia?
"The political witch-hunts and racist manhunts are two sides of the same coin: a new, dangerous, and highly destabilizing dictatorship is consolidating itself in Tunisia," said Monica Marks on Twitter and to The Continent. Marks is a professor of Middle East politics at New York University, Abu Dhabi. "Saied has no economic plan, and Tunisians' standard of living is in free fall. So, he's scapegoating journalists, judges, lawyers, political critics, and the bodies of the most vulnerable -- including Black immigrants and refugees."

Is everybody on board with this?!
Not everybody is buying what the Tunisian president is selling. Civil society groups have condemned the president's anti-African rhetoric, and mobilized to support migrants in need of assistance. Last Saturday, hundreds of protesters marched through central Tunis chanting "no to racism" and "Down with fascism, Tunisia is an African country". (The Guardian) Maha Abdelhamid, an organiser with the Tunisian collective Voix des Femmes Tunisiennes Noires (Black Tunisian Women's Voices), called on Black Tunisian women to share photos of themselves with their Tunisian identity cards. (France24)

Did you know that, in 2018, Tunisia introduced a landmark law that criminalized racial discrimination? It still exists today. Back then, it was the first of its kind in the Arab world.

Btw, I've cited quotes that use the term "Sub-Saharan Africa". Some critics call the term racist and outdated. (Quartz)

The presidential election in Nigeria is over. What now?

Bola Tinubu was elected President of Nigeria, with just 37% of the vote. As you can...