Underground Music in Tunisia: The Case of Awled AL Manajim Under Ben Ali

Abstract

Awled AL Manajim musical group was forced to go underground under Ben Ali (1987-2010) as the consequence of regime censorship and restrictions on engaged artists. The post-Ben Ali era experienced the proliferation of other types of underground music, in particular rap and hip-hop which achieved major importance in comparison with the old forms of the underground that managed not only to survive Ben Ali’s dictatorship, but also created a culture of resistance through art. This article argues that Awled AL Manajim contributed to the development of a resistance movement in the Mining Basin and suggests that this musical group managed, to a certain extent, to articulate the causes and concerns of the local populace.

Key Words:

• Awled AL Manajim
• Internal colonialism
• Corruption
• Mining Basin
• Poverty
• Protest music
• Underground music
• Resistance

Notes

1 Awled AL Manajim translates into English as The Children of the Mines.

2 Joan Gross, David McMurray & Ted Swedenburg (1992) Rai, Rap, and Ramadan Nights: Franco-Maghribi Cultural Identities, Middle East Report, 178, pp. 11–24.

3 Ted Swedenburg (2002) The Post-September 11 Arab Wave in World Music, Middle East Report, 224 (Autumn), pp. 44-48.

4 Ibid.

5 Marc Schade-Poulsen (1999) Men and Popular Music in Algeria: The Social Significance of Raï, 1st ed. (Austin: University of Texas Press).

6 Rachid Aadnani (2006) Beyond Raï: North African Protest Music and Poetry, World Literature Today, 80(4), pp. 21-26.

7 Ibid.

8 Gnawa musicians are Moroccan Muslims with sub-Saharan African origins and whose presence in Morocco usually is linked to the Sub-Saharan salve trade. They consider Bilal AL Habashi as their patron saint. In addition to the sound beats of the music, Gnawa music has rituals that are similar to some Sufi practices. Gnawa music is considered as spiritual and with therapeutic values that generally are associated with a catharsis of negative emotions.

9 Gnawa music was the focus of other important studies, including Ziad Bentahar (2010) The Visibility of African Identity in Moroccan Music from Gnawa to Ghiwane and Back, Wasafiri, 25(1), pp. 41–48; and Maisie Sum (2011) Staging the Sacred: Musical Structure and Processes of the Gnawa Lila in Morocco, Ethnomusicology, 55(1), pp. 77–111.

10 Tony Langlois (1998) The Gnawa of Oujda: Music at the Margins in Morocco, The World of Music, 40(1), pp. 135–156.

11 Chouki El Hamel (2008) Constructing a diasporic identity: Tracing the Origins of the Gnawa Spiritual Group in Morocco, The Journal of African History, 49(2), pp. 241–260.

12 Ibid.

13 Mark Levine (2009) Doing the Devil’s Work: Heavy Metal and the Threat to Public Order in the Muslim world, Social Compass, 56(4), pp. 564–576.

14 Ruth Davis (1996a) Arab-Andalusian Music in Tunisia, Early Music, 24(3), pp. 423–436.

15 Ruth Davis (1996b) The Art/Popular Music Paradigm and the Tunisian Ma'lūf, Popular Music, 15(3), pp. 313–323.

16 Kathryn Stapley (2006) Mizwid: An Urban Music with Rural Roots, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 32(2), pp. 243–256.

17 Anastasia Valassopoulos & Dalia Said Mostafa (2014) Popular Protest Music and the 2011 Egyptian Revolution, Popular Music and Society, 37(5), pp. 638–659.

18 Kerim Bouzouita (2013) Music of Dissent and Revolution, Middle East Critique, 22(3), pp. 281–292.

19 Nouri Gana (2013) Rapping and Remapping the Tunisian Revolution, in Karima Laachir & Saeed Talajooy (eds.) Contemporary Middle Eastern Cultures: Literature, Cinema and Music, pp. 207–300 (New York: Routledge). See also Nouri Gana (2012) Rap and Revolt in the Arab World, Social Text, 113, Winter, pp. 25–53.

20 Stefano Barono (2016) Fragile Scenes: Metal, Rap, and Electro in Post-Revolutionary Tunisia, PhD dissertation, Griffith University, Australia.

21 Andy Bennett & Richard A. Peterson (eds.) (2004) Music Scenes: Local, Translocal and Virtual (Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press), p. 12.

22 Ibid, p. 8.

23 Gabriel Gagnon (1976) Cooperatives, Participation, and Development: Three failures, in June Nash, Jorge Dandler & Nicholas S. Hopkins (1976) (eds) Popular Participation in Social Change, pp. 365-380 (Chicago: Aldine Publishing Company).

24 John L. Simmons (1971) Agricultural Cooperatives and Tunisian Development, Middle East Journal, 25(1), p. 45.

25 For a detailed analysis of the failure of the cooperative system in Tunisia see Gagnon, Cooperatives, Participation, and Development; and also Douglas E. Ashford (1973) Succession and Social Change in Tunisia, International Journal of Middle East Studies, 4(1), pp. 23–39.

26 ‘UGTT (1978) A General Strike All over the Country for 24 hours, AL Chaab Newspaper [Tunis] (Special Issue), 25 January 1978.

27 AL Bahth AL Mousiqui translates into English as research in music. This is a Tunisian musical group that emerged in the 1980s in Gabes, southeast Tunisia.

28 AL Hamaim AL Bidh translates into English as the white doves. This musical group was established in 1980.

29 Shayyid Kousourak [Build your Castles]. Available online at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9l_e17_9d4, accessed October 22, 2019. (Author’s translation).

30 Marilyn Booth (2009) Exploding into the Seventies: Ahmad Fu’ad Nigm, Shaykh Imam, and the Aesthetics of a New Youth Politics, in Nicholas S. Hopkins (ed.) Political and Social Protest in Egypt, (Cairo: The American University in Cairo Press), p. 19.

31 The first song [Sharaft Ya Nixon Baba] is available online at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9p2jauOUBUk, accessed October 23, 2019. The second song [Valéry Giscard d'Estaing] is available online at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWto6Wlj1N4, accessed October 23, 2019.

32 Oxford English Dictionary (2019) ‘Underground’ available online at: http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/211700, accessed October 27, 2019.

33 Anna Szemere (2001) Up from the Underground (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press), p. 16.

34 Creative Blog Staff (2007) Going Underground. Available online at: https://www.creativebloq.com/computer-arts/going-underground-7079491, accessed December 6, 2018.

35 Stephen Graham (2016) Sounds of the Underground (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press), p. 67.

36 Stephen Graham (2012) Notes from the Underground: A Cultural, Political, and Aesthetic Mapping of Underground Music, PhD dissertation, University of London, p. 16.

37 A type of bagpipe and percussion music commonly associated with the Tunisian working class.

38 Jenine Beekhuyzen, Liisa Von Hellens & Sue Nielsen (2011) Underground Online Music Communities: Exploring Rules for Membership, Online Information Review, 35(5), p. 701.

39 Tilia Korpe used this expression; see her master’s thesis: Tilia Korpe (2013) Artivism in Tunis: Music and Art as Tools of Creative Resistance and the Cultural Re: Mixing of a Revolution, MA Thesis, Malmö University, Sweden, p. 4.

40 This expression was used by Simon Frith in his article Music and Identity, in Stuart Hall & Paul Du Gay (eds) Questions of Cultural Identity, p. 109 (London: Sage).

41 The title of this song is The Will. It is the last will of a miner for his son.

42 Ya Kari Al Jarida, available online at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIiHY66PU1U, accessed February 19, 2019. (Author’s translation).

43 Ibid.

44 Ibid.

45 The sultan in this context means the man in power.

46 Damous is a term which is used to refer to mining shafts.

47 Dada means mother in the local vernacular.

48 The song Ya Damous. Available online at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQDXgclMGvg, accessed September 14, 2019. (Author’s translation).

49 Ibid.

50 The song Ya Kari Al Jarida, available online at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIiHY66PU1U, accessed February 19, 2019 (Author’s translation).

51 Ya Damous.

52 Ya Maadi Layam kif Maadihom translates into English as How do you pass these days?

53 Ya Maadi Layam kif Maadihom is available online at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vxv6vpTWSoM, accessed January 27, 2020.

54 Jeremy Wallach used this expression in his article, ‘Goodbye my Blind Majesty: Music, Language, and Politics in the Indonesian Underground’, in Harris M. Berger & Michael T. Carroll (eds.) (2003) Global Pop, Local Language, p. 71 (Oxford, Ms: University Press of Mississippi).

55 See Amine Allal & Karine Bennafla (2011) Les Mouvements Protestataires de Gafsa (Tunisie) et Sidi Ifni (Maroc) de 2005 à 2009 [Protest Movements of Gafsa (Tunisia) and Sidi Ifni (Morroco) from 2005 to 2009], Revue Tiers Monde, 5, p. 39.

56 This is a highly controversial issue in Tunisian history, but generally anticolonial leaders from Gafsa were accused of leading a conspiracy against President Bourguiba as they sided with Salah Ben Youssef against Bourguiba. Ben Youssef was a nationalist leader who played a key role in the Tunisian national liberation movement. He was against Bourguiba’s decolonization strategy and hence they were major rivals. The struggle ended with the assassination of Ben Youssef in Germany. Ben Youssef was pan-Arab, unlike Bourguiba, who was pro-West.

57 See Amin & Bennafla, Les Mouvements Protestataires, p. 39.

58 Bread riots (December 29, 1983 to January 5, 1984) started in the southwest and later spread to other parts of the country, mainly the capital.

59 Déclenchement des Emeutes du Pain en Tunisie [The Outbreak of Bread Riots in Tunisia] (1983), Perspective Monde. Available online at: https://perspective.usherbrooke.ca/bilan/servlet/BMEve?codeEve=907, accessed July 22, 20.

60 The song Ya Shaheed [Martyr],available online at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4mO9HAG6UU, accessed February 19, 2019, (Author’s translation).

61 Amine Allal (2012) Trajectoires “Rêvolutionnaires” en Tunisie: Processus de Radicalisations Politiques 2007-2011: Retour sur les Situations Revolutionnaires Arabes [Revolutionary Trajectories in Tunsia: The Process of Political Radicalization 2007-2011; A Review of the Arab Revolutionary Situations], Revue Française de Science Politique, 62 (5), p. 824.

62 See Eric Grobe’s description of the 2008 protests against Ben Ali: Eric Gobe (2010) The Gafsa Mining Basin between Riots and a Social Movement: Meaning and Significance of a Protest Movement in Ben Ali's Tunisia. Available online at: https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00557826/document, accessed October 27, 2019.

63 Carole Vann (2008) Tunisie: La Révolte à Huis-clos du Peuple des Mines [The Unseen Revolt of the People of the Mining Basin]. Available online at: https://www.swissinfo.ch/fre/en-tunisie–la-révolte-à-huis-clos-du-peuple-des-mines/6981004, accessed September 18, 2019.

64 Mahmoud Ben Romdhane & Ali Kadel (2008) Le Bassin Minier de Gafsa : Le Désespoir sous les Trésors [The Mining Basin of Gafsa: Despair under Treasures]. Available online at: http://www.attariq.org/spip.php?article60, accessed on September 18, 2019.

65 Ammar Amroussia (2008) The Uprising of the Mining Basin. Available online at: http://www.ahewar.org/debat/show.art.asp?aid=136771, accessed on June 18, 2019 (Author’s translation).

66 This definition is based on David Harvey’s definition of neoliberalism. See David Harvey (2007) A brief History of Neoliberalism (Oxford: Oxford University Press), p. 72.

67 Sami Zemni (2017) The Tunisian Revolution: Neoliberalism, Urban Contentious Politics and the Right to the City, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 41(1), pp. 70-83; see also Koenraad Bogaert (2013) Contextualizing the Arab Revolts: The Politics behind Three Decades of Neoliberalism in the Arab World, Middle East Critique, 22(3), pp. 213-234.

68 Gobe, The Gafsa Mining Basin between Riots and a Social Movement, p. 5.

69 Berthold Brecht, quoted in Anne Schumann (2008) The Beat that Beat Apartheid: The Role of Music in the Resistance against Apartheid in South Africa, p. 17. Available online at: https://stichproben.univie.ac.at/fileadmin/user_upload/p_stichproben/Artikel/Nummer14/Nr14_Schumann.pdf, accessed October 27, 2019.

70 Stephen Duncombe (ed.) (2002) Cultural Resistance Reader, p. 5-6 (London: Verso).

71 Viviane Saleh-Hanna (2008) Fela Kuti’s Wahala Music: Political Resistance Through Song, in: Viviane Saleh-Hanna (ed.) Colonial Systems of Control: Criminal Justice in Nigeria, p. 360 (Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press).

72 Labess translates into English as ‘it’s fine.’

73 These themes were prevalent in Badiaa Bouhrizi’s song Labess; See Badiaa Bouhrizi, Labess. Available online at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoNvDKg8-rY, accessed January 26, 2020.

74 Bendirmen (2008) Redeyef. Available online at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfwLE9mvYHk, accessed January 25, 2020 (Author’s translation).

75 Jihad SouthSchool (2015) Golli Win. Available online at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWAOtoiUcl8, accessed January 28, 2020.

76 Dada means mother in the vernacular of southwestern Tunisia.

77 Chahadat Fakr [Poverty certificate]. Available online at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQWKA7qzYjk, accessed on September 15, 2019 (Author’s translation).

78 Stephano Pontigigia used ‘death’ in his description of the Mining Basin. See Stephano Pontigigia (2016), Every Day is a Copy-and-Paste: Waithood among Tunisian Men, Allegra Laboratory, 20. Available online at: https://allegralaboratory.net/every-day-is-a-copy-and-paste-waithood-among-tunisian-men/, accessed September 15, 2019.

79 The expression, generation in ‘waiting’, was used in Navtej Dhillon & Tarik Yousef (eds.) (2009) Generation in Waiting: The Unfulfilled Promise of Young People in the Middle East (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press).

80 See, for example, Beatrice Hibou (2015) Le Bassin Minier de Gafsa en Déshérence. Gouverner le Mécontentement Social en Tunisie, [The Gafsa Mining Basin in Neglect: Governing Social Discontent in Tunisia]; and Beatrice Hibou, Irene Bono, Hamza Meddeb & Mohamed Tozy (eds) (2006) L’État d’injustice au Maghreb. Maroc et Tunisie [The state of injustice in the Maghreb: Morocco and Tunisia], pp. 301-343 (Paris: Karthala).

81 The World Bank (2014) The Unfinished Revolution: Bringing Opportunity, Good Jobs and Greater Wealth to All Tunisians. In: World Bank, Development policy Review, 300, p. 284.

82 See Stefano Pontiggia (2015) Redeyef, ou L’espoir Déçu de la Tunisie des Marges [Redeyef or the Desperate Hope of Tunisia of the Margins]. Available online at: https://www.middleeasteye.net/fr/reportages/redeyef-ou-lespoir-decu-de-la-tunisie-des-marges, accessed January 22, 2020.

83 This is the summary of the social problems as stated in Dhahaya Al Shaqa, Ya Dhahyay AL Fasad [Victims of Misery, Victims of Corruption]. Available online at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dNi7XFdlDs, accessed September 15, 2019.

84 Corruption in Tunisia: What’s Yours is Mine. Available online at: https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/08TUNIS679_a.html, accessed January 21, 2020.

85 Beatrice Hibou (2006) Domination and Control in Tunisia: Economic Levers for the Exercise of Authoritarian Power, Review of African Political Economy, 33(108), pp. 185-206.

86 The World Bank (2014) The Unfinished Revolution: Bringing Opportunity, Good Jobs and Greater Wealth to All Tunisians, World Bank, Development policy Review 300, pp. 110–111.

87 The song Tounisna Tbaait [Our Tunisia was sold]. Available online at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l46eprcaJmA, accessed September 17, 2019 (Author’s translation).

88 Ibid.

89 Nari ala Phospahte AL Mina [Sorry for the phosphate of the mines]. Available online at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUd4cdRryFk, accessed on October 13, 2019 (author’s translation).

90 See World Bank report on Tunisia for a thorough analysis and illustration of the regional disparities in Tunisia: The World Bank (2014) The Unfinished Revolution: Bringing Opportunity, Good Jobs and Greater Wealth to All Tunisians, World Bank, Development Policy Review 300, p. 284.

91 The definition of the internal colonial model is based on Michael Hechter’s conceptualization of internal colonialism; see Michael Hechter (1975) Internal Colonialism: The Celtic Fringe in British National Development 1536-1966 (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press), pp. 9-10.

92 Stefano Pontiggia (2015) Redeyef, ou l’espoir déçu de la Tunisie des marges [Redeyef or the Desperate Hope of the Tunisia of the Margins], available online at: https://www.middleeasteye.net/fr/reportages/redeyef-ou-lespoir-decu-de-la-tunisie-des-marges, accessed January 22, 2020; see also Stefano Pontigigia (2016) Every Day is a Copy-and-Paste: Waithood among Tunisian Men, Allegra Laboratory, 20.

93 For more details on the impact of this regional imbalance on the population of the Mining Basin see Pontigigia, ‘Every Day is a Copy-and-Paste.’

94 For a detailed description of the characteristics of ‘organic intellectuals,’ see Antonio Gramsci’s chapter on ‘The Formation of the Intellectuals,’in Quintin Hoare & Geoffrey Nowell Smith (eds.) (1971) Selections from the Prison Notebooks (London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1971), pp.12–15.

95 Inti Ya Warda [You the rose]. Available online at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtMUZaXBDss, accessed October 28, 2019 (Author’s translation).

96 Inti Ya Warda.

97 Reference to the 1980s and 1990s in particular has to do with the popularity of the songs of Awled AL Manajim in this era as from the turn of the century new forms of underground music developed in particular hip hop and rap, which attracted a large section of students unlike the previous eras where the songs of Awled Al Manajim were the most popular in universities.

98 Nasheed Al Ittihad [Hymn of the General Union of Tunisian Students]. Available online at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqPz0mibUrk accessed on October 28, 2019. Adam Fathi, an engaged poet, wrote the lyrics of this song; Farhat Bessrour translated them into English. Author’s personal communication with Farhat Bessrour, May 30, 2019.

99 Saleh-Hanna (2008) Fela Kuti’s Wahala Music: Political Resistance Through Song, pp. 360–361.