Taifa: A Journey of Integration beyond the Subaltern Narrative

Abstract:

This article explores a unique type of songs performed by a Black minority musical group in southeastern Tunisia. Taifa, a group of Black singers, mainly from the rural working class appeared as a response to the economic marginalization of Blacks after the abolition of slavery in Tunisia in 1846. It explores the way this musical group developed and how it came to be associated with the norms of respectability among the local society. It also delves into the themes of Taifa songs that, I contend, show an incremental journey of integration into the predominant Arab/Berber majority and an adjustment to Tunisia’s social and political changes, which were reflected in the changes in the themes of Taifa songs after the Tunisian Revolution.

Key Words:

• Black songs
• Integration
• Minority
• Respectability
• Taifa
• Tunisia
• Working class conditions

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 Sfar is a system of calling names, mainly of the bridegroom and his family, during the wedding ceremony. It is a way to praise them by the people attending the wedding ceremony. One person in Taifa is entrusted with this duty and they get TND 1 for the calling of each name and that is how they get money.

2 This definition is based on the Dictionary of AL Maany AL Jamaa (معجم المعاني الجامع). AL Maany AL Jamaa (2020) ‘طائفة’ (Taifa). Available at shorturl.at/tAEOT, accessed November 18, 2020.

3 The Dictionary of AL Maany AL Jamaa (معجم المعاني الجامع) (2020) ‘طاف’ (taafa). Available at shorturl.at/agAJS, accessed November 18, 2020.

4 Richard C. Jankowsky (2006) Black Spirits, White Saints: Music, Spirit Possession, and Sub-Saharans in Tunisia, Ethnomusicology, 50(3), p. 385.

5 Oxford English Dictionary (2019) Acculturation. Available at https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/1259?redirectedFrom=acculturation#eid, accessed May 26, 2020.

6 Documentary on the history of Taifa of Ghbonton (2019). Available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NojSTKJn4DQ, accessed May 26, 2020.

7 See for example Jean Pouchelon (2012) Stambeli: L’Héritage des Noirs de Tunisie [Stambeli: The heritage of the blacks of Tunisia], Cahiers d’ethnomusicologie, 25, pp. 294–295.

8 Richard C. Jankowsky (2010) Stambeli: Music, Trance, and Alterity in Tunisia (Chicago: University of Chicago Press); Richard C. Jankowsky (2007) Music, Spirit Possession and the In-between: Ethnomusicological Inquiry and the Challenge of Trance, Ethnomusicology Forum, 16(2), pp. 185–208; and Jankowsky (2006) Black Spirits, White Saints: Music, Spirit Possession, and Sub-Saharans in Tunisia.

9 Christopher Witulski (2016) Light Rhythms and Heavy Spirits: Entertaining Listeners through Gnawa Musical and Ritual Adaptations in Morocco, Ethnomusicology Forum, 25(2), pp. 172–190. For Gnawa music see also 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.

10 Deborah Kapchan (2007) Traveling Spirit Masters: Moroccan Gnawa Trance and Music in the Global Marketplace (MiddleTown: Wesleyan University Press).

11 Marta Scaglioni (2020) “She is not an ʿAbid” Meanings of Race and Blackness in a Community of Slave Descendants in Southern Tunisia, Antropologia, 7(1), pp. 117–140. See also Marta Scaglioni (2020) Becoming the Abid: Lives and Social Origins in Southern Tunisia (Milano: LediPublishing).

12 Scaglioni (2018) Emancipation and Music: Post-slavery Among Black Tunisians.

13 In the case of this study, the author lives in the same area and the issue of race could neither be confirmed nor denied.

14 This expression was used by Chouki El Hamel (2002) Race, slavery and Islam in Maghribi Mediterranean Thought: The Question of the Haratin in Morocco, The Journal of North African Studies, 7(3), pp. 29–52.

15 Ibid.

16 The latest legislation was in 2018 when the Tunisian parliament passed in October an anti-racist law that criminalises anti-racist acts.

17 Anne Smyth and Rosalie Holian (2008) Credibility Issues in Research from within Organisations, in Pat Sikes & Anthony Potts (eds) Researching Education from the Inside, pp. 33–47 (New York: Taylor & Francis).

18 Oxford English Dictionary (2019) Respect. Available at https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/163783, accessed June 2, 2020.

19 Oxford English Dictionary (2019) Respectability. Available at https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/163783#eid25669395, accessed June 2, 2020.

20 See, for example, Mike J. Huggins (2000) More Sinful Pleasures? Leisure, Respectability and the Male Middle Classes in Victorian England, Journal of Social History, 33(3), pp. 585–600.

21 During Taifa spectacle, the audience does not sing, dance or clap.

22 Mizwid is a form of Tunisian popular music. It is shaabi (popular) music. It is characterised by the use of mizwid (bagpipe made of animal skin) and Derbuka (percussion like instrument). See further Kathryn Stapley (2006) Mizwid: An Urban Music with Rural Roots, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 32(2), pp. 243–256.

23 This is a song by Taifa of Tlich recorded while attending a wedding ceremony (Author’s translation).

24 Tabbala is a drum used with mizwid.

25 Jahilia is an Arabic word which refers to the uncivilised and the state of ignorance of Arabs before Islam. See definition of Jahilia (جاهلية) in the Dictionary of AL Maany AL Jamaa (معجم المعاني الجامع). AL Maany AL Jamaa (2020), ‘جاهلية’Available at shorturl.at/beyT7, accessed November 21, 2020.

26 Habib Toumi (2015) Aamal Ashan [This is all because of stereos]. Available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssAyDkUUS90, accessed April 25, 2020 (Author’s translation).

27 Stapley (2006) Mizwid: An Urban Music with Rural Roots, p. 247.

28 Jebba is the Tunisian national dress. All Taifa members dress in Jebba and Tunisian Chachia (a fez-like cap)

29 Habib Toumi (2015) Aamal Ashan [This is all because of stereos].

30 Ali Tlich (2013) Maghour [Frustrated]. Available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxmyhQxI1MM, accessed May 15, 2020 (Author’s translation).

31 Taifa of Ghbonton (2013) Gid AL Khobza Gid Al Marga [No more sauce, No more bread, No more!]. Available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOulAn8gQ7M&t=28s, accessed on My 5, 2020 (Author’s translation).

32 AL Omada is the lowest rank in order of the government officials.

33 AL Bahth AL Mousiqui [Research in Music] (2014) Koudh EL Bisissa. Available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtwKLZ12nd4, accessed May 15, 2020 (Author’s translation). The lyrics of this song were written by Belgacem Yaakoubi, a Tunisian poet and social critic who died under torture in a Tunisian prison; the government accused him of being anti-regime and especially for denouncing poverty, unemployment, and social injustice.

34 Mohamed Chamekh (2020) Underground Music in Tunisia: The Case of Awled AL Manajim Under Ben Ali, Middle East Critique, 29(4), pp. 371–394.

35 Corinna Mullin & Polly Pallister-Wilkins (2015) Introduction: The West Asian and North African Uprisings and the Limits of Liberal Governance, Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding, 9(2), pp. 151–161.

36 Fadhel Kaboub (2012) From Neoliberalism to Social Justice: The Feasability of Full Employment in Tunisia, Review of Radical Political Economics, 44(3), pp. 305–312.

37 Fadhel Kaboub (2013) The End of Neoliberalism? An Institutional Analysis of the Arab Uprisings, Journal of Economic Issues, 47(2), pp. 533–544.

38 Oxford English Dictionary (2019) Humour. Available at https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/89416?rskey=qUwdix&result=1#eid1142953, accessed May 12, 2020.

39 Salvatore Attardo (2020) The Linguistics of Humor: An Introduction (Oxford: Oxford University Press), p. 8.

40 Ibid, p. 14.

41 Debra Raphaelson-West (1989) On the Feasibility and Strategies of Translating Humour, Meta: Journal des Traducteurs/Meta: Translators’ Journal, 34(1), p. 128.

42 Attardo, The Linguistics of Humor, p. 7.

43 Ibid, p. 346.

44 Ibid, p. 349.

45 Cuéllar Irala and Garcia-Falces (2004) quoted in Salvatore Attardo (2020) The Linguistics of Humor, p. 350.

46 Zollat is a word in dialectical Arabic (darija) used in Tunisia to refer to a big sick, which is used for beating people or animals (for punishment). I looked for the meaning of the word in different dictionaries (Lissan AL Arab (لسان العرب), AL Wasssit (الوسيط) and AL Maany AL Jamaa (معجم المعاني الجامع), but the word did not figure in any of these dictionaries.

47 This is an example of a generalization (hyperonymy). In this context, Taifa meant the brand of the car used by the police (Fiat). In Tunisia, reference to certain brands of cars like the Renault Chamade, for example, meant the police.

48 Ghbonton (2013) Gid AL Khobza Gid Al Marga [No more sauce, No more bread, No more!].

49 Makhlouf in this context refers to the local hospital, which is in Sidi Makhlouf of which Al Gosbah, the place of Taifa, is a part.

50 The word Boulihya [the man with a beard] is used in the local context to refer to people who wear long beards. In this context, the doctor wears a beard and therefore he was known among the local people by the nickname Boulihya.

51 Moubark Toumi (2015) Jalta [stroke]. Available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lW-MWm3L61c&t=21s, accessed May 12, 2020 (Author’s translation).

52 Moubark Toumi (2017) Fi Wasf AL Thawra [In description of the Tunisian revolution]. Available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDU0eeUoIGo, accessed May 8, 2020 (Author’s translation).

53 Habib Toumi (2020) Kthor AL Fasad [More corruption]. Available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwmcGQ397tY, accessed May 28, 2020 (Author’s translation).

54 Sarah Yerkes & Marwan Muasher (2017) Tunisia's Corruption Contagion: A Transition at Risk (Washington: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace).

55 Sarah Yerkes (2020) Will Tunisia’s New Dawn be Another False One? Available at https://carnegieendowment.org/2020/09/18/will-tunisia-s-new-dawn-be-another-false-one-pub-82749, accessed November 25, 2020.

56 Moubarak Toumi (2017) Malhamat Ben Guerdane [The epic of Ben Guerdane]. Available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWTBrfMfxwI&t=27s, accessed May 16, 2020 (Author’s translation).

57 Jomma Kof (2014) Jbal Chaambi (Mount Chaambi). Available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyAaqtHK2uw, accessed May 28, 2020 (Author’s translation).

58 Geoffrey Macdonald and Luke Waggoner (2018) Dashed Hopes and Extremism in Tunisia, Journal of Democracy, 29(1), pp. 126–140. See also Robert Andersen and Robert Brym (2017) How Terrorism Affects Attitudes toward Democracy: Tunisia in 2015, Canadian Review of Sociology, 54(4), pp. 519–529.

59 Ibid.

60 Youssef Cherif (2017) The Kamour Movement and Civic Protests in Tunisia. Available at https://carnegieendowment.org/2017/08/08/kamour-movement-and-civic-protests-in-tunisia-pub-72774, accessed November 25, 2020.

61 Moubarak Toumi (2018) AL Kamour. Available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nK-cEyNrBI, accessed May 22, 2020 (Author’s translation).

62 Habib Toumi (2018) Haragaa [Illegal migrants]. Available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjKfxNXxGt8, accessed My 24, 2020 (Author’s translation).

63 Jomaa Kof (2020) Harga [Illegal migration]. Available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOjq4cGVzWs&feature=share&fbclid=IwAR1ja49s0_tKxwq6KNOR4GEOmr2jQX6VDNLsk2AuHWTEZjR8qY7owWvSUWY, accessed May 27, 2020 (Author’s translation).

64 See Mohamed Chamekh (2021) Illegal Migration in Tunisian Rap, Athens Journal of Mediterranean Studies, 7(1), pp. 45–58.

65 Moubrak Toumi (2020) Assifara [The embassy]. Available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Uz44Gd7O6U&t=494s, accessed on My 24, 2020 (Author’s translation).