According to Tunisian President Kais Saied, the biggest problem facing his country is not the deteriorating economy, chronic unemployment or his own efforts to consolidate power in the office of the presidency, which critics have described as an attempt at authoritarianism.
However, the biggest threat to Tunisia comes from “criminal arrangements” to “change the demographic composition of Tunisia” by flooding the country with refugees and migrants from sub-Saharan Africa. President Saied did not provide evidence for this claim, citing a conspiracy theory called “The Great Change” popular among right-wing and white supremacist movements in Europe and North America.
The premise here is that there is a deliberate attempt to eliminate the white population by replacing the non-white population.
“Hoards of illegal immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa are still coming, with all the violence, crimes and unacceptable practices,” the president said on February 21, calling on security forces to “quickly put an end to this phenomenon”.
The consequences of the president’s words for the population of approximately 21 000 Africans living in the country were brutal and immediate.
“Saied’s scapegoating statement … has opened the floodgates of racist terror and violence in Tunisia that previously bubbled beneath the surface,” it reported New Line magazine.
“Reports fill social media and private WhatsApp groups targeting black people – from sub-Saharan countries or black Tunisians – with verbal and physical abuse.”
Yasin Ahmed*, a refugee from Darfur living in Tunis, told Continent that country has, overnight, become dramatically more hostile to black people.
“Yeah, being black, you’re always scared, especially at night,” he said. “Some people throw stones, sometimes calling them monkeys. My friends have been beaten up. There is a lot of discrimination, and I can’t describe it all to you because I can’t stand it if I talk about it.
Several migrants have reported being fired from their jobs, and at least a thousand have been evicted from their homes. Hundreds of people sought protection outside the Tunis embassies in Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea and Mali as well as the offices of the International Organization for Migration.
Various African countries charter flights home for their citizens.
A dangerous split
Saied was elected president in 2019 and in 2021 implemented what political scientists described as a “self-coup” – he used the Covid-19 pandemic to dismantle democratic protections and effectively seize dictatorial power. In recent weeks, the force has been used to arrest critics and opposition leaders.
“The political witch hunt and the racist hunt are two sides of the same coin: a new, dangerous and destabilizing dictatorship has consolidated itself in Tunisia,” said Monica Marks, professor of Middle Eastern politics at New York University Abu Dhabi.
“Saied does not have an economic plan and the standard of living of the Tunisian people is in freefall. So he is scapegoating journalists, judges, lawyers, political critics and the most vulnerable bodies – including black immigrants and refugees,” he said. In doing so, the president exploited a familiar populist fault line.
His political ally, the far-right Tunisian Nationalist Party, uses the term ajasiyin – derived from Arabic for “Africans south of the Sahara” – as an insult. For them, and for other supporters of the president, “to be Tunisian is to be Arab and Muslim, all of which are antonyms of being African,” wrote Shreya Parikh in the magazine. Review of African Political Economy.
“By extension, being Tunisian is not being black.”
Not everyone is buying what the Tunisian president is selling. Civil society groups condemned the president’s anti-African rhetoric and mobilized to support migrants in need of assistance.
Last week, hundreds of protesters marched through central Tunis chanting “no racism”.
Esperance de Tunis, the country’s oldest and most successful football club, last month released a limited edition “African kit” seen as a symbol of solidarity.
It may be that the president’s populist message is not as popular as expected.
*not his real name.
This article first appeared on Continenta pan-African weekly newspaper produced in partnership with Mail & Guardians. It is designed to be read and shared on WhatsApp. Download your free copy here.