MEI Kaleidoscope
19 April 2017
MEI Kaleidoscope | Art and Hope in Tunisia
By Charlotte Schriwer
19 April 2017
Art has been employed as a mechanism of anti-government protest in the Middle East for decades,
often giving rise to new art movements that aim to push the boundaries of social and political heteronormative boundaries. Most recently, this new form of art has emerged in the wake of the Arab Uprisings, taking on the form of graffiti; and it is no surprise, then, that Tunisia- which is considered the
birth place of the Arab ‘Spring’ with the self-immolation of the disillusioned Mohammed Bouazizihas been a hotbed of art activism through a new and flourishing graffiti movement.
With more than 44% of Tunisia’s population falling into the 25-54 age range,1 the prime employment
age; it is no surprise the revolution took hold, a revolution which is relatively speaking the sole success story of the protests that swept across North Africa. One of the centres of activism, as is often the
case, was the universities. At the University of Tunis, for example, slogans with motifs such as ‘War
Makes Coffins and Castles’, or graffiti works paying allegiance to famous heroes such as Che Guevara, can be seen around the campus. However, not all students are anti-government activists. It is
common for pro- and anti-regime activists to engage in a game of applying and whitewashing graffiti.
During the revolution, one particular figure of contention was the Lebanese thinker Mahdi Amel, who
was assassinated in the 1980s, and whose slogans are often the victim of removal by pro-regime student activist.2 The University of Tunis administration plays a similar game with anti-regime activists,
who taunt the administration by writing the slogan ‘Paint Again’ on walls that have been whitewashed
of graffiti that is considered controversial in terms of social and political norms.
http://www.indexmundi.com/tunisia/demographics_profile.html, accessed April 15, 2017.
Charlotte Schriwer, “Graffiti Arts and the Arab Spring”, in Routledge Handbook of the Arab Uprisings, ed.
Larbi Sadiki, Routledge, 2014, pp. 378-379.
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19 April 2017
Graffiti of Mahdi Amel at University of Tunis
Of course, images of Mohammed Bouazizi, whose actions are often considered to be the catalyst of
the Arab uprisings, are frequently seen around Tunisia in the form of wall paintings and stenciled
graffiti art in public spaces. Other local Tunisians who have been martyrs for the cause of freedom
and democracy are also the subject of graffiti art activists; one of these political activists was Chokri
Belaid, a Tunisian lawyer and politician, and the opposition leader with the left-secular Democratic
Patriots Movement. A prominent and frequent critic of Ben Ali’s regime, and the Islamist government
that ran Tunisia before the revolution in 2011, he was assassinated on 6 February 2013 outside his
home in a suburb of the capital. His death led to the dissolution of the existing government structure
by the post-revolution elected Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali, who formed instead a national unity
government.3
Monika Marks and Kareem Fahem, “Tunisia Moves to Contain Fallout After Opposition Figure is Assassinated,” The New York Times, February 6, 2013;
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/07/world/africa/chokri-belaid-tunisian-opposition-figure-iskilled.html?_r=0, accessed April 15, 2017.
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19 April 2017
Graffiti of Chokri Belaid
Prominent martyrs of the recent revolution are not the only figures who continue to receive the attention of graffiti activists; the first cyber-activist to be persecuted and imprisoned by the Ben Ali regime
in Tunisia was Zouhair Yahyaoui (December 8, 1967- March 13, 2005). Using the alias Ettounsi,
Yahyaoui established a satirical website called TUNeZine as a public online forum for discussion related to human rights, the economy, religion and freedom of expression. The authorities shut the site
down and imprisoned him for eighteen months in 2002. To draw global attention to his predicament,
Yahyaoui went on several hunger strikes before he was released in 2003. However, his weak health
failed and on March 13, 2005, Yahyaoui died of heart failure. As homage to his life and activism for
democracy, March 13 was nominated as the national day of internet freedom in Tunisia by the new
presidency after the ousting of Ben Ali in 2011.4
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https://pen.org/advocacy-case/zouhair-yahyaoui/, accessed April 14, 2017.
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19 April 2017
Graffiti of Zouhair Yahyaoui
Walls are not the only open-air canvas that is used as a background for graffiti. In the wake of the destruction left behind in the suburbs of Tunis during the revolution, one artist, Faten Rouissi, took advantage of the many burned out vehicles left around the neighbourhoods to decorate them with colourful slogans of the revolution, such as ‘Game Over’, ’Long Live Tunisia’,’Freedom’ and ‘Revolution’.5 While the intention was in part to turn the streets from a bleak and frightening war zone into a
more welcoming open-air art gallery, it also served as a public display of art-activism to celebrate the
downfall of decades of dictatorial rule by Ben Ali and his regime.
Another artist, who is internationally renowned, is the French-Tunisian artist known as el Seed, who
has worked globally from Paris to New York, and Rio de Janeiro to Cape Town, as well as in Tunisia.
Inspired in part by the 2011 revolution, el Seed began to decorate public spaces in Tunisia with artistically shaped calligraphy. One of the most famous and controversial of these is a calligraphic painting on the minaret of the Jara Mosque in Gabes, on the Central Tunisian coast, completed in 2012. In
an elegant, 57 metre high mural, el Seed wrote the words “Oh humankind, we have created you from
a male and a female and made people and tribes so you may know each other,” a response to the recurring conflicts between religious sects and artists. To emphasize the need for tolerance, the artist
painted the mural during the month of Ramadan, with the approval of the city’s governor and the
mosque’s imam. El Seed often draws on religious writings and poetry; a mural he completed on a wall
in a neighbourhood in Kairouan was taken from a passage of a work by the Tunisian poet Abu’l
Qasim Al-Husayfi, a dedication to those oppressed by tyranny.
Nama Khalil, “Art and the Arab Awakening”, Foreign Policy in Focus, August 2, 2012;
http://fpif.org/art_and_the_arab_awakening/ , accessed April 15th, 2017.
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El Seed’s calligraphic painting on Jara Mosque
In the aftermath of the revolution, six years later, street art has become more prominent in Tunisia,
despite the risks that are still involved in engaging what is considered to be vandalism or worse, an
expression of anti-regime activism. Street art collectives have slowly started to emerge in the suburbs
of Tunisia, with groups such as 4 Street Family regularly taking to the neighbourhood streets to paint
murals and calligraphy on its walls. Even so, in addition to the restrictions imposed by the government on this kind of art, local neighbourhoods often impose their own religious or social views on the
graffiti and murals by painting it over almost immediately. In extreme cases, members of the 4 Street
Family have been arrested and beaten for their artistic ventures.6
However, there are other parts of Tunisia, such as Kasserine, a west-central town bordering Algeria,
where street art is encouraged amongst the younger population, mainly as a tool to fight attempts by
ISIS to recruit disillusioned young men and women.7 This is a serious risk in Tunisia, which according to the United Nations has lost as many as 6500 people between the age of 18 and 35 to the ex-
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Thessa Lageman, How Street Art Took Off in the Suburbs of Tunis, CityLab,
http://www.citylab.com/design/2016/02/how-street-art-took-off-in-tunis/463458/
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Helene Dancer, Marginalised Tunisian Youth Encourage to Choose graffiti over Isis, the Guardian, June 21,
2016; https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jun/21/tunisian-youth-encouraged-to-choose-graffiti-overisis-tarek-dhibi, accessed April 15, 2017.
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19 April 2017
tremist jihadi group.8 To counter this problem, and to instill a sense of purpose, some young artists
such as Tarek Dhibi have set up workshops to teach those vulnerable to the cause of ISIS to use spray
cans to paint rather than take up weapons and fight. The workshop includes an 8-point plan on how to
become a graffiti artist, which also has the purpose of distracting attention from the lack of political
and economic progress that has pushed so many of Tunisia’s youth to join extremist groups. But,
while economic and political reform may seem desperately slow and painfully distant for the country’s young working population, signs of hope and encouragement still remain in its flourishing and
vibrant street art.
Charlotte Schriwer’s research has focused mainly on the history of the Levant, (Jordan, Syria,
Lebanon), in particular on its agricultural history from the 12th century to the 1800s. She has
also explored the question of ethnic identity in the Ottoman architecture of the Levant. Since
joining MEI in 2011, she has started a project documenting the history of protest art in the Arab world, with a focus on the Arab Uprisings. She holds a PhD in History and an MA in Middle
East Studies from the University of St. Andrews, Scotland, and an MA in Islamic Art and Archaeology from the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. Charlotte Schriwer coedited Converging Regions: Global Perspectives on Asia and the Middle East (2014) with Nele
Lenze and wrote Water and Technology in Levantine Society, 1300-1900: A Historical, Archaeological and Architectural Analysis (2015).
Photo Credits: Wikimedia Commons, Laura Boushnak
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Ashley Kirk, “Iraq and Syria: How many foreign fighters are fighting for Isil?”, The Telegraph, March 24, 2016
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/03/29/iraq-and-syria-how-many-foreign-fighters-are-fighting-for-isil/,
accessed April 15, 2017.
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