Tunisia,
Spring 2014.
The
Republic of Tunisia is the northernmost country of Africa with a population of
11 million, 3 million of whom live in and around the capital, Tunis. Its
neighbors are Algeria to the West (with friendly relations), Libya to the Southeast,
and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. It is midway between the Atlantic Ocean and
the Nile Delta. Though relatively small, Tunisia has great environmental
diversity due to its north-south extent.
The
eastern extension of the Atlas Mountains runs across Tunisia in a northeasterly
direction from the Algerian border. The highest peak is 3440 feet (gets some
snow), lowest is 56 feet below sea level in the southern desert. The climate is
temperate in the north, with mild rainy winters and hot, dry summers.
Northern
Tunisia has rolling hills, palm trees (brought in from Lebanon), green grass, and
an agricultural landscape with olive trees and herds of lambs and cows along the
expressways. The roads are well maintained, with few traffic lights, except in urban
areas.
Language and Education
Tunisian
Arabic is the official language, however, most people also speak French.
The
literacy rate among adults is 78%, highest in the Arab world. In urban areas,
education is compulsory between the ages of 6 and 16. Children learn Tunisian Arabic at home but
Standard Arabic when they start school. They are taught French starting at age
8, and English is introduced at age 12.
Culture
Tunisian
culture is a mix of its conquerors including the Phoenicians, Romans, Vandals,
Byzantines, Arabs, Turks, Italians, Spaniards and the French. Few Christians are left in Tunisia most of the
basilicas and churches are shuttered. A large share it its Jewish population
migrated to Israel in the late 1940s and after the 1967 Six-Day War. Of the 50,000 that remain, half live on the
southern island of Djerba and half in the capital city, Tunis.
Life Style
· Life expectancy
is 72 years for men and 76 for women. Infant mortality in 2004 was 25 per
1,000.
· Urban areas
seem more secular than other Arab countries—a large percentage women do not
cover their hair, they drive cars, work and seem liberated. Women were granted the right to vote in the
1950s, before Switzerland, they are proud to tell you.
· Officially, unemployment
among youth is 20% but I was told it is 35% among college graduates.
· The Tunisian
dinar is 1.58 to the $.
· Tunisian tea is
dark, cloudy, sweet and served with mint and floating pine nuts. Turkish coffee
is always available.
· Liquor is
served in some restaurants and hotels.
You can also buy pork products at grocery stores in big cities.
· The economy is based
on tourism, light manufacturing, and agriculture (olive oil, cereals, beans,
figs, grapes and citrus)
· Tunisian
Airlines has non-stop flights to many European and Arab capitals.
· Sicily is a
14-hour (overnight) ferry ride. Malta is
further east.
· The infrastructure is good; there is a metro in Tunis and
bus service. Cars, motorbikes and bicycle are
everywhere; navigating the roundabouts is tricky.
· There are no
Starbucks, Burger King, McDonald’s, Kentucky Fried Chicken (not yet,
anyway). In fact, the only American
fast-food restaurant is Fat Burger. Cafes are full
of men during the day and night.
Artifacts
· Tunisia has the richest collection of mosaics in the world, dating back to the Roman era.
· It boasts the world’s third largest Roman Colosseum in El Jem.
· It has the holiest Islamic site in North Africa. The Great Mosque (also known as Sidi Okba Mosque) in Kairouan attracts thousands of Muslims every year.
· Intricate architecture, colorfully-painted doors are everywhere…
· Tunisian Art features bright colored paintings
· Nomadic rugs (hand-knotted or woven) are plentiful, especially in Kairouan
· Ceramic plates, bowls, decorate vases etc.
Politics
Much is made of Tunisia being the last, best hope for the
Arab Spring. That says more about
disappointments in Libya, Egypt, and of course Syria, than it does about
successes in Tunisia, but Tunisia does boast some important, promising
distinctions that suggest a brighter future: It has a well-educated, homogenous
population; no history of tribal or sectarian conflict; a diversified
relatively well-developed economy; a non-politicized military and a tradition
of political moderation. Those qualities
have been put to the test over the past three years, but they have proven to be Tunisia’s saving grace.
2013 was shaped by the assassinations
of two opposition politicians – Chokri Belaid in February and Mohamed Brahmi in
July. The first led to a cabinet
reshuffle while the second, which occurred under suspiciously similar
circumstances, led to a full-blown political crisis. Much of the opposition walked out of the
National Constituent Assembly and August and September were marked by dueling
street protests, for and against the government. The opposition won the battle to turn out the
largest crowds and eventually forced the ruling party, Nahda, to the negotiating
table. Progress was hindered for several
months by mutual mistrust until leading civil society groups finally brokered a
deal in which a caretaker government would shepherd Tunisia to parliamentary
and presidential elections.
Those elections will pit Islamists against secularists. The leading opposition party, Nida Tounes,
consistently polls 3-5 points above Nahda, but its electoral prospects are
uncertain. Apart from its opposition to
Nahda, Nida Tounes has no unifying political philosophy and its ability to turn
out voters in an election is unproven.
Nahda, meanwhile, is quietly confident that it can repeat its 2011 feat
and win a new mandate.
Nahda’s record has been far from stellar, as it has
struggled to meet the mutually reinforcing challenges facing Tunisia on
political, security, and economic fronts. The government has cracked down on
Ansar al-Sharia in Tunisia, which it blames for the political assassinations
and the embassy attack, but plots and weapons caches are uncovered almost
weekly. The army has made some headway
against militants in the Mount Chaambi region near the Algerian border, but the
stubborn insurgency persists. Guns, drugs, money, and militants make their way
across Tunisia’s porous borders every day.
Unrest not just in Libya, but across the Sahel, will confront Tunisia
for years to come. All of this has had a
devastating effect on the economy, which relies heavily on tourism and foreign
investment. Sluggish growth in Europe, Tunisia’s principal export market, also
doesn’t help. A three-notch downgrade in
Tunisia’s credit rating has raised borrowing costs at a time when the country
desperately needs an influx of cash. All the while, a newly politicized
citizenry refuses to countenance either cuts in subsidies or tax hikes and
public sector unions strike regularly. This seemingly endless string of
political, security and economic crises has led many to question the wisdom of
the revolution.
There is, however, cause for hope. While this latest crisis
has dragged on for far too long, it has been something of a crucible for
Tunisia’s fledgling leadership -- of the 217 members in the National
Constituent Assembly, just three have previous legislative experience. Tunisia’s democracy has bent without breaking
and will likely emerge from this crisis stronger and more resilient. A truly
pluralistic and deeply-rooted democracy is still years away, but at least
Tunisia – in contrast to many of its neighbors, remains pointed in the right
direction.
The debate, while contentious, has been civil. Consensus
building remains the modus operandi. This has been clear in the process of
drafting what has become the most liberal constitution in the Arab world. While the differences were numerous and often
significant, they were finally resolved through debate and compromise. Those
traits have helped Tunisia weather these recent storms. Unlike the Muslim
Brotherhood in Egypt, Nahda was willing to make the necessary concessions,
while Tunisia’s opposition stopped short of calling for a coup or jailing
the current leadership.
History
Antiquity
At
the beginning of recorded history, Tunisia was inhabited by Berber tribes. Its coast was settled by Phoenicians as early
as the 10th century BC. The city of Carthage was founded in 814 BC
by Phoenicians and Cypriot settlers who came from the area of modern-day
Lebanon. After a series of wars with
Greek city-states of Sicily in the 5th century BC, Carthage rose to
power and eventually became the dominant civilization in Western
Mediterranean. The Carthaginian invasion
of Italy led by Hannibal during the Second Punic War, nearly crippled the Roman
power. One hundred years later, Romans conquered the area and Tunisia enjoyed a
huge development. The economy, mostly dependent on agriculture, boomed.
Christian Era
Berber
bishop Donatus Magnus was the founder of a Christian group known as the Donatists. During the 5th and 6th centuries
AD; then the Germanic vandals invaded and ruled over a kingdom in North Africa
that included present-day Tripoli. In
533 AD, Emperor Justinian I of the Eastern Romans re-conquered the area.
Middle Ages
Around
the second half of the 7th century, the region was conquered by Arab
Muslims who founded the city of Kairouan, which became the first city of Islam
in North Africa. In 670 AD, the Great
Mosque of Kairouan was erected. It has
the oldest standing minaret in the world. It is the most ancient and prestigious
sanctuary in the Muslim West and considered a masterpiece of Islamic Art and
architecture.
The
coast was briefly held by the Normans of Sicily in the 12th century,
but following the conquest of Tunisia in 1159 by the Almohads, the last
Christians in Tunisia disappeared either through forced conversion of
emigration. In the late 16th century the coast became a pirate
stronghold, though Spain seized many of the coastal cities until the Ottomans
conquered the area.
Ottoman Tunisia
Ottoman
conquest of Tunis took place in 1534 under the command of Barbarossa Hayreddin
Pasha during the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent. Initially under Turkish
rule from Algiers, soon the Ottoman Porte appointed directly for Tunis a governor called the Pasha supported by janissary forces. Before long Tunisia became in
effect an autonomous province, under the local Bey. The Hussein dynasty of Beys, established in 1705,
lasted until 1957. During this era the governing councils controlling Tunisia
remained largely composed of a foreign elite who continued to conduct state
business in the Turkish language.
The growing power of the European states finally forced the
Ottoman Empire’s boundaries to shrink.
The Maghreb (western
North Africa—area west of Egypt) suffered from the deadly combination of plague and famine. The great epidemics ravaged Tunisia in
1784–1785, 1796–1797 and 1818–1820.
In
the 19th century, the rulers of Tunisia became aware of the ongoing efforts at
political and social reform in the Ottoman capital. The Bey of Tunis
followed the Turkish example and attempted to affect a modernizing reform of
institutions and the economy. Tunisian international debt grew unmanageable.
French Tunisia
In 1869, Tunisia declared itself bankrupt and an international
financial commission took control over its economy. In 1881, using the pretext
of a Tunisian incursion into Algeria, the French invaded with an army of
about 36,000 and forced the Bey to agree to the terms of the 1881 Treaty of Bardo (Al Qasr as Sa'id). With this
treaty, Tunisia was officially made a French protectorate, over the
objections of Italy. Under French colonization, European settlements in the
country were actively encouraged; the number of French colonists grew from 34,000 in 1906 to 144,000 in 1945. In
1910 there were 105,000 Italians in Tunisia.
In 1942–1943, Tunisia was the scene of the Tunisia Campaign, a series of battles between
the Axis and Allied forces. The
battle opened with initial success by the German and Italian forces, but the
massive supply and numerical superiority of the Allies led to the Axis's
surrender on 13 May 1943.
Independence
In November 1987, doctors declared Bourguiba unfit to rule
and, in a bloodless coup d'état, Prime Minister Zine El Abidine Ben Ali assumed the
presidency. President Ben Ali, previously Habib Bourguiba's minister and a military
figure, held office from 1987 to 2011. The anniversary of Ben Ali’s succession,
7 November, was celebrated as a national holiday. He was consistently
re-elected with enormous majorities every election, the last being 25 October
2009, until he fled the country amid popular unrest in January 2011. Ben Ali
and his family were accused of corruption and plundering the country's money.
Independent human rights groups, such as Amnesty International, Freedom House, and Protection International,
documented that basic human and political rights were not respected. The regime
obstructed in any way possible the work of local human rights organizations. In
2008, in terms of freedom of the press, Tunisia was ranked 143rd out of 173.
Revolution
The catalyst for mass demonstrations was the death of Mohamed Bouazizi, a 26-year old Tunisian street
vendor, who set himself afire on 17 December 2010 in protest at the
confiscation of his wares and the humiliation inflicted on him by a municipal
official. Anger and violence intensified following Bouazizi's death on 4
January 2011, ultimately leading longtime President Ben Ali to step
down on 14 January 2011, after 23 years in power.
Protests continued for banning of the ruling party and the
eviction of all its members from the transitional government formed by Mohammed Ghannouchi. Eventually the new government
gave in to the demands. A Tunis court banned the ex-ruling party RCD and
confiscated all its resources. A decree by the minister of the interior banned
the "political police", special forces which were used to intimidate
and persecute political activists.
On 3 March 2011, the president announced that elections to a Constituent Assembly would be held
on 23 October 2011. International and internal observers declared the vote free
and fair. The Ennahda Movement, formerly
banned under the Ben Ali regime, won a plurality of 90 seats out of a total of
217. On 12 December 2011, former
dissident and veteran human rights activist Moncef Marzouki was elected president.
In
March 2012, Ennahda declared it will not support making sharia the main source
of legislation in the new constitution, maintaining the secular nature of the
state. Ennahda's stance on the issue was criticized by hardline Islamists, who
wanted full-blown sharia, and was welcomed by secular parties. On 6 February
2013, Chokri Belaid, the leader of
the leftist opposition and prominent critic of Ennahda, was assassinated.
The
Yackley/Johns visit to Tunisia
Tunis is a
curious hybrid, its easiness mocking the frantic nature of other Arabian
capitals. Sunglass-supporting city slickers swish past elderly men wearing red
felt hats; women wrapped in headscarves link arms with their dressed-to-kill
daughters; artisans blowtorch metal in backstreet hole-in-the wall workshops as
people throng to glittering shopping malls,. Tunis is a sociable, small-scale
capital with its suburbs stretching endlessly along the deep-blue
Mediterranean.
Joe lives in a spacious
single family home in La Marsa, a suburb north of the business district, close
to the American Embassy. He has a lovely
garden, citrus trees, a couple of decks and several balconies. This three-story, four-bedroom, three-bath “villa”
is surrounded by 8-foot high walls. A security guard comes around every few
hours to make sure all is safe and sound.
Embassy staff
cannot have family members live with them since the Benghazi (Libya) incident
and an attack here in Tunisia.
Considered a high-risk assignment, the U.S. embassy here is
short-staffed---making Joe work harder and longer hours.
Saturday, March
15, 2014
Ayla, Simon, Leo
and I arrived in Tunis from Istanbul on a Saturday afternoon. Joe met us with bouquets of Jasmine, state flower of Tunisia, that is dry now but still
smelled good after two weeks. The small
but modern Carthage airport was a breeze after the one in Istanbul…and, Leo,
with his blue eyes and blonde hair quickly became the main attraction—people
picking him up, posing for pictures, hugging and kissing him. He enjoyed every minute of this friendly
attention in mosques, medinas, museums and more.
After we
settled into our hotel we took a drive around town and hiked up and down
the white-washed streets of Sidi Bou Said and enjoyed a light meal and the
beautiful view of the Mediterranean sea from the cliffs of the Café Sidi Chabaane.
Sunday,
March 16, 2014
The next
morning we drove to Zaghouan, a
sleepy town tucked beneath the foot of the rugged Jebel Zaghouan that used to
supply ancient Carthage with fresh water during Hadrian’s reign from 120-131
AD. Long stretches of the 70-mile
aqueduct, built two thousand years ago, are in remarkably good condition.
We had a delicious five-course lunch outdoors at
Restaurant Zaghouan, situated in the middle of a farm, with donkeys, cows,
lambs, olive orchards as well as a small swimming pool and a well. We were
serenaded with music of various countries and felt totally safe letting Leo run
around the grounds. This “resort” offers simple accommodations for overnight
Tunisian guests.
Sunday night
Joe had a lovely dinner party where we met some of Joe’s closest international
friends at a Seven different nationalities were represented by the 10 guests
around the dinner table.
Monday,
March 17, 2014
While at work
during the day, Joe let us use his car to explore more of Tunis. We learned that Phoenicians (from the Levant)
established a trading post here nearly 3,000 years ago that later became
Carthage (one of the greatest cities of the ancient world that dominated the
western Mediterranean in the 6th century BC); we climbed up the
Byrsa Hill and enjoyed the amazing views across the excavated fragments, down
through cypress trees.
Tuesday,
March 18, 2014
Taking advantage of the warm weather, we spent one afternoon on the
beach (a little cold for swimming but great for sunning). Leo loved walking on the soft, clean sand,
getting wet up to his shoulders and watching older kids frolic in the sea.
Wednesday,
19 March 2015
Joe arranged
for a driver and guide to take us on a six-hour tour of downtown Tunis and the
Bardo museum that has the world’s richest collection of mosaics along with
statues, coins, pottery, huge urns excavated in this land captured by so many
civilizations during the last 3,000 years.
The museum, opened a year ago, has thousands of items and is a delight
to visit because there are few tourists in Tunisia right now.
After visiting
the Bardo museum, filled with ancient art work, walking around in the Medina
(old marketplace) built in the middle ages but filled with 20th
century goods was a unique experience.
Of course, we bought souvenirs hand-made by locals in the region. We
wished we could take home a brightly painted wooden door with metal knockers,
unique to Tunisia They are
everywhere—urban homes, stores, medinas and government buildings.
Thursday,
March 20, 2014
Joe had the
next two days off so we
piled into his car and headed south on a 3-day circle trip to see ancient
artifacts and scenic sites. Our first stop was El DJem (pop. 19,000) , the site of the world’s largest coliseum
after the one in Rome,” the most impressive Roman monument in Africa,” according
to the Lonely Planet guide book. After running around several levels of the
edifice, Ayla, Simon and Leo rode a camel (the poor animal) outside the Colosseum,
a touristy thing to do. We had lunch outdoors at a busy corner restaurant. Simon was smart to order rabbit (chicken was
tough). A small museum had a rich collection of mosaics excavated in the area.
Our next stop
was the holy city of Kairouan,
founded in AD 670 by the Arab general Okba Ibn Nafaa al-Fihri. It is the most
conservative city in Tunisia, with 118,000 residents. We stayed overnight at the
five-star Golden Tulip hotel The Kasbah. Too bad we did not have time to swim
in the heated outdoor pool or take advantage of the Turkish baths. Elegant in the
old style with hand-painted colorful tiles from floor to ceiling and huge
wooden carved-doors in the rooms, this huge hotel had some foreign tourists as
well as a formal function in the ball room for local residents. Buffet dinner and breakfast were rich, the red wine very good.
Friday,
March 21, 2014
We started the
next morning with a visit to the Grand Mosque, the oldest in North Africa also
called The Sidi Okba mosque, after the builder in 670 AD. The original version
was destroyed but Aghlabids rebuilt it in the 9th century The courtyard
reminded us of the mosque in Damascus,
There are 414 pillars (some brought in from Carthage) holding up the structure
with pieces of wood between the crown and the columns for protection from
earthquakes.. The guide told us as many as 5,000 believers come to pray every
Friday, women in a segregated section.
The Medina provided us with many photo ops, including narrow
streets and curved arches and more colorful doors. We purchased four rugs (after much haggling
and drinking of tea (reminded me of the Turkish experience). We also purchased some ceramic bowls, hot
plates and hand-woven baskets.
Our next stop
was El Kef (the Rock), a town of. 46,000
that subsists mainly on agriculture At 3,000 feet. El Kef, (originally called
Sicca) was established in 500 BC. It is
only is only 30 miles from the Algerian border. The Kasbah at the top affords
sweeping views of the city below. Ayla discovered a Christian cemetery with
numerous grave markers dating to the early 1900s (we figured some died during the
flu epidemic and some during WW I). We saw the St. Peter Basilica and went
inside an abandoned synagogue that used to be the place of worship for 5% of
the population until the final Jewish migration to Israel in the 1980s. We
stayed overnight in Hotel Les Pins, a three-star hotel that was like a
labyrinth. I kept getting lost in its hallways that went up and then down, and
up again. It was built against a hill and had at least 200 rooms, only 20 or 30
guests this Friday night. The four-course dinner was good,so was the wine and
the local beer. We had free wi-fi in the lobby. To our surprise the hotel did
not accept credit cards, luckily Joe found an ATM.
The highlight
of our circle tour was a visit to Dougga
(originally called Thugga), a Roman city built of golden stones. It is
considered the best preserved Roman small town in Africa. The remains are startlingly complete, giving
the visitor a glimpse of how Romans lived—flitting between the baths, theater
and temples. This prime site, with natural springs, have been occupied since
the 3nd millennium BC, judging by the dolmen graves on the ridge above the
ruins. It was already a substantial
settlement by the time Carthage advanced into the interior 4th
century BC. Byzantines arrived 533 AD and set about remodeling Dougga as a
fort. The ruins of an Aghlabid bathhouse, east of the capitol, show that the
site was still inhabited in the 10th century People continued to
live among the ruins until early 1950s when the inhabitants were moved to
Nouvelle Dougga, also known as Teboursouk (pop. 11,000).
We spent three hours walking up and down the theater that holds 3500 spectators (still used for festivals, admiring the Capitol--considered Africa’s most magnificent Roman edifice, looking for the Lician baths, and resting in the shade of the huge columns of the Libyo-Punic Mausoleum, a rare and spectacular 60-feet high, 2nd century BC monument.
Joe
drove us back to La Marsa so we could walk on the pedestrian promenade before
dark. An authentic Italian Pizza house (where a dozen kind of thin-crust pizza
are prepared) was our last stop. Sunday
was a day of relaxation and packing for the Johns family. Joe found an
opportunity to show us a little more of his adopted city before taking the gang
to the airport.
I
stayed behind for another week and read a couple of books, enjoyed a walk in
the quiet streets around his home and walked over to the shopping mall nearby
to check out all the modern goods. A
young professional couple--Ian from Michigan, Tiko from the country of Georgia
who possesses two passports (Georgian and Swedish) had us over for dinner
Thursday night. Joe attended a Tunisian/American young
professionals reception on Friday night.
Saturday, 29
March 2014.
We spent Saturday driving north stopping along little villages on the way to Bizerte, at the northern most tip of Tunisia. We stopped in Utica to see ruins,
sparse compared with other Tunisian Roman sites, but its tranquil flower filled
place
Bizerte
(pop. 113,400) is a bewitching port city sitting on a canal thank links silvery
salt water Lake Bizerte and the glimmering Mediterranean. We entered the Kasbah ,originally a Byzantine
fort built in the 6th century.
Today’s Kasbah has 30 feet high walls, built by the Ottomans in the 17th
century. We walked in its narrow winding
streets where people live and worship. We also walked through a fish market,
next to a farmer’s market—teeming with activity. The old port, lined with cafes, ,pastel
harbor buildings, bobbing fishing boats and the golden fortification of the Kasbah
,feels like 1950s France or Italy. We
had two large bowls of soup and grilled fish with French fries, salad and a
spicy veggie dip at a café for less then $7.
Sunday, March
30, 2014
Two
weeks in Tunisia went by too fast. As I say good-bye to my son, I know he is
happy here. He works hard at the embassy
but he also has a nice social life. He
has made friends, formed a soccer league, plays tennis when he gets a chance
and runs along the sea with friends on Sunday mornings. Tunisians are amazed when they hear him speak
Arabic, at first they address him in French knowing he looks like a foreigner, but smile when they hear him respond in Arabic.
Au
revoir Tunisia. Good bye, Joe. Allaha emanet ol!
