Professor at Sciences Po, M’hamed Oualdi is a historian, specialist in modern and contemporary Maghreb. Author of works on slavery in the Arab-Muslim area, he has notably published Slaves and masters. The mamluks of the beys of Tunis from the 17th centurye century to the 1880s (Editions de la Sorbonne, 2011) and A slave between two empires. A transimperial history of the Maghreb (Threshold, 2023). He just signed Slavery in Muslim worlds. From the first trafficking to trauma (Editions Amsterdam, 256 pages, 19 euros), which describes the different historical forms of enslavement in this region and their contemporary legacies.
Is anti-Black racism in the Maghreb, of which we have recently seen demonstrations in Tunisia, a legacy of slavery in Muslim worlds?
We must not be schematic, this racism can have several sources. In Tunisia, for example, sub-Saharan migrants are perceived and stigmatized as people coveting the resources of Tunisians. But the link between anti-Black racism in the Maghreb and slavery is of course important. This is evidenced by the way in which black people are still described today in Arabic with terms linked to slavery, such as wusifwhich means “domestic”, but which ended up referring to black people.
What is the memory of slavery in these countries today?
This questioning of memory refers to the question of silence, taboo and trauma. On this subject, we must avoid lazy observations: the silence and discomfort are perceptible but, contrary to what the cliché repeats, they are not absolute. In my book I cite a certain number of productions – novels and research in non-European languages – which refute the idea that this slave past aroused no interest in Muslim worlds. Of course, these productions are not aimed at the general public – they are not television series – but there is definitely a change beginning in this area.
At the institutional level, this memory is rare, but it exists. Two countries stand out in this regard. First Tunisia, where former president Béji Caïd Essebsi [2014-2019] had established, in 2019, a day of celebration of the abolition of slavery [en 1846] in the country. This commemoration has lost its force since the official hostile statements to sub-Saharan migrants who unleashed a wave of anti-Black violence. Then Qatar, which only abolished slavery in 1952, but where there is, in Doha, a museum around this memory set up in the house of Ben Jelmoodsz [un négrier du XIXe siècle].
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