Les noirs dans les dialectes tunisiens : la terminologie de la discrimination de couleur

Abstract

An understanding of the history of slavery is central to the analysis of discrimination against black people in Tunisia. Black community in North Africa is connected to the slave trade. Even though slavery was abolished in Tunisia since 1846, black Tunisians still face discrimination related to their ancestors. This is reflected in the everyday use of words such as ᶜabd or wṣīf [slave], kaḥlūš [a pejorative term for “black”] and šūšān [which translates to “liberated slave”] which are widely used to identify a black person. As we will see, in Tunisian Arabic language blackness as a physical characteristic often hints at an alleged slavery past.