Nationalist Narratives, Political Process, and Racial Identity Formation: The Emergence of a Black Identity in Tunisia

• In Event: Poster Session: Comparative Politics II

Abstract

Black identity differs in terms of its saliency across the African diaspora; in the case of Tunisia, this identity only gained prominence among racial minorities in the aftermath of the country’s revolution in 2010. I argue here that the saliency of black identity is affected by the discursive opportunity structure, which is shaped by the nationalist narrative promoted by the state and the political opportunities available to social movements to contest that narrative in the public space. To demonstrate this, I conducted a historical analysis of racial identity in Tunisia from 1956 to 2021 with materials gathered from archival research and interviews in the fall of 2021. This research shows how racial identification in Tunisia was transformed by the revolution in 2010, which provided the opportunities for a black rights movement to form and challenge the nationalist narrative of cultural unity promoted by the state.

Author

• Michael Paul Bufano, University of Alabama