THE GLOBAL AFRICAN COMMUNITY
T R A V E L N O T E S
DAYS AND NIGHTS IN TUNISIA
DEDICATED TO THE LIFE AND WORKS OF JOEL AUGUSTUS ROGERS (1880-1966)
Allow me to say from the very beginning that I love Africa. I love African people. And I especially love traveling around the world in search of the African presence. Nothing gives me greater satisfaction than finding African populations and African artifacts that I previously knew little or nothing about. And not only is the search for things African exciting for me personally, it gives me a sense of making a contribution, however small, to the ultimate liberation of African people. And so it was with keen anticipation and lofty ideals that I journeyed on April 1, 2006 for the first time to Tunisia, North Africa.
Tunisia was country number sixty-one on my list of international travel destinations that I have been blessed to visit. The great pioneer, globe trotting, Jamaican born African historian and journalist Joel Augustus Rogers (a tremendous hero and role model for me) is said to have visited sixty countries, and so with country number sixty-one in my bag I knew that I was in rarefied air.
Tunisia is a country about the size of the state of Washington in the United Stated and lies nestled right between the much larger nations of Libya, on the east, and Algeria, on the west. On the north and northeast Tunisia is bounded by the Mediterranean Sea. The population is just over ten million people, most of them Arab.
I don’t have the official statistics but there is a small but highly visible population of African people in Tunisia, perhaps as small as one per cent of the total population. I was told over and over again that most of the Africans in the country live in the southern portion of Tunisia, and this would seem to be the general rule for African people all over north and northwest Africa.
Until a few weeks ago, I confess, I had no real interest in going to Tunisia. And then three things happened to change it all around. First factor, having a good travel agent. Here I speak of Mr. Moses Hanania. Moses is the CEO of Consolidated Tours in Atlanta, Georgia. Consolidated Tours coordinates many of the tours by the African centered scholars in the United States, including my 2004 group tour to Egypt and my 2005 group tour to Brazil.
Within the last year or so Moses and I have become good friends and he has put me in touch with local travel agent friends in Turkey, Jordan and Greece.
They tend to treat me like a friend of their friend and bend over backwards to ensure that I have pleasant and productive sojourns. Indeed, if I didn't know it before, I found out on my November 2004 trip to Turkey that if you are visiting a place and are African (including African-American), have never been to the place before, don’t speak the local language and don’t know anybody, that a good travel agent is utterly indispensable. As was pointed out to me in Turkey, “if you don’t have a good travel agent you are on your own.” And being “on your own” can lead to a world of head aches if you are not careful!
Through Moses and his many connections I have managed to have excellent travel experiences in places that I thought that I would never see, including recent visits to Syria and Lebanon. So I asked him if he could make similar connections in Tunisia for me. When one of his agents assured me that he could, it became just a matter of getting there.
The second turning point in my decision to travel to Tunisia came from my January 2006 journey to Lebanon. In order to get the cheapest possible ticket to Lebanon I booked an Alitalia flight from Paris to Milan, from there to Rome and finally to Beirut. It took the better part of a day to get to where I wanted to go, and I had a lot time to fill. While waiting in the airport in Rome or Milan (I forget which city) I noticed that the most crowded flight was headed to Tunis. I looked at the folks in line waiting to board the flight (I think that I even saw an African or two in the line) and my interest was piqued. I thought, well hey, if all of these folks could go to Tunisia, why couldn't I go?
And then the third turning point came when my brother Ali Salahudin of the d’Zert Club recently asked me what I thought about a possible African-American group tour to Italy and Tunisia. Well, come to think about it, why not? Putting these three factors together it became clear to me that my travel to Tunisia was only a matter of time.
ARRIVAL IN TUNIS AND THE BARDO MUSEUM
From Paris I flew direct to Tunis. The plane ticket was less than three-hundred dollars and the flight was less than three hours. It was Spring time, and I was due for another international trip. My beautiful and adorable little baby daughter was almost seven months old. She was happy and thriving, and I thought that I deserved a short research trip-vacation.
But after arriving in Tunis, the capital of Tunisia, things got off to a bit of a rocky start. It took a good little while to get through customs and then after I picked up my luggage there was no one to meet me! So I changed some US dollars into Tunisian dinars, and finally found someone holding a sign on which my name was badly misspelled. After I identified myself this person smiled, excused himself and introduced me to my driver. Now my experience with drivers is that they first shake hands and welcome you to their country. Then they take your bags and lead you to a waiting car. This guy didn't’t do any of that. He uttered something inaudible, turned and walked away with me following with bags in hand. No problem, I thought, maybe I am just catching him at a bad moment. Or maybe, I thought, that is just the way that they do things here. So I got into the car in which I was to be driven to the travel agency itself where I hoped for a warmer greeting. But the official greeting at the travel agency was only tepid. And the real wake up call came when the lady representing the travel agency told me that she was going to charge me a whopping $240.00 per day for a car and an English speaking driver (In Tunis everybody speaks French and Arabic)!
When I seemed perturbed she pointed out that the cost of the transportation was included in an early email that she had sent to me. I told her that I had received the email but that the amount was so high that I figured that it must have been for all of my four days in Tunisia! I did not say as much but I thought that the costs were outrageous! I left her office with what we call in the United States “an attitude.” And then I did not like the hotel that driver took me to! So I went to another, much nicer, albeit more expensive hotel. I negotiated the price with the duty manager, booked my own room, and found another car and driver that guaranteed substantial savings, and my sour disposition soon showed a marked improvement! So I dismissed my travel agent and headed out “on my own.” Indeed, I found a taxi from the hotel to the Bardo Museum that cost less than $2.00 US dollars! The taxi driver even refused to take a tip!
The Bardo is the national museum of Tunisia. It was the logical place to start my Tunisian journey and has an excellent collection of mostly Roman mosaics. The Romans were big in Tunisia and in the Bardo I found a marble head of African born Roman Emperor Septimius Severus and two similar heads of his son and successor Caracalla. Of course, I have a great interest in these Africans, and my new book, should I ever finish it, will have a nice chapter on them. But the most exciting artifact in the museum was a black limestone head of a woolly haired African woman from Carthage. I had never seen it in a book before anywhere! So that first afternoon in Tunisia ended up on a very good note.
That first night in Tunisia I tossed and turned all over my mattress, as it had been very hot that day and the air conditioning in the hotel that I picked out had stopped working! It only emitted a rather loud noise. But I had already seen a few Black folks in the hotel and this made me feel very upbeat. I had an excellent meal of grilled fish and vegetables, watched the international news on the BBC, and reread volume one of Langston Hughes’ excellent autobiography The Big Sea.
KERKOUANE AND CARTHAGE
The following morning, my second in Tunisia, after a light breakfast that I paid too much for, I was driven to the tip of the Cape Bon Peninsula to the Punic city of Kerkouane. My English speaking driver did not say much along the way but he was not unpleasant and I consoled myself with how much money I was saving.
Kerkouane is a beautiful archaeological site more than two thousand years old. Although destroyed by the Romans, excavations have revealed the remains of an entire city right on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the direction of Sicily. It was a clear day with a strong breeze blowing, and there was hardly anyone at the site when I arrived.
In the nearby Kerkouane Museum I found an exquisite black (I think terra cotta) depiction of an African man riding what appeared to be an elephant. Like the piece in the Bardo Museum, it was a black image of a African person. And, once again, I had never seen the artifact in a book! And, just like the bust of the African woman in the Bardo Museum, I took a lot of photographs. I just hope that they come out well.
Speaking of African women, I saw quite a few those days in Tunisia, and they were all beautiful and friendly. I met a Muslim sister working at the entrance to the ruins of Carthage and she told me that Africans are only about one per cent of the total Tunisian population and that most of them are in the south. Does this sound familiar to you? But it seemed to me though that they had to be a lot more than one per cent of the national population unless a lot of the Black folks that I saw were actually not from Tunisia itself. (I did meet a really friendly African family visiting Tunisia from Burkina Faso, West Africa).
The Tunisian Muslim sister told me that things used to really be bad for the Africans in Tunisia but that conditions have recently improved. As an example, she pointed out that today you can even see, in her words, “beautiful Black boys with beautiful White girls.” I just wished that she had used a better example to denote progress!
The people in Tunisia seemed pretty friendly and moved at a relaxed pace. As a matter of act, the pace in Tunisia was nothing at all like Egypt. The big tourist season was still a couple of weeks ahead and things in general (hotel meals and cars and English speaking drivers aside) were fairly inexpensive.
So that second afternoon in Tunisia, after visiting the ancient Punic city of Kerkouane at the tip of the Cape Bon Peninsula, I was driven to Carthage! The African Muslim sister working inside the ticket booth collected my admission fee. But it was not the ancient African city state of Carthage or Khart-Haddas that I visited. The Carthage that I visited, the Carthage located in one of the suburbs on the outskirts of Tunis, was largely the remains of the Roman city built on top of the African settlement that the Romans destroyed after three titanic wars.
Carthage was founded in 814 B.C.E. when a Phoenician (from which we derive the word “Punic”) fleet from the great metropolis of Tyre on the south coast of Lebanon landed in what is now northern Tunisia. Phoenicia was the name given by Greeks in the first millennium B.C.E. to the coastal provinces of modern Lebanon and northern Palestine, although occasionally the term seems to have been applied to the entire eastern Mediterranean seaboard from Syria to Palestine.
Phoenicia was not considered a nation, in the strict sense of the word, but rather as a chain of coastal cities, of which the most important were Sidon, Byblos, Tyre and Ras Shamra. To the Greeks, the term “Phoenician,” from the root "phoenix," had connotations of "red," and it is likely that the name was derived from the physical appearance of the people themselves.
The Phoenicians were a coastal branch of the Canaanites, whom, according to Biblical traditions, were the brothers of Kush (Ethiopia) and Mizraim (Egypt): members of the Hamite, or Kamite, ethnic family. Spurred on by increasing population pressures, the Phoenicians, who were becoming increasingly mixed racially, had, by the middle of the second millennium B.C.E. developed a prowess on the seas and were in the process of establishing a network of colonies and trading posts that brought them prosperity and eternal fame.
Together with the local people of North Africa the Phoenicians founded the stupendous city-state of Carthage. Carthage (the original name was
Khart-Haddas) means the “new town.” For hundreds of years it was the dominant nation in the western Mediterranean and a colossal naval power. Then came the challenges first by the Greeks and eventually by the Romans.At the height of her fame the city of Carthage boasted a population of 500,000 inhabitants. The leading family of Carthage was the Barca clan, one of which, Hamilcar Barca, founded the Spanish city of Barcelona. Of course the most famous member of the Barca family was Hannibal Barca--perhaps the most distinguished general of ancient times.
Hannibal was the great hero of Carthage during the Second Punic War, lasting from 218 B.C.E. to 202 B.C.E. Indeed, Hannibal came within an eye lash of defeating the Romans on the threshold of Rome itself. Perhaps his most outstanding moment came in 216 B.C.E. at the famous battle of Cannae when the Carthaginian army, despite being vastly outnumbered, virtually annihilated a Roman force of 80,000 men.
In spite of her early successes, at the end of the third Punic War in 146 B.C.E., the Romans ravaged mighty Carthage and burnt her to the ground. It is said that the city burnt for forty days and only a small portion of African Carthage remains. Its people were either massacred or sold into slavery. The Romans even plowed salt into the soil around Carthage so that nothing could ever grow there again.
It was not until the time of Julius Caesar in 44 B.C.E. that Carthage was rebuilt, but this time as a Roman city. But even now and without difficulty you can use your imagination and see those sleek ancient African sailing vessels sailing into port. You can hear ancient African people talking with one another, trading with one another. You can hear great African generals giving orders to the soldiers and citizens, nobles and commoners, of Carthage for the defense of the city. Sisters and brothers, I felt honored to stand on the site of ancient Carthage--a proud city that African people gave their lives to protect.
That second day in Tunisia was a wonderful one and the night was pleasant and uneventful.
DOUGGA
My third and last full day in Tunisia took me to the ancient Roman city of Dougga to see what the Africans of the Severan Dynasty had contributed. Historians and archaeologists have commented that the region thrived under these African emperors and I could hardly wait to see it for myself.
The ancient Roman city of Dougga lies about 150 kilometers southwest of Tunis. Along the way I was surprised at the countryside and the scenery. In truth, the green rolling hills reminded me of my days in California. The roads were good and once out of Tunis the traffic was light.
In just over ninety minutes after our departure from Tunis we arrived in Dougga. After paying the small admission charge to enter the site I was approached by an short, elderly Arab man in a gray suit. Like many Tunisian men, he wore a red fez on his head. I found it to be a sign of great distinction. He told me that he was a guide and asked me if I desired his services. I know now that a good guide is as important as a good travel agent. His price was moderate and so away we went.
As it turned out, my guide was sixty-eight years old. His English was good and when I asked him how long he had been a guide he told me with a big smile across his face that he was born in Dougga. He had a good sense of humor and liked to talk. He showed me all of the major and minor temples, including the temple of the goddess Tanit. Her temple he called “The House of Tanit.” Tanit was the most significant of the female deities in ancient Tunisia and her adoration survived in spite of the Romans. I had already seen signs of her importance amidst the ruins of Kerkouane.
Being an impatient man, it was not long before I asked him about the contributions of the Severan clan. Somewhat dismissively, he said that we would soon get to it. I guess that he did not want to be pre-empted. But he seemed to get a charge out of the fact that I was a man with some knowledge of history. I gathered that not very many African tourists came to Dougga because, again with a smile, the guide said, looking directly at me, that Septimius Severus was the first African born emperor and that “he was the one with the brown skin!” There was my cue, I thought, and just as I had done with the driver and the African Muslim sister at the gate to the Carthage ruins, I asked him, “Where are the Black people of Tunisia located?” And again, just like the others, he said that “they are in the south.” When I pressed him about numbers and exact locations he mentioned a city or two in “the south” but could give no precise numbers as to the quantity of Blacks in Tunisia. But he did say emphatically that “everybody in Tunisia is the same and everybody is treated the same.” He even told me that several governors in “the south” were Black. And then we visited the still impressive arch of another member of the Severan clan--this one belonging to Alexander Severus--the last representative of the Severan Dynasty.
The old man turned out to be a very good tour guide, and even though he smoked a lot of cigarettes and had short legs he managed to walk me right into the ground. All the time that I was huffing and puffing trying to keep up with him he marched on with the agility and dexterity of a mountain goat, while constantly telling me to “take your time, take your time!”
One of the most interesting parts of Dougga was the reconstructed remains of an ancient mausoleum of the family of the Numidian king Massinissa--a man who fought alongside the Carthaginians before abandoning them for the Romans. The mausoleum is located at the base of a hill, stands twenty-one meters high (taller than the Colossi of Memnon on the west bank of the Nile at Luxor) and is capped with a small pyramid.
Close to the Numidian mausoleum stand the remains of the Arch and Gate of Septimius Severus. It was not in very good shape but it is all that is left of a much larger structure. But I had it all to myself! There were no other tourists around.
Several times during the tour my guide pointed to what he said was the road to Carthage. He even showed me the chariot tracks. At first it did not make sense to me but it finally dawned on my consciousness that these ancient engineers actually constructed a paved road that led all of the way from Dougga to Carthage itself! And the road took you directly under the arch of Septimius Severus! I tell you that I was really impressed! The guide told me that reconstruction of the Gate and Arch of Septimius Severus is supposed to take place in 2007.
As an added bonus, the guide told me that the African born Roman Emperor Septimius Severus was born in Leptis Magna in Libya and that the ancient city was in remarkable shape and that I should visit it. So now I have every intention of visiting Libya and paying further homage to the greatest of the African emperors of Rome.
And on that note my guide bade me farewell. I paid him his fee and even gave him a nice tip. That made him very happy. He wished me a safe journey back to France and the United States, and encouraged me, with a big smile spread across his face, to bring some more Africans to Tunisia!
So, sisters and brothers, in essence, that was my trip to Tunisia, North Africa and I now have a much better sense of what the exemplary jazz drummer Art Blakely might have had in mind with his “Night in Tunisia.”
I had a good time on my all too short trip to Tunisia. I learned a whole lot and look forward to going back and visiting “the south” of Tunisia, and parts of Libya as well. And don’t you worry. Even if you can’t come with me I will be sure to keep you posted and you will not miss a thing. So you stay strong and I will try to do the same. Life is good, sisters and brothers, and every day is a rich blessing. And my next international destinations--Morocco and Spain in search of the Moors!
Runoko Rashidi is a constant traveler and lover of things African. Join him on his historic group tour “In Search of the African Presence in Turkey and Jordan” in October 2006. Write to him at Runoko@yahoo.com or call him at (210) 337-4405.
Copyright © 1998 Runoko Rashidi. All rights reserved.
Posted/Revised: May 31, 2006
Webpage design: Kenneth Ritchards