All Is Well in Tunisia--We Hope
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Roslind Varghese Brown. Tunisia. New York, London, Sydney: Marshall Cavendish, 1998. 128 pp. $35.64, cloth, ISBN 978-0-7614-0690-7. Reviewed by Leland Barrows Published on H-AfrTeach (April, 1999) Upon frst leafing through this generously il‐ "Food." It also includes a "Map of Tunisia," a page lustrated introduction to Tunisia, a recent addi‐ of "Quick Notes" on Tunisia, a one-page "Glossary" tion to the Cultures of the World series of the Mar‐ of terms, a "Bibliography" listing only six entries, shall Cavendish imprint of Times Books Interna‐ and fnally, an "Index." A fairly straightforward tional, an adult reader cannot help but think of expository text is amply supplemented by ffteen the Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vin‐ text boxes and 114 illustrations of various sizes cent Peale. The tone is the same. Or perhaps a bet‐ (including one on the cover and another on the ti‐ ter if more derogatory point of comparison would tle page), most of them in colour. be that of the "TVB"--tout va bien (all is going The text boxes are a mixed lot that amplify well)--summing-up by worldly-wise readers of the points raised in the text. One of these (p. 47) traces news as reported by El Moudjahid, the FLN party legal evolution in Tunisia from sharia and rab‐ newspaper in Algeria; the point being that Algeria binical courts to the 1957 Code of Personal Status. aside, even Tunisia has problems at which this Another (p. 53) briefly describes how the olive book only hints. Of course, it is intended for ju‐ agro-industry took off in the early years of this nior high school students in the United States in century. the hope that it will open their minds to foreign A striking black-and-white photograph (on p. countries and cultures. Possibly a "TVB" approach 37) portrays a very small, strange looking French is what is best for that age group, even though this naval vessel, a steam aviso, hardly larger than a reviewer has some doubts. small yacht, moored in the French naval base at The 128 pages of this book include chapters Bizerte in the early years of the French Protec‐ on "Geography," "History, "Government," and the torate. The picture would suggest that French "Economy"; on the Tunisian people, specifically naval power at the time was insignificant or that their "Lifestyle," "Religion," and "Language"; and Bizerte never counted as much for the French, as on the "Arts," "Leisure" activities, "Festivals," and did Mers-el-Kebir in Algeria or Toulon in France, H-Net Reviews as major bases for their Navy. Or does this illus‐ author confuses Khair al din, an initiator of direct tration represent author Roslind Varghese Ottoman rule in the Maghreb, known as Bar‐ Brown's attempt at an anti-colonial joke? Other barossa to the Europeans of the early sixteenth than the works listed in the "Bibliography," no century, with the twelfth century Hohenstauffen photography or illustration credits are listed at German Emperor, Frederick I Barbarossa all, an unfortunate omission. It would be useful to (1152-1190), who began the style, "Holy Roman know the source(s) of the illustrations, or is the Empire." The author's descriptions of the circum‐ reader to assume that they have all been derived stances under which Tunisia became a French from Tunisia in Pictures (Minneapolis: Lerner protectorate between 1881 and 1883 are overly Publications Company, 1992), one of six items list‐ brief, and she confuses the results of the Congress ed in the "Bibliography." of 1878 that concluded the Russo-Turkish War of Being a historian, this reviewer was drawn to 1877-1878 with the Berlin Conference on African the eighteen or so pages devoted to Tunisian his‐ Affairs (November 1884-February 1885), the lat‐ tory that gallop from pre-history to the forced re‐ ter, not the former, being popularly perceived as tirement of President Habib Bourguiba in 1987 the Conference by which "the European powers and his replacement by former Minister of the In‐ divided Africa among themselves" (p. 36). True, terior and Prime Minister, Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, the earlier Conference did facilitate eventual the current Head of State. The Phoenician estab‐ French entry into Tunisia as a kind of quid pro lishment of Carthage is of course described as quo for the British leasing of Cyprus from the Ot‐ well as the three Punic wars. Although one small toman Empire, and Tunisia did come under illustration (p. 24) portrays Hannibal's crossing of French rule before the second Berlin Conference the Rhone River with elephants, the author misses was held. a chance to comment about a more recently The author chronicles the major steps to‐ claimed truism that only Indian elephants can be wards the regained independence of Tunisia on domesticated, not African ones of the sort used by 20 March 1956 (through revocation of the Marsa Hannibal's armies. Although Brown credits an un‐ Convention of 1883 and the Bardo Treaty of 1881) named Roman general with the recapturing of Ca‐ under the leadership of (then) Prime Minister pua, in Italy, from Hannibal's forces in 211 BC, she Habib Bourguiba and his Neo-Destour Party. says nothing about the earlier battle of Canae in Again, however, she is a bit doubtful about her 216 BC, considered to have been, from a tactical facts, for on an earlier page (p. 23) she states that point of view, one of the most innovative battles "Tunisia became a self-governing country on July in history. Hannibal virtually annihilated the Ro‐ 25, 1957." It was on the latter date that Bourguiba man army (even if the Romans eventually won deposed the last Bey of Tunis, ending the Hus‐ the war). seinid Dynasty, and had himself proclaimed Presi‐ Brown devotes short paragraphs to other dent of Tunisia. epochs in Tunisian history: Roman rule, the Van‐ Fortunately, there is more to this book than dals, the Byzantine reconquest, and successive history. There is a good deal of accurate contem‐ Muslim dynasties following the initial Arab con‐ porary description, for instance, that of the care‐ quest in 670 by Uqba ibn Nafi--Umayyads, Ab‐ ful tightrope walk in which the government must basids, Aghlabids, Fatimids, Zirids, Almohads, engage as it arbitrates between the need and the Hafsids, conquest and rule by the Ottoman Em‐ national policy to modernize and the demands of pire after 1574, and fnally, the Mamluk Husseinid Islamic traditionalists. It also presents the high Dynasty in 1705 that lasted until 1957. Here the points of the language policy of independent 2 H-Net Reviews Tunisia (French versus Arabic, and within Arabic, The strength of this book is clearly its illustra‐ classical Arabic versus literary Arabic versus di‐ tions, yet even here one would have liked Brown alectical Arabic). The chapter on religion in to help relatively young and unsophisticated read‐ Tunisia, particularly on the fundamentals of Is‐ ers read behind the gloss. A picture on page 67 lam, as well as those dealing with the arts, leisure shows an outdoor cafe the customers of which are time activities, and festivals are particularly good exclusively young males. She could have ex‐ even if they suggest inspiration by the Office Na‐ plained that there was a time that ended in the tional du Tourisme Tunisien (ONTT). early 1980s when numbers of young women The author could have said and portrayed a could be found, unaccompanied, sitting in the little more under the rubric of transportation cafes of Tunis. This feminine presence was strik‐ than she did. Although she mentions the existence ing, particularly to visitors from neighbouring Al‐ of a railway network 2,250 kilometers long serv‐ geria. Now the scene is much as it is portrayed in ing two-thirds of Tunisia, she fails to provide any this illustration, and commentators speak, in the pictures of trains, and yet some of the Tunisian case of the cafes of Tunis, of how Tunisian women train sets, particularly those operating between have lost the battle of the cafes. This lost battle is Tunis and Sfax, are impressively modern. She the direct result of the rural exodus that has flled should also have indicated the railway lines and Tunis and other Tunisian cities with poor and rel‐ the principal roads on the map of Tunisia that she atively unwesternized (unfrenchified) persons provides on page 122. Also, good photographs of among whom traditional views of the role and the Central Station in downtown Tunis and of the place of women in a Muslim society prevail. Given main terminal of El Aouina Airport outside Tunis that Tunisia has had a strong state-supported would have been of value. birth control program^H^Hme since 1964 and that abortion has been legalized (facts that are ac‐ The chapter on Tunisian cooking is very in‐ knowledged on pp. 47 and 76), Brown should formative and in a way courageous for citing a have included a photograph of the front facade of traditional dish, Maarcassini, made from wild a birth control clinic in a large town showing the boar, forbidden to Muslims (but eaten discreetly name and purpose of the establishment in large by members of the Tunisian elite and by visitors letters, in Arabic and in French, over the front from Europe and North America). The author pro‐ door. vides a text box (p. 121) giving a detailed recipe for Harrissa, spicy tomato paste that is used as a Another illustration that could have benefited condiment in many North African dishes. Given from more careful explanation is that of the so- that this substance is available commercially called Bourguiba family mausoleum in Monastir throughout Europe and North America (the best (p.