Rapping the Arab Spring

SAM R. KIMBALL

UNIS—Along a dusty main avenue, past worn freight cars piled on railroad tracks and Tyoung men smoking at sidewalk cafés beside shuttered shops, lies Kasserine, a town unremarkable in its poverty. Tucked deep in the Tunisian interior, Kasserine is 200 miles from the capital, in a region where decades of neglect by Tunisia’s rulers has led ane h to a state of perennial despair. But pass a prison on the edge of town, and a jarring mix of neon hues leap from its outer wall. During the 2011 uprising against former President Zine El-Abdine Ben Ali, em Ben Romd

h prisoners rioted, and much of the wall was destroyed

Hic in fighting with security forces. On the wall that re-

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mains, a poem by Tunisian poet Abu al in it for fame. But one thing is certain— Qassem Chebbi stretches across 800 feet the rebellions that shook the Arab world of concrete and barbed wire, scrawled in tore open a space for hip-hop in politics, calligraffiti—a style fusing Arabic callig- destroying the wall of fear around freedom raphy with hip hop graffiti—by Tunisian of expression. And governments across the artist Karim Jabbari. On each section of region are now watching hip-hop’s advance the wall, one elaborate pattern merges into with a blend of contempt and dread. a wildly different one. “Before Karim, you might have come to Kasserine and thought, Pre-Arab Spring ‘There’s nothing in this town.’ But we’ve “Before the outbreak of the Arab Spring, got everything—from graffiti, to break- there was less diversity,” says independent dance, to rap. The Tunisian journalist Thameur Mekki, who kids here, they’re specializes in Arab hip-hop. “There were it’s been the talented; they’ve got very, very few hip-hop artists in the media background passion,” says a local or in cultural events.” Yet the presence youth who assisted of hip-hop has existed in the shadows for noise of Jabbari in the prison decades, at least in Tunisia, says Mekki. disaffected wall project. “In the early 1990s, there was a TV show youth whose “In Kasserine, treating social problems facing youth. One poverty is the best of the main characters did break dancing condition is school,” says Hous- and popping,” two of the original hip-hop getting worse. sam Jabbari, Karim’s dance styles. According to Mekki, the first brother, speaking stirrings of a nascent hip-hop movement about the hardship inspiring the work of were found in downtown Tunis’s Théâtre artists who’ve found empowerment through Étoile du Nord around the year 2000. “At this fusion of hip-hop and art. Karim Jab- the time [hip-hop] was still considered a bari, a renowned graffiti artist who recently subculture. Artists were not treated well returned to his hometown after 14 years in nor given much respect,” notes Mekki. Montreal, is one soldier in a battle over cul- After 2008, now-famed Tunisian rapper ture being waged across the Arab world. In Balti gained some notoriety throughout nations where the Arab Spring took root, a Tunisia by addressing social ills in his vanguard of artists is trying to protect the lyrics. “But he never touched the causes gains of the 2011 mass uprisings and draw of the problems. Or he invoked them attention to attempts by new rulers to roll lightly, without pointing at the [political] back those gains. Hip-hop, largely relegat- system,” Mekki points out, since Balti’s ed to the underground before the outbreak summer concert tours were organized by of the Arab Spring, has taken front seat as a the Ministry of Culture. vehicle of political criticism and dialogue. Simultaneously, frustration with grow- There may still be debate over which art- ing inequality, unemployment, and state ists are true revolutionaries and which are repression, a pattern on the rise through-

Sam R. Kimball, a journalist based in Tunis, has previously reported from Yemen and Egypt, and is researching the role of rap and graffiti in the Tunisian revolution.

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Downloaded from wpj.sagepub.com at COLUMBIA UNIV on December 16, 2014 TUNISIA out the Arab world at the time, was push- until recently were under lock and key, ing other rappers to create more confron- controlled by many of the autocrats in the tational work. In 2006, Tunisian rapper Arab world, who felt themselves threat- Ferid El Extranjero, living abroad in Spain, ened by the potential it carried for mass released the damning critique of Ben Ali’s protest. “It’s been the background noise regime “La3bed Fi Terkina” (People in a of disaffected youth whose condition is Prison), directly denouncing arbitrary po- getting worse,” concludes Fredericks. lice violence and arrests. He also issued the provocative song “Warqa Stylo” (Paper and Overthrowing the Dictator Pen). “Here he began to speak clearly about Bizerte, Tunisia’s largest port, was a center liberty of expression. This was the brick in of unrest in the uprising which overthrew the wall that opened up the whole issue of former Tunisian dictator Zine El-Abdine government oppression,” says Mekki, be- Ben Ali and two subsequent provisional fore launching into the rap: governments in the early months of 2011. An hour’s drive from Tunis via a louage, or shared taxi, it seems more of “Liberta! Speak out loud, discuss! a gentle seaside city than any hotbed of We are living in a strange society. political resistance. Massive freighters are Where is our justice? docked neatly in the canal that bisects the We were born free, you won’t city, under a drawbridge which must be stop us if you arrest us! traversed quickly before it opens to bring The press is the source of freedom, in yet another freighter. The October breeze It’s the light in the darkness, coming off the canal is chilly, and the center Democracy is saying the truth. city is animated with taxis and young A paper and pen against the wind, people in fashionable outfits and sunglasses. Everything will be told.” Graffiti from local soccer fans dot the walls, mixed with the occasional scrawled political scream: “Fuck the system!” Rosalind Fredericks, a professor and Gal3y appears to be just an average scholar of hip-hop at New York Uni- young Tunisian. He rarely answers his versity, explains the attractiveness of phone before one in the afternoon, because hip-hop in the developing world and its he’s sound asleep in his mother’s house power for protest. “Hip-hop has been ex- tucked away in a breezy alley. The stocky plicitly a language of youth,” over the guy in sandals with an unkempt beard and last several decades, she says, “as youths baseball hat perched unevenly on his head, have been the casualties of the political however, is the acclaimed hip-hop artist breakdown.” Fredericks notes that part whose name is on the lips of fans across the of the appeal of hip-hop forms like rap nation. Passing through a small gate, a path come from its accessibility and confronta- gives onto the tiny yard beside his house, tional nature. “There is something about and then behind a dirty white window the sound of rap, its harshness, its serious, curtain hung over a door frame, is Gal3y’s that’s part of its potency,” she adds. As studio—a toolshed-like space with enough for graffiti, she points out that it’s played room for a computer, keyboard, turntables, a role in occupying public spaces, which beat machine, and a couple of plastic chairs.

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Gal3y is now one-half of Armada Bi- Armada Bizerte’s song “It’s The Sound zerta, a hip-hop crew hailing from Biz- Of Da Police,” produced early in 2011, erte. Armada Bizerta puts out tirelessly is a merciless attack on Tunisia’s police political tracks criticizing everyone from force—long hated for its brutality toward

im Foundation former president Ben Ali’s cronies to the poor, accused of arbitrary arrests, beat- h

a Tunisia’s current ruling party, Ennahda. ings, and killings. But the music video it-

Ibr Gal3y plays video after video on the desk- self is a work of art. Black and white foot- o

M top computer in his studio, some from age shows riot police firing tear gas into Armada Bizerta, others with different mass protests, in January 2011, along Tu- artists whose beats he has produced. He nisia’s Avenue Habib Bourguiba. Mixed rocks heavily from side to side with every seamlessly are what appear to be scenes song, rapping along with the lyrics when from the Indignados protests in Spain, he knows them. A riff on the classic inner- which touched off in May 2011, and were city track from Bronx rapper KRS-One, accompanied by more police violence.

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After a second view- The lyrics are perhaps more hard- ing, it becomes clear that hitting than Tunisian rapper El Général’s none of the footage was celebrated anthem “Rais Lebled,” a loud selected at random. Each critique of the inequality and corruption scene was carefully chosen in President Ben Ali’s Tunisia, which went to illustrate the “interna- viral on YouTube weeks before protests be- tional movement” that nu- gan in late 2010. Foreign media seized on merous Arab hip-hop art- El Général, and overnight he was launched ists claim to embrace. Later into the realm of Arab hip-hop superstar. in the clip, simple cartoon Armada Bizerta, figures of angry youths however, and count- face off with Darth Vader- less hip-hop per- rappers, among like silhouettes of riot po- formers across Tuni- other artists, lice, followed by a stark sia remain relatively drawing of investigators unknown, going on have had to standing around a body tours of summer form a bulwark slumped in a chair. If the festivals in Tunisia against attacks viewer doesn’t understand and Europe and re- the Tunisian Arabic used cording relentlessly on their to rap in “It’s The Sound in their parents’ ga- newfound Of Da Police,” the images rages. When asked freedom of make the message clear what makes Armada enough. Spilling across the Bizerta a revolution- expression. screen in stencil-cut letters ary group, Gal3y ex- as Armada Bizerta barks plains, “We try to focus on sensitive sub- together, imitating the jects with a lot of details.” He notes that sounds of chants in dem- Armada Bizerta treats four main issues onstrations, are the lyrics: facing ordinary Tunisians in their songs: the distribution of resources around Tuni- sia’s provinces, the inefficiency of the edu- “It’s the sound of the police. cational system, the theft of the country’s No justice, no peace! Sayyib echa3b historical relics, and the spreading of revo- i3iich! (Let the people live!) lution beyond Tunisia’s borders. When It’s the sound of the police. Dam pressed on the nature of influence his group echahid mouch r5is! (The martyr’s commands over the politics of the Arab blood isn’t cheap!) Spring, Gal3y answers confidently. “At the I got my heart. My chest is for time of the revolution in Libya, there were the bullets. Watch out for me! people listening to our rap there. Just or- How many mothers cried be dinary people. Not hip-hoppers. They sent cause someone forgot his con us a message saying, ‘We listened to your science? songs, and they inspired us—made us feel Get up! Let’s make a revolution! brave, and we went out [to protest].’” Our dignity’s been trampled. “This is just one example,” he adds. Now we must avenge it!” “But I’m sure there were others who heard

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rap songs and were inspired to protest. by Tunisians exhilarated to be participat- They just didn’t tell us about it.” Gal3y ing in the first national democratic process is confident that there is a central role for since the country’s independence nearly 60 hip-hop artists in Tunisian politics, and years ago. Yet, the ruling party’s economic more broadly in the Arab world. “Because program has hardly strayed from the old the artist is better-known than the protes- neo-liberal model—international loans tor,” he says, “his words are known, and and tightened public budgets—champi- they hit their target.” oned by Ben Ali and his entourage. The new rulers have gone so far as to embrace Target Cases far right Salafists responsible for the as- The target in this case is the North African sassination of two prominent opposition nation’s young people, whose humiliation leaders earlier this year. And its justice and anger over bulging unemployment and system has prosecuted outspoken artists restriction of basic rights form the backbone and others critical of the post-uprising of many protests, which have shaken Tunisia transitional government. Now, with rising over the last three years. Equally across the instability in the form of Al Qaeda cells region, where the Arab Spring spread like skirmishing with the military, political wildfire, there are similar young graffiti stalemate, street violence, and still mas- artists, rappers, and other hip-hop artists sive unemployment, growing numbers of who reflect the views of millions of young Tunisians have begun turning to the police people whose aspirations remain unfulfilled. to protect the nation’s fractured peace— Their voices are increasingly those of despair renewing faith in local security forces and and alarm, rather than the hope from which dampening attempts at dissent. hip-hop was originally born. In recent months, the Tunisian govern- Speaking from his own experience and ment has brought legal cases against two that of other protestors participating in high-profile Tunisian rappers over claims the uprising against Ben Ali and succes- that they were defaming public institutions sive provisional governments, Gal3y says, and inciting Tunisians to violence. Weld El “Those two months were a dream. It was 15 and Klay BBJ, both popular in Tunisia, like being in shackles, then freed sudden- were sentenced twice to prison terms earlier ly.” Smiling proudly, he adds, “The demon- this year for their song “El Boulicia Kleb” strations were huge in this neighborhood.” (The Police Are Dogs), a swaggering and He claims that, “the majority of those in violent condemnation of the cops. Their prisons in Ben Ali’s time were from Biz- YouTube video was replete with images of erte,” pointing out that this is a testament expensive cars, half-wrecked buildings, and to Bizerte’s revolutionary character. footage of the Tunisian police in their worst But rappers, among other artists, have moments. In the song, Weld El 15 brags had to form a bulwark against attacks on that he would slaughter a policeman like their newfound freedom of expression, a sheep during the Muslim holiday of Eid. won after the ejection of old dictators dur- Weld El 15 was released on appeal last June ing the Arab Spring. Tunisia is a resound- after serving six weeks of jail time for per- ing example of this process. Ennahda, the forming “El Boulicia Kleb,” but has since ruling majority party governing Tunisia, been re-arrested and charged with perform- was voted into power in October of 2011 ing the song at a festival in August.

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For his part, in the same August per- The justice system in post-revolution formance, Klay BBJ was summoned to a Tunisia is still beholden to many of the courthouse in the seaside resort town of same interests as prior to the 2011 upris- Hammamet, where children in blue school ing. Guellali explains that “Some repres- uniforms cheered on the rapper from out- sive laws in the penal codes from the Ben side. Inside, lawyers in black court cloaks Ali-era have been resurrected. In addition, condemned Klay in impassioned speeches you have a judiciary that is the protector about the sanctity of Tunisian institutions of the dominant discourse, be it religious, of justice and the danger of slandering political, or that of the powerful. The ju- them. After his prison sentence was read diciary is functioning as a protector of aloud, his mother fainted and was car- the regime.” This is hardly the exception ried out of the courthouse by a neighbor. in countries shaken by the Arab Spring, Klay was released only two months later, where the tug-of-war also on appeal, and much to the delight of between factions over an array of Tunisian activists, whose Face- power has lead to the “at least we book and Twitter accounts were alight for evisceration of the ju- gained one weeks with outraged statements about the diciary and concepts government’s curbing of free expression, of justice by many thing from this hashtagged “#FreeKlay.” who’ve remained on revolution. The imprisonment and subsequent or succeeded in seiz- we are free to liberation of the two performers for ing the throne. In their unbridled opposition to the Tuni- Egypt, where the speak.” sian government and the police has been military swept to the most visible form of what activists power this summer after disposing of the claim is a rising trend of hazily-defined ruling Muslim Brotherhood, artists criti- Ben Ali-era laws being revived to silence cal of the military-backed regime, even opponents of post-revolution leaders, those with enormous followings, have been especially those with large followings. forced into basements or arrested on charg- This brings hip-hop artists and rappers es of “insulting the president,” and whole squarely into their sights. The arbitrary layers of the Muslim Brotherhood leader- prosecutions of rappers and other hip- ship have been rounded up for military tri- hop figures in Tunisia has raised alarms als on terrorism charges. from local activists as well as civil society “Hip-hop is an art form that car- figures. Amna Guellali, director of Hu- ries with it the anger of the poor,” Guel- man Rights Watch for Tunisia and Alge- lali notes. “It carries a lot of meaning re- ria, notes that in recent months there has garding the revolution and the problems been a spate of prosecutions of free speech with the transition. The fact that [rap] at the hands of the transitional govern- says nothing’s changed after the revolu- ment. “What’s happening in Tunisia,” tion might be making rulers uncomfort- she says in her downtown Tunis office, “is able.” But hip-hop artists’ opposition to much more chaotic than what could be the status quo is not always violent, nor defined as a crackdown,” remarking on militant. Karim Jabbari, whose calligraf- the frenzied and inconsistent nature of fiti mural adorns the outer wall of the cen- attacks on artists. tral prison in Kasserine, takes an approach

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which he says is less about criticizing the thing that will stick. Something perma- system and more about youth develop- nent,” he says, hoping to make a crack in ment through hip-hop art. Describing his the isolation of the poor Tunisian interior, recent approach to community art projects and open the city to economic opportuni- in the rough Tunisian interior, Jabbari ties and greater political participation says, “When you come to help the youth Since 2011, the Arab world has entered financially or with advice, you help them a revolutionary process that has left the po- perfect skills they already had inside.” litical and cultural cards scattered on the Though his father was imprisoned for table. Though Islamist governments with 13 years under the Ben Ali regime for his conservative social agendas have come to involvement with Ennahda, now Tunisia’s power in Tunisia, and already been knocked ruling Islamist party, Jabbari avoids at- from the throne in Egypt, the game is far tacking the government, claiming a dedi- from over. Secular swaths of society are now cation to teaching the frustrated youth in competing openly with Islamists, as the his hometown how to express themselves. poor have turned against the wealthy auto- In the shade of an umbrella beside a café in crats trying to retain power. Kasserine, Jabbari observes, “The way we Most importantly, the conflict is not are raised, no one says, ‘You are an interest- limited to the halls of parliament or the of- ing man. You’re going to be successful.’ Ev- fices of the armed forces. In many places, eryone is putting you down. So you grow up it is being waged—now quietly and in and sit in the café, playing cards.” the open—by ordinary people in the Arab Through workshops for youth in spo- world. They fight with street protests. They ken word, rap, acting, graffiti, and other fight in court. But they also fight with cul- hip-hop-oriented art forms, Jabbari be- ture. Hip-hop’s origins in the embattled, le- lieves he can sew the seeds for a larger thally poor streets of the Bronx decades ago process of social development among are not far removed from the lives of many Tunisians otherwise adrift in a sea of un- marginalized youth in the countries of the employment and political disenfranchise- Arab Spring, and this cultural similarity has ment—and hopefully help them find their struck a cord with them. For the many Arab way across other societies in North Africa youth disgusted with business as usual, the and the Middle East. In Kasserine, which revolutions have created a space for them to is no hotspot for tourism or international speak through their language of choice— cultural events, Jabbari has organized a hip-hop. Jabbari notes that, if nothing else, cultural festival, brimming with inter- the Tunisian uprising has built the base for national hip-hop artists performing and democracy by pulling the gag from their teaching workshops to local youth, which mouths. With a smile he says, “In Ben Ali’s the city will host in December. Through time you couldn’t say what you want in such events, Jabbari hopes to instill a last- public or even at home. The walls had ears. ing spirit of creative and civic activity in At least we gained one thing from this revo- the area. “I’m trying to establish some- lution. We are free to speak.” l

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