Youth and Revolution in Tunisia, by Alcinda Honwana, is a book written in 2013, two years after the Tunisian Revolution. The author explains the Tunisian youth’s involvement in every step of the revolution, providing a unique, but essential perspective on the events that took place.
INTRODUCTION:
The author establishes that the uprisings in Tunisia were ignited and spread initially by the youth and social media, before older people playing a ‘political game’ took the power out of their hands. This introduction goes on to explain the author’s research process in writing the book, which was comprised mostly of interviews with Tunisia’s youth, before giving a brief overview of Tunisia’s pre-uprising history and finally, a summary the topics to be discussed in the upcoming pages.
CHAPTER 1: DISCONNECTIONS
This chapter argues that five disconnects between the government and Tunisia’s population laid the foundation for the government overthrow. These disconnects include: Economic dissatisfaction – that is, the unequal regional development and massive youth unemployment that were propagated by government policies, corruption and nepotism that poisoned the political and economic structures in Tunisia from top to bottom, the oppression of civil liberties, the shortcomings of women’s rights reforms and finally, the severe religious repression that characterized both dictators’ regimes.
CHAPTER 2: MOBILIZATION
Chapter 2 speaks of the different groups of people involved in Tunisia’s uprising, stressing that the movement happened in a ‘bottom-up’ manner. It began with the youth and social media, including cyber activists and frustrated unemployed university graduates who were knowledgeable, energetic, and ultimately, had nothing to lose from protesting. The uprisings gained traction and proceeded to garner support from larger civil society organizations, including lawyers and the UGTT, who widened the geographical scope of the uprisings and shifted demands from life improvement to government removal. Much later on, opposition parties also got involved.
CHAPTER 3: REVOLUTION
This chapter begins with a day-by-day recount of the events during the 29 days from Bouazizi’s self-immolation on December 17th until Ben Ali’s step down. The author then leads into a discussion on whether the word ‘revolution’ is appropriate to describe the uprisings, concluding that it is too early to give a clear answer. She ends by questioning the standard model of a social movement, suggesting it should be modified for modern times, as Tunisia does not fit it.
CHAPTER 4: TRANSITION
In this chapter, the author takes a detailed look at the time immediately following Ben Ali’s removal. She explains how the revolution was taken out of the youth’s hands by the different interim governments. Many criticized the number of members of the old regime who were still involved, and called for their banning altogether. The author states that the reforms that took place ended up being separate from the youth, as they lacked organization needed to create political reforms, and politicians only joined the revolution much later. They had no explicit interest in politics; rather, in their wellbeing. They, therefore, ended up disappointed.
CHAPTER 5: ELECTIONS
Chapter 5 outlines the election process for the constituent assembly, stating that voting turnout – especially among the youth – was far lower than expected. The author argues that this is due to a lack of faith in the political system, which turned to focus on the polarization between Islamists and secularists, rather than the issues that had sparked the revolution. The youth saw new political parties as corrupt, waiting only for their chance to replace Ben Ali. This, along with the huge number of registered parties, many with vague messages, discouraged the youth from voting. The chapter then launches into a discussion on the different civil society organizations founded by young people in order to educate new voters, indicating that those who chose not to vote did so deliberately.
CHAPTER 6: NEW GOVERNMENT, NEW CONSTITUTION
This chapter explains the consequences of Ennahda’s win in the first democratic elections. There was much uncertainty at this stage, many doubted their ability or effectiveness. Ennahda formed a coalition government, but political tensions between the parties within the coalition limited the meaningful change they were able to make. The youth was left unsatisfied, claiming that their living conditions had not improved. While many young people identify as progressive, socioeconomic difficulties have led a worrying number of Tunisia’s youth to resort to Salafism.
CHAPTER 7: WOMEN’S RIGHTS
This chapter begins by placing women’s rights issues within the context of Tunisia. It gives a brief history of women’s place in Tunisian history since the 1800s, and how this as evolved until post-revolution times. It presents the complexity of the discussion of women’s rights within Sharia law, and how this plays into gender equality expected in modern society. The author commends women for their active role in Tunisia’s uprising, and explains that, moving forward, women across the board must work together to improve their socioeconomic situation, rather than getting caught up in the secular vs. Islamist divide.
CONCLUSION
The author concludes by reiterating the ongoing struggle of Tunisian youth in finding their political place – choosing, for the moment, to invest their time in civil society organizations. She explains that this trend can be observed beyond Tunisia, and even beyond the African continent. She then evaluates the success of the movement. She acknowledges the power of social media – both as positive organizational tool for the spreading of the movement, as well a negative one, which facilitates the recruiting of extremists. She concludes that it is too early in the movement to make any decisive statements about its effects.
BOOK REVIEW:
Youth and Revolution in Tunisia, by Alcinda Honwana, is an extremely valuable addition to the narrative on Tunisia’s role in the Arab Spring. The book has a strong academic underpinning. It is, on one level, a well-researched, historically accurate account of the events that lead up to the revolution (assuming the uprising can be referred to as such, which is one of the many discussions presented in the book), as well as those that took place afterwards. This academic underpinning gives credibility to the author, and provides a solid backbone for the specific angle that the book takes. This angle – that is, the involvement of Tunisia’s youth at every stage of the movement – is what separates this account from other literature existing on the Tunisian revolution, and gives it its importance. Honwawa uses her book to give a voice to the youth, which, as she demonstrates many times, has been increasingly neglected as the movement has evolved. She accomplishes this by sharing interviews she undertook in informal settings with a large number of young Tunisian people, which allowed her to obtain candid thoughts and to paint an authentic picture of the mindset of this particular demographic.
There are numerous reasons for the importance of the role that the youth played in Tunisia’s uprising. This, however, must be qualified. At the start of her book, Honwana establishes what she means by ‘youth’ – it is more of a state of mind, rather than a narrowly defined age group. This is a crucial distinction to make, as those interviewed are aged between the wide range of 18 and 45. What brings these people together, however, is their energy, their motivation, and the means by which they pursue their common goals. They began protesting for shared reasons, including a desire for better living conditions, more humane treatment by officials, and higher levels of employment for Tunisia’s extremely educated youth. These young people sparked the protests, which, as Honwana argues, spread rapidly with the help of social media. They eventually spread beyond the youth, capturing the attention of all Tunisians, regardless of age, gender, wealth, or any other divide. As the movement progressed beyond the control of the youth, and into the hands of politicians, the voices of those who had initiated reforms have been pushed increasingly into the background. Honwana stresses that the youth, while being political, are not partisan, and have no interest in entering the ‘political game.’ The fact that the discussion in Tunisia has devolved from the peoples’ wellbeing to between-party politics is a thread Honwana weaves throughout her entire narrative. It must be noted, however, that the future of Tunisia is not with those older politicians who are often viewed as corrupt perpetrators of the old regime. Instead, the future of Tunisia lies with the youth population, and this is the most important reason for which it is imperative that their voices be gathered and broadcast.
The author of this book does an excellent job in complimenting well-researched facts with opinions and personal accounts of young people. This allows her to touch on a wide range of topics concerning the revolution, from discussions on the name of the revolution to explanations for the numerous voting abstentions in the post-revolution elections. The book is narrated in a chronological manner, beginning with the tensions that led to the movement, leading through the uprisings, the election process, and then, the writing of the new constitution. Finally, the author ends with a section about women’s rights, which is a theme that is relevant to every stage of the revolution, and clearly deemed by Honwana to merit a section of its own. Its placement, therefore, makes sense. Perhaps this book’s biggest flaw is the time at which it was written. In 2013, there was not yet enough distance between the author and the events she was writing about to allow her the perspective needed to analyze the situation she was writing about. Indeed, at the time she was writing, the constitution had yet to be finalized. A follow-up on the position of young people in Tunisia today, as the dust has had the chance to somewhat settle, would be useful for those trying to understand the issue. I also felt at times that the text could benefit from personal accounts of older politicians’ perspectives and opinions of the youth, as this would allow a fuller understanding, and give the book a more balanced feel.
Nevertheless, I enjoyed reading this text, and thoroughly recommend it to anyone trying to come to terms with the involvement in the revolution of Tunisia’s population as a whole. The style of writing was impressively engaging and readable. The author, as a non-biased 3rd party, gave a voice to those whose voices have been repressed, making it clear that this is a relevant issue beyond Tunisia, and even beyond Africa.