The backyard of social marginalization… on football songs in Tunisia

On the day of the match, all the security forces deployed in the stadiums classified as “red” in Tunisia stood up and carefully searched every spectator, in order to confiscate the group’s pendants, even those that had been cut into pieces for the purpose of smuggling. and their reassembly at the stadium. Hats with the groups’ distinctive logos were banned, as were candles, lighters and leather belts, but none of the security personnel discovered the carefully hidden songs or managed to confiscate them before entering the stadium.

“Welcome, Mr. President of the Republic”, is a sentence that is attached to the Tunisian imagination, and whenever the atmosphere of the interview in the final of the cup there is mentioned, related to what happened before 2011 and its launch, everything in the stadium changed every time and stimulated, even national television (Channel 7). At every opportunity she tried to suggest some improvements to add some prestige by watching the luxury presidential car as it entered the stadium between the two halves of the match (the usual time for the arrival of the president), passing by the arrival of President Ben Ali and his entourage, which leads to the atmosphere of handing over the cup to the winner teams.

In 2009, everything was going smoothly for the cup final match between “Sfaxian Sports Club” and “Monastiri Sports Federation” until the half-time break, in which the match director was busy broadcasting some scenes of exchanges between Sfaxian fans and stadium security when what happened His Honor with inappropriate shouts that were raised in a tense atmosphere, so that he realized late that the President had entered with his young son without anyone knowing about it, without being caught on camera or announced in a protocol error that the state then she did not allow it to happen in order to preserve her image presented in the image of the president.

A mistake that the authorities at the time considered to be of such magnitude that it led to the launch of a mandatory conscription campaign. Figures at the time showed that more than twelve thousand recruits were collected in less than two weeks, and although this was distributed among the other wilayahs (provinces), it was more difficult and violent in the vilayet of Sfax, i.e. the wilaya concerned about disorder in the Gores. the aforementioned interview.

Clash between Tunisian authorities and football fans

In the matter of return between the authorities in Tunisia represented by the Ministry of the Interior and the football fans, this incident was never the starting point, nor was it the stopping point, but what is really remarkable is that a significant number of “groups” of football fans in Tunisia and years before on this date Few engaged in an innovative and unprecedented method of conflict by devising the concept of “dakhla” or “cheering” associated with special chants for each team separately.

Verses and songs that glorified freedom, some preached revolution, and others called for disobedience and rebellion, which encouraged the government at the time, especially in 2008, to make a decision to prevent such “invasions” to stadiums, to read the future that would could be worse, and that’s honestly the right reading in the wrong place. In fact, the worst came after two years, and those “miscreants” and “saboteurs”, as they were described by the official sports media, were an important “nerve” in the events and course of the revolution.

Chants and chants at football matches in Tunisia sang of freedom, some of them preached revolution and others called for disobedience and rebellion, prompting the government to decide to ban stadiums, in a reading of what was to come and what could be up… and that, to be honest, is the correct reading in the wrong place

In the city of Sousse, more precisely on January 9, 2011, when attention was drawn to what was happening on the field between the coastal sports star and the guest, the Tunisian sports club Esperance, about which the authorities did not read the accounts present at the stadiums, in addition to the argument and fight between the security and the public. A great march that was framed secretly among football fans and on the runways, and then took place afterwards, so that football chants were mixed with slogans and social and political demands in one voice. This incident will remain one of the decisive events in the political changes that took place in the country a few days later.

Oh our lives… the national anthem

The memory does not preserve a single event in Tunisia that had the effect of being able to gather all the “groups” and fans of Tunisian sports teams around one position, with the exception of the death of Omar Al-Obeidi, a fan of Club Africain, who died on March 31, 2018. died by drowning after a security chase in front of the Radeš stadium. After that, he became popularly known as “I’m learning to float”, as one of the security guards told him before that. he found himself floundering in the unswimmable canal waters, becoming Tunisia’s new icon who stands between and against the government in and out of stadiums.

In front of the music studio, the movement at night seems more than normal and there is nothing to indicate that it is coming. One of them enters naturally, and another follows and another, and no one knows what happens but God and those within; The recognizable ringtone of the YouTube platform, a new song has been downloaded, with hidden faces and voices whose owners no one recognizes; Thousands of views in a few minutes.

The song “Oh our Life”

The song “Ya Hayna” released by the fans of the Africain club in Tunisia was wider than the uniform of this club and even football itself. It is not a natural encouragement that eventually reverberates outside the stadium, but goes beyond that and carries a number of problems, events and contexts that Tunisia has known and that definitely continue in time and space.

The writers of the word are exposed to the amount of injustice inflicted before and after 2011, especially to the Tunisian youth, which is represented by the increasing unemployment rates and the deterioration of social and economic conditions, and in this it resembles a stupid millstone that does not discriminate in its rotation to grind everything that comes across way.

In the song, he returns to the incident of the murder of Omar Al-Obeidi and recalls the death of a series of infants who were handed over to their parents in paper boxes without respect for their human being, in addition to the stories of the child Maha Al-Qudadi, who was swept away by heavy rains while she was on her way to her schools, along with the story of agricultural workers who were knocked over by a mass transport truck. In turn, the simplest safety rules and human self-respect are missing.

With a simple alteration, a song like “Ya Hayatina” can be transformed from a ballroom song into the official Tunisian patriotic anthem, whose words and sighs of anger express the dissatisfaction of today’s Tunisians with the worsening general situation.

Chanting in stadiums in Tunisia was continuous, and since the appearance of the first groups in the few years before 2011, they carried cultural expressions in the form of political and social messages that the authorities could not catch then, so this deficit continues to this day.

Like rap music, the songs from the stadium in Tunisia were continuous, and since the first groups appeared in the years before 2011, they carried cultural expressions in the form of political and social messages that the authorities at the time were unable to capture and that the deficit continues to this day.

An Algerian friend asks me which places and monuments I would like to visit if I come to Algeria soon, so without any hesitation I answer: “5th of July” stadium in a match for Union of Capital with the group Bahja Sons, to repeat the song “Babur Al-Louh” with them ” in that genius human choreography, or the song “Satovi zore i ja ne spavam” with that huge amount of feeling of regret, just as my Moroccan friend asked me, and I replied to him to the fans of Al-Raj to raise “Tivo” room 101 again , but on the day when the ban is lifted.