The InterDependent

Part 1 in a 3-part series on the elections in Tunisia.
Part 2: Tunisia's Women Demand Equal Rights
Part 3: Tunisia's Politics: Finally Free to Chat

TUNIS— By the time Tunisian President Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali fled office on January 14, 2011, after 24 years in power, even the country’s music had become polluted by autocracy. To survive, artists had to go along with the status quo; to prosper, they often had to participate in it, playing gigs for the regime or its supporters. Those who wished to remain independent—let alone to criticize—went either abroad or underground. Even when freedom came, the artists who had long called for it remained hidden.

On September 22, however, all that began to change. Six young artists, all from the underground, released a song called Enti Essout, meaning “you are the voice,” that has become among the most popular in Tunisia in a matter of just weeks. Few of the musicians’ names would have been recognized before; now the sound of their voices, calling on Tunisians to vote as members of a democracy, could hardly be mistaken.

Elizabeth Dickinson

The story of how Tunisia’s underground came to light begins in a humble, house-like office buried at the end of a long driveway just north of central Tunis where the United Nations has its local headquarters. Not long after the revolution, Philippa Neave, an elections public outreach officer at the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), had an idea: She wanted to help inspire young Tunisians to come out and vote in the country’s first ever democratic election, to be held October 23. But in a country that was highly educated, computer savvy, and cosmopolitan, the traditional tactics wouldn’t work. Neave turned to music.

“When I started the project, I really had no idea where it would go,” she recalled just two days after Tunisia’s vote. “The old [Tunisians] singers were all instrumentalized by the previous regime. On the other side were the young revolutionaries, the rappers, were in some ways also being instrumentalized—they were already being used by political parties.”

Her solution was to enlist the help of Laurence Touitou, a music producer who had just resettled in Tunisia after working to discover young talent in France. “[Touitou] basically went into the underground scene to see what was out there, and we found some amazing talents,” says Neave.

The resulting song has exploded on the Tunisian charts. Taxi cabs blast it as the cruise down the city streets; radio stations play it on loop to meet demand. “Enti Essout” has become the unlikely soundtrack of a revolution.

***

Enti Essout resonates in Tunisia as much for the story it tells as the catching harmony it glides upon. The tale begins with the potent combination of economic suffering and shame that first sent protestors to the streets in southern Tunisian in late 2010. “I saw a person who was despised in his own country,” sings Bendir Man, one of the young artists who donated his studio for the recording of the record.

It’s not hard to see where this sense of hopelessness came from. Unemployment today in Tunisia hovers at 18.5 percent, and may be as high as 23 percent for youth, according to the latest data from the African Development Bank. Hope under the dictator, Bendir Man sings, was getting out. “He leaves on a boat, an illegal immigrant.”

Rather than flee, however, the Tunisian people created their own hope, as the song goes on to fervently proclaim. “I will defend my rights and the rights of my country/ As long as I live,” sings another artist, Armada Bizerta, in reply. “Now there is something useful/ I want you to be like a fighter, strong and valiant/ When our Tunisia falls, she rises up again./ I am Tunisian, you are Tunisian,/ We are all Tunisians, united as one....This is it! Tunisia is free/ The era of oppression is over.”

The revolution doesn’t end with that moment of exhilaration—it calls for a generation that is engaged, that won’t give up—that votes. “We must act and go for it/ And finish what we begun…even if they raise walls, my people, you are the voice!” the song concludes.

From all indications, the country was up to the challenge posed by Enti Essout: On October 23, when the country went to the polls to elect members of an assembly that will draft its new Constitution, official turnout reached around 80 percent. The election was among the most orderly observers had ever seen; they praised it widely and even cried as they watched Tunisian voters do the same.

“We’re very proud to vote,” said Ali Halid, a young Tunisians who waited in line in the hot sun that day to vote. “The most important for us now is the success of these elections; then everything else will follow.”

Enti Essout - إنت الصوت from Enti Essout on Vimeo.

***

Yet across Tunisia today, there is a pervasive sense that the revolution is ongoing—and perhaps fittingly, Enti Essout has continued to play on the airwaves even after Tunisians cast their votes. No shortage of challenges await the new assembly that was elected on October 23, and the interim caretaker government that it will appoint.

“It’s a fluid situation,” explains Soumaya Beu Cheiku, a project coordinator at the UN-funded Center for Arab Woman Training and Research. “The revolution starts now. It wasn’t done before; it’s being undertaken now. It’s now that we have to build a country.”

Not least of these challenges will be taking on the economic challenges that continue to plague the country. “We have 140,000 people graduating with diplomas every year, of which only 60,000 will find jobs. That puts us at close 1 million unemployed in a country of 10 million,” recounts Mohamed Bennour, spokesman of the Ettakatol political party, which is expected to enter a majority coalition of parties to govern Tunisia’s next phase. “There are 2 million who have salary that doesn’t even suffice to buy a pack of cigarettes, food, and transportation each day.”

Equally important will be to bring about the spirit of national unity and compromise that was so prevalent during the revolution—“Freedom, solidarity, and democracy,” as Enti Essout puts it.

Already, there’s great reason to be hopeful. Every segment of society has risen up to play its part. Local community groups, human rights defenders, and youth organizations have all proliferated in the space of free expression that Ben Ali’s departure finally allowed. And looking forward, Neave and her colleagues are hopeful about where this tiny country at the tip of North Africa is headed. Already, she says, “it’s quite amazing what they’ve achieved in such a short time.”

Perhaps once again, Enti Essout says it best: “If one of us is in trouble and can’t make it,/ We will find a way to help him and each other out/ Stone by stone we will build.”