Female Agency and Colonial Repression: Memory and Archives in Tunisia
Nora Lafi
Female Agency and Colonial Repression: Memory and Archives in Tunisia
MECAM Papers English | 2025
Abstract
Reflecting on the role of women under colonialism crucially contributes to debates on how to write the history thereof in contemporary Tunisia. Based on a corpus of original archives relating to French repression of women designated “rebels,” it is shown how a focus on women’s agency makes it possible to write the history of colonisation differently and to cast issues of memory in a new light.
Proposed is a methodology for analysing colonialism and its mechanisms of repression and intrusion into bodies and society. This involves constructing a typology of regimes of female agency in the colonial context, from direct involvement in resistance movements to engagement via male relatives.
Through a series of interviews based on the reactions of contemporary actors to these archives, also presented is a typology of regimes of memory. The latter is defined as the ways in which mechanisms of remembrance and interpretations of past events influence present-day social, gender, and political identities.
Advocated herewith is a twofold focus on micro-level dynamics: archival material should be analysed in connection with the day-to-day mechanisms of colonial repression. An additional layer of temporality comes in through identifying the inner workings of the memory of oppression and resistance in contemporary societies.
Context
Laying the foundations for deciphering colonialism’s contemporary inertia, with its mechanisms continuing to broadly structure relations with the region, is key. European colonialism traumatically shaped both local societies and the categories typically used for their study. Deconstructing the latter and the dominant narratives inherited from colonialism in rejecting their uncritical use is vital for the present.
Ghana and Tunisia have often been framed as beacons of democracy in their respective regions. However, as Ghana’s democracy matured over decades, Tunisia’s experiment ultimately collapsed. This paper examines diverse factors shaping their paths, offering lessons on the risks of democratic backsliding.
