Rap and mizoued music: claiming a space for dissent and protest in post-Arab spring Tunisia

The Arab Spring in Tunisia has brought with it positive changes, such as freedom of expression and democracy. However, Tunisians have found that these applauded achievements have not improved their living conditions. After Ben Ali was ousted in 2010, the decline of Tunisia’s economy was exacerbated by internal and external factors such as global recession, a dysfunctional liberal economy, internal political infighting, and corruption. To ventilate their frustration and dismay with the government and the overall socioeconomic situation in Tunisia, some Tunisians turn to the music of rap and Mizoued in search for a new space where there is solace and escapism. Mizoued music and rap deal with core issues about the living conditions in Tunisia, such as harga (border jumping, clandestine migration). Most rappers and Mzēwdiyye (Mizoued players) represent the houma (neighbourhood), and it is their connection with frustrated youths and struggling Tunisians that influenced these two genres to merge and gain popularity in their shared history of marginalization.

The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, it analyses the points of convergence and divergence of these two genres in terms of themes and authenticity. Second, it discusses how rap and Mizoued discourses use the notion of ‘space’ in the development of the artists’ trajectories and narratives in three domains: cultural, political, and sociological. Within these domains, Bourdieu’s social concepts of habitus, cultural capital and field throw light on how ‘taste’, power’, and ‘class’ are exercised in the three domains.