In Tunisia, a church procession blends faith, nostalgia and migration

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Tunis, Tunisia – Night had conscionable astir fallen successful Halq al-Wadi, besides known arsenic La Goulette, a balmy coastal suburb of Tunis, erstwhile the Virgin Mary emerged from the section church, Saint-Augustin and Saint Fidele, into a packed square.

Carried connected the shoulders of a twelve churchgoers, the statue of the Virgin was greeted with cheers, ululations and a passionately waved Tunisian flag.

A melting pot

The Catholic feast of Our Lady of Trapani was brought to La Goulette successful the precocious 1800s by Sicilian immigrants, successful the days erstwhile the larboard municipality was a hub for mediocre confederate European fishermen successful hunt of a amended life.

Immigration to Tunisia from Sicily peaked successful the aboriginal 20th century. Nearly each of the fishermen, on with their families and descendants, person present returned to European shores, but the statue of the Virgin remained – and, each twelvemonth connected August 15, it is carried successful procession retired of the church.

“It’s a unsocial event,” Hatem Bourial, a Tunisian writer and vigor presenter, told Al Jazeera.

He went connected to picture how, successful the procession’s heyday successful the aboriginal 20th century, autochthonal Tunisians, Muslims and Jews alike, would articulation Tunisian-Sicilian Catholics successful carrying the statue of the Virgin Mary from the religion down to the sea.

There, participants would inquire Mary to bless the fishermen’s boats. Many residents would outcry “Long unrecorded the Virgin of Trapani!”, Bourial said, portion others threw their chechia, a accepted reddish headdress worn successful the Maghreb, successful the air.

As good arsenic its spiritual value – for Catholics, August 15 marks the time that Mary was taken up into eden – the feast besides coincides with the Italian mid-August vacation of Ferragosto, which traditionally signals the precocious constituent of the summer.

Silvia Finzi, calved successful Tunis successful the 1950s to Italian parents, described how, aft the statue had been brought down to the sea, galore of La Goulette’s residents would state that the worst of the punishingly blistery Tunisian summertime was over.

“Once the Virgin had been taken down to the water, it was arsenic if the oversea had changed”, Finzi, a prof of Italian astatine the University of Tunis, told Al Jazeera.

“People would accidental ‘the oversea has changed, the summer’s over’, and you wouldn’t request to spell swimming to chill down immoderate more”.

Canal larboard of La Goulette, precocious 19th century

European exodus

The archetypal European immigrants began to get successful La Goulette successful the aboriginal 19th century. Their numbers rapidly accrued aft 1881, erstwhile Tunisia became a French protectorate. At its tallness successful the aboriginal 1900s, the fig of Italian immigrants – who were mostly Sicilians – crossed the full of Tunisia is estimated to person been much than 100,000.

In the decennary aft 1956, erstwhile Tunisia gained its independency from France, the immense bulk of its European residents near the country, arsenic the caller authorities pivoted towards nationalism.

In 1964, the Vatican signed an statement with Tunisia, transferring power of the bulk of the country’s churches – present mostly bare – to the authorities for usage arsenic nationalist buildings. The statement besides enactment an extremity to each nationalist Christian celebrations, including the procession successful La Goulette.

For much than fractional a century, August 15 was marked lone with a Mass wrong the religion building, and the statue of Our Lady of Trapani remained immobile successful its niche. The day remained important for La Goulette’s much-reduced Catholic population, but it mostly ceased to beryllium an important lawsuit for the wider community.

The Catholic Church Saint Augustine-and Saint-Fidèle

Nostalgia

In 2017, the Catholic Church received support to restart the procession, initially conscionable wrong the religion compound. This year, erstwhile Al Jazeera visited, the procession near the religion spot but lone travelled arsenic acold arsenic the quadrate outside.

Many attendees were young Tunisian Muslims, with small transportation to La Goulette’s historical Sicilian population.

A large crushed for this is undoubtedly the precocious presumption accorded to the Virgin Mary successful Islam – an full section of the Quran is dedicated to her.

Other participants seemed to beryllium drawn by a feeling of nostalgia for La Goulette’s multiethnic, multireligious past.

“I emotion the procession”, Rania, 26, told Al Jazeera. “Lots of radical person forgotten astir it now, but European migration is specified an important portion of Tunisia’s history”.

Rania, a student, told Al Jazeera of her emotion for the 1996 film, Un ete a La Goulette (A Summer successful La Goulette).

Featuring dialog successful 3 languages, and evocative shots of sunlit courtyards and shimmering beaches, the movie is an ode to La Goulette’s past.

Directed by the renowned Tunisian filmmaker Ferid Boughedir, it follows the lives of 3 teenage girls – Gigi, a Sicilian, Meriem, a Muslim, and Tina, a Jew – implicit the people of a summertime successful the 1960s.

The movie ends, however, connected a bleak note, with the outbreak of the 1967 War betwixt Israel and respective Arab states, and the consequent departure of astir each of Tunisia’s remaining Jewish and European residents.

Procession of Our Lady of Trapani successful La Goulette, 1950s

New migrations

As Tunisia’s European colonisation declined, the state has seen an influx of caller migrant communities from sub-Saharan Africa.

The bulk of these caller migrants, who fig successful the tens of thousands, hail from Francophone West Africa. Many travel to Tunisia successful hunt of work; others anticipation to find transition crossed the Mediterranean to Europe.

Many of the sub-Saharan migrants – who look widespread favoritism successful Tunisia – are Christian, and arsenic a result, they present marque up the immense bulk of Tunisia’s churchgoing population.

This information is reflected successful a mural successful the religion successful La Goulette, inspired by the feast of Our Lady of Trapani. Painted successful 2017, it depicts the Virgin Mary sheltering a radical of radical – Tunisians, Sicilians and sub-Saharan Africans – nether her mantle.

The aerial astir the Virgin successful the mural is afloat of passports. The church’s priest, Father Narcisse, who hails from Chad, told Al Jazeera that these correspond the documents that immigrants propulsion into the oversea portion making the travel from North Africa to Europe successful the anticipation of evading deportation.

The mural highlights the information that the Madonna of Trapani, erstwhile considered the protector of Sicilian fishermen, is contiguous called upon by immigrants of acold much varied backgrounds.

“This celebration, successful its archetypal form, marked the heavy bonds betwixt the 2 shores of the Mediterranean,” Archbishop of Tunis Nicolas Lhernould told Al Jazeera. “Today, it brings unneurotic a much divers radical – Tunisians, Africans, Europeans; locals, migrants, and tourists.”

“Mary herself was a migrant,” Archbishop Lhernould said, referring to the New Testament communicative which narrates Mary’s flight, unneurotic with the kid Jesus and her hubby Joseph, from Palestine to Egypt.

From a Christian perspective, helium suggested, “we are each migrants, conscionable passing through, citizens of a kingdom which is not of this world”.

A mural of the Virgin Mary with migrants and passports astir her

The tone of La Goulette

La Goulette was erstwhile location to ‘Little Sicily’, an country characterised by its clusters of Italian-style flat buildings. The immense bulk of these structures – humble buildings built by the newly-arrived fishermen – person been torn down and replaced, and small much than the religion remains to attest to the area’s erstwhile important Sicilian presence.

As of 2019, determination were lone 800 Italians descended from the archetypal migrant assemblage near successful the full of Tunisia.

“There are truthful fewer of america left”, said Rita Strazzera, who was calved successful Tunis to Sicilian parents. The Tunisian-Sicilian assemblage meets precise rarely, she explained, with immoderate members coming unneurotic for the solemnisation connected the 15th August, and holding occasional meetings successful a tiny bookshop other the church.

Still, the tone of Little Sicily has not wholly vanished. Traces of the aged La Goulette linger – successful memory, successful film, and, Strazzera told Al Jazeera, successful other, much astonishing ways arsenic well.

“Every year, connected All Saints’ Day, I spell to the graveyard”, said Strazzera, referring to the yearly solemnisation erstwhile Catholics retrieve their deceased loved ones.

“And determination are Tunisians there, Muslims, radical who possibly had a Sicilian parent, oregon a Sicilian grandparent, and person travel to sojourn their graves, due to the fact that they cognize it’s what Catholics do.”

“There person been tons of mixed marriages”, Strazzera added, “and so, each year, determination are much of them visiting the graves. When I spot them, it’s similar a reminder that Little Sicily is inactive with us.”