Tunisian President Kaïs Saïed has made extremely hateful and racist remarks against African migrants who arrive in his country on their way to Europe. After castigating and making racist remarks against African immigrants, who seek refuge in Europe because of poverty, famine and conflicts in their countries, the Tunisian president went so far as to say that Africans were the cause of most of Tunisia’s problems, trying to “Africanize” it and distance it from its “Arabness.
In Morocco, where African migrants enjoy full social rights and are integrated into the the Kingdom’s social fabric, these remarks have caused immense consternation and a visceral rejection of the remarks made by the Tunisian president against African citizens who are legitimately seeking a better future for themselves and their children. The Moroccan citizen, if he is not used to meddling in the affairs of a country, was violently shaken by the racist and execrable remarks made by the Tunisian president. It is unethical to let such a deafening anger of African nations over the defamatory remarks of President Kaïs Saïed pass.
The Tunisian president, university professor, should not ignore that migration is an enrichment for the host society and the fact of asserting that Africans are the primary cause of Tunisia’s problems shows a serious ignorance of the Tunisian reality. Saying that migrants seek to “Africanize” Tunisia and to distance it from its “Arabness” is another nameless aberration. With a simple glance at the world map, the author of these remarks would have realized that Tunisia is already on the African continent. It is as African as Niger, Congo or Tanzania.