“We are all migrants, we are all Africans!”: Remaking solidarity and belonging through an anti-fascist front in Tunisia

This article examines the effects on the Tunisian left-wing scene of the Anti-Fascist Front created in the wake of the “moral shock” caused by the president’s anti-migrant and anti-Black speech of February 21, 2023. Echoing European “great replacement” theories, this speech triggered a wave of racist violence, prompting Front activists to come together and break the compartmentalization of struggles that had developed in the decade following the 2011 revolution. By exploring the different emotions, experiences, and opinions that shaped this movement, the article analyzes the ways in which the “anti-fascist” and “humanitarian” framings of the Front’s actions resulted in broadening its reach. In a postcolonial context marked by rising authoritarianism, this movement of solidarity with people on the move has had the effect of repoliticizing migration, anti-racism, and the very concept of belonging to Tunisia.