2023-06-23 20:15:35
In the villages between Marseille and Montpellier, a tradition attracts thousands of spectators and animates all the local festivals: the Camargue race, where raseteurs risk their lives in front of bulls. Although often the children of immigrants and of North African origin in villages where the National Rally scores records, they are stars.
These men dressed in white try to unhook the strings and tassels of fabric attached to the horns of bulls weighing 400 kilos, running in front of them. It’s the raset. In most races, a good half of the raseteurs are of North African origin, which raises questions of racism among some inhabitants of the organizing villages.
For two decades, the Camargue race trophies have gone mostly to these children of immigrants. Among the leaders of the 2023 ranking, we find Zico Katif, Youssef Zekraoui, Amine Chekhade and Belkacem Benhammou. They are applauded, praised, like the others.
To understand this paradox between fascination and racism, it is necessary to evoke the very special status that this sport has in the region. The ex-raseteur legend of the race Jacky Siméon, who has become an essayist and novelist, shares the attachment of the people of the village for the Camargue race in Tout Un Monde on Friday.
“The bull is a fascination, not a village festival. Here, it is a general passion. In the villages, it creates emotion, people run following the bulls, they have the impression of approaching as close as possible to the animal. And in the arena, it is the man who will provoke, measure himself once morest the power of the animal. Unlike bullfighting, here the star is the bull.”
Means of recognition…
However, it is the raseteur, alone, who plays his destiny each time he enters the track. Like all sports where you risk your life and health, such as boxing, its history is linked to that of immigration. The Camargue race helps young people to move forward in their lives, explains the former champion.
“It allows young people who have nothing to integrate and earn money quickly, to rise in society. Before the war, it was Italians and Spaniards. Now they are North Africans We realize that these boys have talent and I don’t see why we wouldn’t cheer them on. It’s true that it happens in villages where the National Rally is important. It can happen to have racist remarks like in football, but it’s rare. The Camargue race allows these young people to become stars.”
… but who has a racist background
This star status obtained by raseteurs of immigrant origin did not come immediately and not in an obvious way either. The trainer Mouloud Bensalah was in 1998 the first North African to win the Trophée des As, the equivalent of the French championship, has experienced periods of racism towards competitors. Insults, whistles, rules diverted to win a local raseteur, he has known it all. “It was not easy… It whistled! Me it was my fuel. There has to be competition, it must not be biased. And in my time, it was because it made me lose several great trophies.”
Another big name in the Camargue race had to undergo the same ordeal. Sabri Allouani was number one throughout the 2000s, even with a comeback in 2014. He was a ten-time French champion in all. This unequaled record has irritated some aficionados, he says. “We heard things that hurt a lot: insults like ‘go shave the camels’, ‘dirty Arab’. We are faced with that. It’s a minority but it exists, so yes it hurts a lot.”
He admits that “today there are fewer insults. It has changed a bit”.
This year, the title of French Camargue race champion will be awarded on October 8, in the arenas of Arles.
Radio subject: Frédéric Faux
Adaptation web: Julie Marty
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