2023-12-31 07:00:00
”Unfortunately, the Tunisian newspapers are not too interested in my drawings, unless they were free! Above all, they would not take responsibility for their publication. But I reach the Tunisian public thanks to Facebook, which is very successful.”
Have you ever been worried?
I was on several occasions, but fortunately it never went beyond threats. This was especially true during the period when Islamists ruled the country. On the other hand, a colleague recently received a complaint because he had drawn drawings about the new head of government. He therefore went to the police station with his lawyer to find out the name of the complainant and the date of court appearance but they were unable or unwilling to answer him, which is a good technique to leave him with his doubts. , and with a sword of Damocles above his head.
With this chat, what are the themes that you address?
I address everything that may affect me as a Tunisian citizen. I don’t think I’m avoiding any subject. When I started, on January 13, 2011 following Ben Ali’s speech proclaiming freedom of expression to calm the population, I took him at his word. And it worked. My drawings spoke to a lot of people, who reacted and made me feel less alone. The comments were often funnier than my drawings, and that made me feel good. These hilarious comments continue today, which I’m glad about. We support each other psychologically (Nadia Khiari can count on 54,000 friends on Facebook, Editor’s note).
If the Tunisian press is reluctant to publish Willis from Tunis, the collections of your best drawings are published and meet with great success, including the latest “10 years and still alive!” in 2020.
Willis from Tunis is now published by a Tunisian publishing house. ©Elyzad
This book retraces ten years of political life in Tunisia. Someone who knows nothing about it could, through this collection, better understand the situation in the country, better understand how we arrived at today’s situation. In addition, it is a Tunisian publishing house, Elyzad, which published this book. And it works pretty well. Previously, I self-published.
No question for you to set limits for yourself, therefore.
I don’t stop myself from discussing a subject. I only avoid drawing when I’m angry. At this point, the drawing is not very intelligent, much too basic. On the contrary, I try to address all taboo subjects, which are no longer taboo the moment we talk about them. I’m talking about homosexuality, cannabis consumption, subjects which are punishable by three (homosexuality) and two (consumption) years in prison. I still discuss women’s rights, female sexuality, religion and especially the hypocritical religious people who trade in it. At other times, like when an attack occurs, I have neither the heart nor the desire to draw.
Do you post daily?
On the networks, it’s when I feel it; for Siné Mensuel, obviously it’s every month and then for Courrier International, I see my drawings, my freelance work, being published regularly, depending on the news.
As a teacher, how are your drawings perceived by your students?
I’m still part-time at a college, with kids with whom I have a lot of fun, and I also teach press cartooning at Science Po in Menton, one semester a year. With my Tunisian kids aged 13-15, whom I have met for 25 years both in Tunis and in rural areas or in juvenile detention centers where I organize workshops, I notice a great lucidity, a great sense critical. I teach them not to swallow everything that is told to them, to develop critical thinking, to question the established order and then also to laugh. Thanks to the Internet, they keep up to date with everything that is happening in the world. I notice that they know a lot more things than we think. Then I help them decode these messages, listen to what others have to say, construct an argument, and avoid falling into populism and conspiracy.
In these schools, do you have the feeling of being alone in giving such a speech or doing such critical work?
No, I often copy it with history class, for example. Last year, with a colleague, we organized a mini-comics festival and the theme was illegal migration. We made lots of strips with young people on this subject. They have a very critical view of the situation in the country, the poverty, unemployment, but also racism in Europe or elsewhere. In Tunisia itself: there is a nationalist party, in Sfax, which gives a very disgusting speech; and people buy into it. I think that’s what disgusts me the most. Especially since among the migrants who try to cross to Lampedusa, they are not only sub-Saharan Africans; there are also many Tunisians. We have also seen a record number of deaths in the Mediterranean in 2023. Because horrors are happening in my country. Political speeches are very far from the priorities of the population faced with water and electricity cuts, shortages of basic foods: flour, butter, milk, water… We would think we are at war with rationing. It’s getting worse in recent years and of course the president says it’s a conspiracy. The country is also faced with smuggling, and the local mafia is participating in this disaster. The Minister of the Environment and several executives from this ministry and customs were caught doing business with the Italian mafia to bring back and bury containers of waste in Tunisia. It becomes complicated to make caricatures of such caricatured people.
Pollution, corruption, religion, nothing escapes the clutches of Tunisia’s most famous feline. ©Willis from Tunis
Does the fact of choosing a cat as a character help to convey a message?
At first, I didn’t calculate anything. Willis is my cat. I made him say bullshit like an alley cat and when I started to publish my drawings, I told myself that I was also going to use it to hide myself, an old reflex of someone who lives in a dictatorship , but also because like La Fontaine, I found that conveying ideas through the eyes of animals is better accepted than through those of humans. On the other hand, I was very far from Muslim iconoclasm. In the Muslim world, moreover, the cat is a very well-regarded animal. I couldn’t have written what I wrote if I had gotten a dog.
Has Willis evolved over time? And would you consider making it into a comic?
As for his character, I think Willis evolves with me. For comics, I don’t know, maybe, but I prefer the snapshot of the press cartoon. Comics are a long-term job. On the other hand, I am currently writing a book that I illustrate with my drawings, I am not yet considering pure comics.
You mentioned the dictatorship earlier, how would you describe the current Tunisian regime?
There are fewer and fewer mobilizations and demonstrations. People are speaking out, however, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any problems for them afterwards. The president issued a decree granting him full powers. Decree 51 (“dissemination of fake news”) criminalizes defamation, which is added to an existing law, leading to a hefty fine and prison. And if the defamation affects a “government agent or affiliate” – I don’t know what that means – the penalty is doubled. So it calms down. A journalist was recently arrested and imprisoned because he did not want to reveal his sources on a terrorism case.
Are we back to the Ben Ali era?
No Still not. At the time, everyone kept their mouths shut. But we are far from the wind of freedom that blew just after his fall. Moment that changed my life and that of many Tunisians. I was able to do the job I dreamed of. The only way to defend freedom of expression is to practice it every day; and that’s true for everyone. I see it every day in the markets, on café terraces: we always talk about politics. But some people – certainly a minority – become fearful.
“The only way to defend freedom of expression is to practice it every day; and that’s true for everyone.” ©Willis from Tunis
In the meantime, there was Ennahdha?
They did everything to smear artists, journalists, women, human rights defenders. We were supposedly sold to the West, financed by Soros, Mossad… Anything. In 2012, I had an art gallery where I exhibited graffiti artists and graphic designers and I participated in a contemporary art fair in Tunis which was attacked by the Minister of Culture, who filed a complaint against us. The person who was supposed to defend us thus filed a complaint for threatening public order! And my artists were chased in the street by bearded men. So, at the time, we were very scared. Attacking artists is a good way to divert attention from the real problems of Tunisians, which are the catastrophic economy, widespread corruption, etc.
What is the situation of women currently in Tunisia?
Compared to its Constitution, Tunisia remains an exception in the Arab world; according to Elle, men and women are equal in rights and duties without any discrimination. That’s the theory, it’s beautiful, it’s pretty, it’s nice. In reality, it is very hard, like everywhere in the world; machismo is very present, and so are feminicides. One in two women are victims of violence in Tunisia, according to figures from the Ministry of Women. Laws, promulgated in 2018, protect women against all types of violence, physical, moral, economic, street harassment, bad image peddled by the media or . They have to file a complaint but women do not necessarily have the means to pay a lawyer, and then there are family pressures and those of society. All the education has to be done. What interests our president are the farmers he goes to see once a year at Women’s Days and with whom he poses. It’s cinema. We see in their blasé look that they are not fooled.
In the city, is their situation better?
Yes, it’s better anyway. Access to studies is guaranteed for them, there are more women graduates from major schools than men.
And they access managerial positions?
Ah! no, still, don’t mess around either! Even if more and more women are fighting to reach positions of responsibility. But it’s not given like that. The president had appointed a woman head of government (Najla Bouden, Editor’s note), everyone applauded. This girl, I don’t even know the sound of her voice, she was just there to agree with what the president was saying. I’m not questioning his skills but in terms of image, it’s submission, and I don’t like that at all. She was replaced by a gentleman (Ahmed Hachani, Editor’s note), just as blessed as she is. This guy gave a speech in Algeria where he referred to our president as his “darling president”.
How long have you been a member of Cartooning for Peace/Dessins pour la Paix?
Since 2012 or 2013, and I have also been a member of its board of directors for three years. Several Tunisian cartoonists are also members, such as Dlog (Nadia Dhab) or Tawfiq Omrane who live in Tunisia; and Z and Mykaïa who live in France.
Have cartoons always existed in Tunisia?
Before 2011, this did not exist with this much freedom. There were cartoonists from the time of the Protectorate, like my favorite, Henri-Gustave “Abdou-‘l-Karim” Jossot, who published in the anti-colonial press. At independence, there will be press cartoonists but quickly crushed by the power and censored. Currently, few still publish in newspapers, but I think it is above all for economic reasons, the newspapers not wanting to pay. A Tunisian newspaper will publish drawings by foreign cartoonists, without paying royalties. So we hold exhibitions, we do workshops and we come to defend designers in danger, including in Tunisia.
“Decree 51 – ‘dissemination of fake news’ – criminalizes defamation. And if it affects a ‘government agent or affiliate’ – I don’t know what that means – the penalty is doubled.” ©Willis from Tunis
Does your cat have a family?
At the beginning, he had a grandmother, like Madame Sarfati, a lecherous octogenarian who only talked about sex, which went down very well with the general public. It made everyone laugh. But the arrival of Kaïs [Saïed] in power (first time the president’s name is mentioned), it broke her libido, she no longer expresses herself much. But I have readers who ask me to make a collection of her formulas, especially since Mamie Bouna is a play on words, “Mibouna” in Tunisian dialect meaning nymphomaniac.
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