"A Slave Between Empires: A Transimperial History of North Africa"M’hamed Oualdi presents the story of a manumitted-slave-turned-dignitary in the Ottoman province of Tunis and the posthumous conflicts over his estate as a case study to deconstruct the modern history of Tunisia and the wider Maghreb region. M’hamed Oualdi’s A Slave Between Empires: A Transimperial History of North Africa explores the life of Husayn and the posthumous conflicts over his estate as a case study to rediscover the transnational dimensions of the history of Tunisia and its neighbours. Oualdi maintains that far from being a fragment of French/European history, the history of colonial North Africa is shaped by several trans-imperial currents involving North Africans, Middle Eastern Ottoman subjects, Italians and other African-Mediterranean societies. The story of his life and that of his estate reveal the extent to which Tunisian, North African, French, Italian and Ottoman histories are deeply intertwined. In addition, exploring the history of Tunisia during Husayn’s life and after his death exposes several areas forgotten or underestimated in the grand narrative.

Source: The North Africa Journal November 09, 2020 12:05 UTC