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Bizerte, A Forgotten Battle

"On October 15, I saw the French boats discreetly take off. Nothing was happening in town", says Rachid Bakkay, a journalist from Bizerte. Despite this symbolic departure basically being a non-event, it is now a date that is commemorated, while the protagonists of the battle of July 1961 are more or less forgotten.
31 March 2021
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Created by
Inkyfada Podcast
Translation and Voice-Acting
Dhia Bousselmi
Article
Haïfa Mzalouat
Mixing, Sound Design & Sound Editing
Oussema Gaidi, Yassine Kawana
Recording
Bochra Triki

[This article was translated and read in Tunisian]

July 19, 1961. French planes fly low over Bizerte. On the ground, Tunisian soldiers and volunteers are getting ready to attack the military base that is occupied by French soldiers. In town, the locals are not yet aware of the battle that is about to commence.

Five years after Tunisian independence, Habib Bourguiba gave General de Gaulle an ultimatum: the French army would have until midnight July 19 to leave Tunisian territory. However, France did not intend to leave Bizerte, which served as a strategic point in the Mediterranean, especially in connection to the war in Algeria.

The offensive began at night. Well trained and well equipped, the French army quickly gained the upper hand against Tunisia, which consequently suffered heavy losses. Abdelhamid Riahi, 22 years old at the time, was sent to fight in this city that was unknown to him. Although 60 years have gone by, memories of the battle are still vivid in his mind.

" It was terrifying, there were injured people everywhere, people screaming and crying. More people were dead than alive. I was very lucky to survive the battle", says the veteran.

The defeat was bitter for Tunisia. According to official numbers, more than 600 Tunisians (and even thousands according to other sources) were killed. On the other side (still according to official sources), France reported less than 30 casualties. The French soldiers maintained their position in the base and ultimately left Bizerte silently on 15 October 1963.

Like many others, Abdelhamid Riahi is still waiting on some recompense, both from Tunisia and France, and for a tribute worthy of the battle that he had to fight. " I fought, but everything has now been forgotten."

ABOUT

Inkyfada Podcast is the first platform entirely dedicated to original Tunisian podcasts, and was conceived by Inkyfada media in collaboration with the in-house research and development laboratory, InkyLab.
Inkyfada joined the global podcast boom in 2017, when the team produced the first Tunisian audio documentary, diving deep into the belly of the El Kamour struggle taking place in the desert.
Since then, Inkyfada Podcast has produced a wide variety of documentaries, investigations, and podcast series, as well as articles accompanied by music; covering a multitude of contemporary issues in order to offer an immersive and alternative podcast experience.
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In addition to the permanent team, Inkyfada podcast works closely with various journalists, artists, illustrators, musicians and other content creators in order to diversify the platform and support artistic creativity.
These podcasts differ from traditional radiophonic content in that the applied production and editing process is more akin to cinematographic techniques, in addition to being web-based, downloadable and accessible on demand.
Additionally, Inkyfada Podcast uniquely offers subtitles in French, Arabic and English for all audio content, the majority of which is recorded in Tunisian or in the preferred language of the speaker in question.

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