May 13, 2020. Oussema, the sound engineer at inkyfada, is finishing the final details of the fifth episode of the series "Where were you on January 14?". There, inbetween a couple of final adjustments, he begins to recall his own story of January 14.
The demonstrations that led up to it, the increasing awareness of the dangers involved, the adrenalin of the struggle and the solidarity between comrades - everything converged against a single enemy: the Police, a.k.a. the armed right hand of the already fragile system.
Oussema recalls a day, shortly after the self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi on December 17 2010. Social media networks were exploading, new pages were created to relay information that the regime was trying to hide.
The first calls to demonstrate on January 14 were launched by a group of bloggers, forcing the Tunisian Labour Union to rally and claim the demonstration. That day, Oussema was on the front line by the Ministry of the Interior, coming face to face with the enemy.
A verbal altercation with two policemen ensued, but was strangely interrupted by one of the officers breaking into tears. Moments later, Tunis was transformed into a battlefield, with lootings, trenches, retreats, victories, wounds and victims.
The fear of dying was unmistakable. But to die from what? Asphyxiation by tear gas? Being struck by a bullet? A few days earlier, he had witnessed something so unprecedentedly violent: a young man being struck by a bullet and falling straight to the ground.
10 years later, whilst creating this podcast, Oussema realises that what he had witnessed was the death of Helmi Manai, "martyr" of the Tunisian Revolution.
Being prompted to remember through previous episodes, Oussema finds himself ready to start editing, arranging and mixing his own personal account of January 14.
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. Whilst exclusively offering audio content, the Inkyfada Podcast team upholds the same core values and principles of inkyfada.com, and is committed to producing high quality content though a dynamic and meticulous production process. 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.