Podcast | Where were you on January 14?

Throughout the year leading up to the tenth anniversary of the revolution, Inkyfada takes a look back on the events of January 14, 2011 in Tunis, through the personal accounts of individuals who were there. An alternative documentation of contemporary history based on many different perspectives.

Episode 9: Behind the Walls of the Interior

the Editorial Team
| 14 September 2020 | 30 minutes
January 14, 2011. Malek is on Habib Bourguiba Avenue but has no idea of what's happening on the ground. He has been imprisoned for days in the Ministry of Interior holding cells. Malek, a young student and opponent of the Ben Ali regime, describes the cellars of the Ministry, the police violence and the notion of losing time. He sees dozens of demonstrators arrested, beaten and held like cattle, but he also hears the panic of the police, altercations, detonations. On January 18, he is finally freed and discovers a transformed country.

Episode 8: Trojan Horse

the Editorial Team
| 27 August 2020 | 24 minutes

January 14, 2011. Haikel Hazgui - or "Nash", as his friends call him - flees from the authority of his family to confront the authority of Ben Ali's regime. Between Jebeniana, his hometown, and Tunis, he follows the actions of the revolt closely. In this episode, Nash recounts the "forgotten battles," such as that of Jean Jaurès, a few meters from Habib Bourguiba Avenue. Upon his return to Jebeniana, he also joins an unprecedented experience of self-management and participatory democracy, which came to fill the political void after the fall of power.

Episode 7: Interference on the Airwaves

the Editorial Team
| 14 July 2020 | 22 minutes
Rabeb Srairi recently became known from the series "Nouba."  In January 2011, she began working for the radio station Shems FM, then owned by Ben Ali's daughter. Soon after, she learned what journalism is really about when covering what turned out to be one of the most significant events in Tunisian contemporary history. After the January 14 demonstration, in the radio station's premises, as well as in the Carthage Palace, a transformation is taking place. Rabeb looks back on this experience which changed her view of things in multiple ways. 

Episode 6: a Battlefield

the Editorial Team
| 14 June 2020 | 22 minutes
May 13, 2020. Oussema, the sound engineer at Inkyfada, finishes the final details of the fifth episode of the series. He starts to share snippets of his January 14: the demonstrations that preceded, the awareness of the danger, the communal adrenalin rushes, the solidarity between comrades. Everything united against a single enemy - the police. Tunis was transformed into a battlefield, with its spoils of war, its trenches, its victories, its wounds and its victims. In this sixth episode, Oussema share his experience, while editing, mixing, and doing the sound design for his own story. 

Episode 5: Open Doors

the Editorial Team
| 14 May 2020 | 24 minutes

January 14, 2011. Like thousands of others, Bakhta El Cadhi, a trade unionist and feminist activist, and her daughter Haifa Jmour head to the protests. When police violence breaks out, they are separated and obligated to take refuge in different apartments in the city center, just a few dozen meters from each other. But behind the doors of these apartments, their experiences of this historic day will greatly diverge.

Episode 4: a Police Station on Fire

La rédaction
| 14 April 2020 | 33 minutes
January 14, 2011. A house in La Goulette which serves as HQ for the Revolution, a dozen friends, and a protest to prepare for. At 11am, they head towards the city center. Separated for hours and after many twists and turns, they each find their way back to La Goulette. When they arrive, the police station next to their house is in flames, and the group reluctantly decides to put the fire out. More than nine years later, digitally connected across different countries, Ghazi, Marion, Virginia, Wissal, Boumjida, Tarek, Juliette, Hayder, Charlene and Harzalli remember this unforgettable day and night. In the midst of the COVID-19 epidemic, they also compare this current moment to the past.
Display more content
inkyfada.com is a project of the association Al Khatt