Swed Ellil – Blackness of the night
Translated to English by Hella Grichi
Edited by Znous
Synopsis
“Swed Ellil” is a narrative of the history of slavery in north Africa and a solemn stare at the reality of persistent racism against black people in Tunisia.
Lyrics:
Listen here
Let me tell you a thing or two
My heart is overflowing in a country consumed by racism
Come here
I’m not gonna judge you for your color or from where you hail
This gorilla-brown people thinks it’s a lion
Listen here
Let’s talk a bit about history
My heart is overflowing in a country blinded by revisionism
Come here
I’m not inventing things or hiding anything from you
This is the truth that the winners chose not to write
We were living together
My first grandfathers never stole anything from anyone
Then Arabs and Europeans came
and took those of us who survived
We crossed the desert in heavy chains
And until this moment, despair still runs in my blood
They brought us here and called us slaves
And my grandfather was sold on a scale like a animal
Come here
You might have forgotten but I didn’t forget
I don’t bury my head in the sand, ashamed
Listen here
When you call me “Ka7la/Blacky” (1) – to me it’s the color with which I live
But I know your inner sickness and your the dirty lies you tell yourself
Come here
Who deceived you and told you that you originate from Beys (Tunisian nobelty/royalty)?
Tunisia was governed by only a couple of families
And before that they invaded you the same way they invaded us
in the name of religion
You think you slept one night only to wake up the next morning as a Muslim?
I don’t think so, you know-it-all
Your hand is exposed, the cards you’re dealt are shit
Don’t tell me anything, don’t you explain
I’ll fucking slaughter you if you call me a servant (2)
one more time
Hypocrites, racists
Living in an exile of ignorance, generation after generation
Bright skinned and gullible brats
With the expression “my nigga” on your tongue!?
You worthless rapper!!
Night! oh blackness of the night
You and me, we’re the same…
Speak of what happened to/at both of us
Speak and don’t be afraid
Oh night, the burden’s so heavy
You and me and history…
Speak of what happened to both of us
Speak and don’t hide a thing
Outro (audio recording of a TV interview where a young black person speaks about his exposure to racism in Tunisia by the Tunisian community)
“I experienced many racist expressions and so-called “jokes” in Tunisia.
“Wssif”, “cleans the blood” (3), they look at me in a certain way
and also say “don’t come near me”, things like that.
It’s as if someone is stabbing me with a knife in my heart.”
(1): “Ka7la” is a slur used against dark-skinned/black
Tunisians posing as a nickname
(2): “Wssif”: Another dangerously normalized slur against
dark-skinned/black Tunisians, originating from the Arabic word
meaning “servant”
(3): To say that a black person “cleans someone’s blood”
means that intercourse with a black person has medicinal and
healing powers, further feeding into very pejorative
sexualization/voodoo stereotypes.
