Habib Bourguiba

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In the beginning of the 1930s, Habib Bourguiba, feeling the effects of colonial inequalities, decided to join the main political party of the Tunisian national movement, the Destour, alongside his brother M'hamed and his mates Bahri Guiga, Tahar Sfar and Mahmoud El Materi. Revolted by the festivities of the 30th eucharistic congress, held from 7 to 11 May 1930 in Carthage, and which he considered as a "violation of islamic lands", the young nationalists found it necessary to get involved. With the upcoming preparations for the 50th anniversary celebration of the protectorate and the scheduled visit of French president Paul Doumer, the young nationalists decided to act. Bourguiba denounced the rejoicing, in the newspaper Le Croissant, ran by his cousin Abdelaziz El Aroui, as a "humiliating affront to the dignity of the Tunisian people to whom he recalls the loss of freedom and independence". Therefore, the leaders of the Destour party gathered in emergency at Orient Hotel, in February 1931, where it was decided to found an endorsing committee to the newspaper of Chedly Khairallah, La Voix du Tunisien, which switched from weekly to daily and has among its editors the young nationalist team.

Bourguiba multiplied his denunciations of the attempts aiming the Tunisian personality but also the beylical decree system and Europeans' advantages in his numerous articles in L'Étendard tunisien and La Voix du Tunisien, claiming Tunisian access to all administrative positions. Soon, he described his own definition of the protectorate, challenging its existence, not just its effects like the elder nationalists did, by writing on 23 February 1931 that "for a healthy strong nation that international competitions and a momentary crisis forced into accepting the tutelage of a stronger state, the contact of a more advanced civilization determines in it a salutary reaction. A true regeneration occurs in it and, through judicious assimilation of the principles and methods of this civilization, it inevitably come to realize in stages its final emancipation".

Thanks to the originality with which Bourguiba, Sfar, Guiga and El Materi addressed the problems, La Voix du Tunisien became a very popular newspaper. Their new reasoning attracted not only the interest of public opinion but also that of French preponderants, powerful businesspersons and great land owners, who had a strong influence on the colonial administration. Opposed to the daring work of the young team, they achieved the censorship of all nationalist papers through the Residence (the colonial government) on 12 May 1931. A few days later, Habib and M'hamed Bourguiba, Bahri Guiga, Salah Farhat and El Materi were all prosecuted. However, they succeeded in obtaining the adjournment of their trial until 9 June 1931. On that day, numerous people came to show their support to the charged team getting their trial to be postponed once again. In response to this decision, Resident-general François Manceron, eager to put an end to the nationalist issue, achieved to outwit discord between Khairallah, the owner of the paper and the young nationalists. A conflict occurred between both parties about the management of La Voix du Tunisien which led to the team eager to take charge of the paper. However, because of the refusal of Khairallah, they decided to resign from the daily paper.

Despite the split-up, the two Bourguibas, El Materi, Guiga and Bahri kept in touch and decided to found their own paper thanks to the aid of pharmacist Ali Bouhajeb. Therefore, on 1 November 1932, was published the first edition of L'Action Tunisienne which had as redactional committee the young team joined by Bouhageb and Béchir M'hedhbi. Thus, Bourguiba devoted his first article to budget. Soon disappointed by the resigned moderation of their elders, the young nationalists unleashed and took the defence of the lower classes. Bourguiba, who saw his popularity increase thanks to his writings, frequented often intellectual circles whom he had just met. He showed both clarity and accuracy in his writings, which revealed a talented polemicist, thanks to his strong legal expertise. Furthermore, he had worked on demonstrating the colonial exploitation mechanism by ascending from effects to causes, while showing a great interest in social phenomenons, inviting the workers and students to organize and thus, defend themselves better against exploitation. In addition, he encouraged the defense and safeguard of the Tunisian personality.

With the economic crisis deepening and the resigned moderation of the nationalists, Bourguiba and his fellow mates reckoned that a good cause would be necessary enough to rebuild the nationalist movement on new basis by choosing new methods of action. In February 1933, when M'hamed Chenik, banker and chairman of the Tunisian credit union, got into trouble with the Residence, Bourguiba is the only one to defend him., reckoning that this issue could permit him to rally the bourgeois class, considered as collaborator with France, and unify the country around nationalism. Nevertheless, it only ended up with the resignation of Guiga, M'hedhi and Bouhajeb. Thus, Bourguiba abandoned his lawyer work to concentrate on running the journal by his own. But the occasion to express himself soon turned up: The Tunisian naturalization issue, which was a popular case among the nationalists during the 1920s reappeared, in the start of 1933, with protests in Bizerte against the burial of a naturalized in a Muslim cemetery. Bourguiba decided to react and unleash a campaign to support the protests in L'Action Tunisienne which will soon be reprised by numerous nationalist newspapers, denouncing an attempt to Frenchify the "whole Tunisian people".

The firm stance of Bourguiba led him to acquire a strong popularity among the nationalist circles. Furthermore, the congress held by the Destour which took place on 12 and 13 May 1933 in Tunis, ended in favor of the young team of L'Action tunisienne, elected unanimously in the executive party committee. This strong position among the movement permitted them to influence party decision, eager to unify all the factions among a nationalist front. In the meantime, due to the ongoing naturalist issue in Tunis, the Residence decided the suspension of every nationalist paper on 31 May, including L'Action Tunisienne but also the prohibition of Destour activity. However, the French government convinced that Manceron had acted tardily in taking expected measures, replaced him by Marcel Peyrouton on 29 July 1933. Bourguiba deprived of his freedom of speech in this repression atmosphere and trapped inside the Destour moderate policy, aspired to get his autonomy back.

On 8 August, the occasion to express his views arrived when incidents began in Monastir following the burial of a naturalized child by force in a Muslim graveyard. Soon, law enforcement and population started a fight, which led Bourguiba to convince certain Monastirians to choose him as their lawyer. Furthermore, he led them to protest to the bey, on 4 September. The party leadership seeing this as an occasion to get rid of a new form of activism they dislike, decided to reprimand the young nationalist. Bourguiba, who considered the Destour and its leaders as an obstacle to his ambitions, decided to resign from the party on 9 September. Soon enough, he had learned from this experience. This success obtained by popular violent uprising showed the failure of the Destour's methods, consisting mainly of petitions. Only violence of determined groups could lead the Residence to step back and negotiate the solutions; this was his course of action until 1956.

Source

• Honorary Degree from Cheikh Anta Diop University
• Honorary Degree from Cairo University
• Honorary Degree from Lebanese University
• Nelson Mandela Supreme Fighter Prize
• Order of Independence