Abstract :
[en] This paper stems from a study we have conducted concerning bodies performances in the protest assemblies in Tunisia since 17 December 2010. The latter relied on a qualitative analysis through a discourse analysis of the events as reported in the Tunisian press. In addition, we conducted in-depth interviews with militants who participated in the protests. Our research also relies on the phenomenological approach as described by Maurice Merleau-Ponty. We have taken five examples of protest assemblies in post-revolutionary Tunisia. We argue that they constitute a temporal and spatial intensification of the protest rallies that the country has witnessed in the post-revolutionary context. They also reflect the social, economic, and political transformations that society, in general, has seen. They are as follows: - The protests from 17 December 2010 to 14 January 2011 in Habib Bourguiba Avenue. / -the two sit-ins in the Kasbah (1) and (2) in January and February 2011. / The assemblies of the "conquest of the clock tower" as it is called in Tunisia on 27 March 2012. /- The sit-in of Rahil which took place in July - August 2013.
In this paper, we suggest understanding "what it means to belong?" through the narratives provided by the militants participating in the proposed protests.
We noticed that there are some dynamics of belonging through: the way these activists and militants remembered the assemblies, how they experienced these events, how they felt in remembering them, how they described the different forms of their participation, and related to their current economic, social, and political conditions.
We observed that belonging to a narrative, 'a people', or 'a space', changed according to how activists acted at the protest, how they remembered the event, and how they felt during the interviews period (2020-2022). We, therefore, consider, for various reasons, that belonging is a process and a performance.
