Urban textile traditions of Tunisia

African Arts, Autumn, 2004 by Christopher Spring, Julie Hudson

When we first visited Mahdia, in 1997, we briefly met Karim, who had been approached by the museum--which was planning its opening displays--to sell some of his equipment, including an old, French-made machine for winding silk thread onto bobbins. "They don't seem to understand that I use this every day," he lamented. "It's part of my living." When we looked around the newly opened museum the following year, there was an elaborate bobbin-winding device sitting in the immaculate, marble-floored gallery, surrounded by its own little corded fence. It appeared that some agreement had been reached.

A few hundred yards from the museum with its excellent displays, Karim's shop was doing a lively local trade. Although it was not yet high season, most of Karim's weavers were hard at work and his father was busy winding silk thread onto bobbins using a converted electric drill. Down the street, Karim's brand new "boutique" was about to open almost directly opposite the ONAT shop, which sells official Tunisian material culture to the tourists. There was no sign of anything that Karim weaves in there at the time, but that may already have changed. Karim has been researching the old patterns once used by weavers in Mahdia and has woven samples with color combinations quite unlike anything else his workshops produce. ONAT is interested. Karim is modest about his achievement, but clearly excited about its potential. This may be a way to expand his business into a new market and to satisfy his own creativity, while at the same time remaining true to what he undoubtedly sees as his responsibility in maintaining living traditions that are not yet ready to be forced into the historical niche suggested by the displays in the local museum.

[This article was accepted for publication in June 2004.]

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