After the Spring: A Story of Tunisian Youth

by Hélène Aldeguer

In 2011 one of the biggest political events in the world, the Arab Spring, swept across North Africa. But what came next? As the world moves on, four young Tunisians must cope with the reality of an uncertain future in this original graphic novel.

Winner of the Raymond Leblanc Foundation's Belgian Prize, and translated into English for the first time, Helene Aldeguer delivers an authentic look at the disillusioned state of young people in Tunisia after the events of the Arab Spring illustrated in stark, beautiful black-and-white.

Two years after the "Jasmine Revolution," Tunisia is unstable and facing economic hardship. Saif, Aziz, Meriem, and Chayma are among those who feel abandoned by the developing turmoil surrounding the government. Saif goes to college but worries about his younger brothers; Aziz struggles to find steady employment hoping to gain approval from Meriem's family, while Meriem attends law school; and Chayma, after watching a man set himself on fire, considers emigration to France. As the situation becomes more serious and calls to activism in the streets get louder, each must consider what direction their future lies.

Helene Aldeguer spent time in Tunis in October, 2014 covering the parliamentary elections and living among the youth of the city and working alongside Tunisian journalists from Nawaat , an independent collective blog that provided a public platform for dissident voices and was blocked in Tunisia until 2011. Her work focuses on political and social issues related mainly to the Arab-Muslim world and includes the book Un Chant d' Israel-Palestine, une histoire francaise with writer Alain Gresh and illustrations for the website Orient XXI, which covers news events in countries from North Africa to the Middle East. She was selected for the Young Talent Contest at the Angoulême International Comics Festival in 2016 for her work, "2011-2016, Resume of a Revolution."

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, History, Nonfiction, Politics, Tunisia, Historical

136 pages, Hardcover

First published August 23, 2018

Reviews

[merixien · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dürüst olmak gerekirse tanıtım yazısına ve biraz da amazon puanına kanıp aldım. Maalesef biraz hayal kırıklığı oldu.

Kitabın ana konusu Yasemin Devrimi’nin iki yıl sonrasında Tunus’ta hala devam eden kötü yönetim ve ekonomik zorluklarla hayata başlamaya çalışan gençler. Maalesef devrim ülkenin ana toplum yapısında pek fazla değişikliğe sebep olmadığı için gençlerin hayatlarındaki işsizlik, gelecek kaygısı ve ümitsizlik olduğu gibi duruyor. Devrim sonrası Ennahdha hareketinin yükselişi, muhalif milletvekillerinin öldürülmesi ve kötüye giden ekonomiyle birlikte devrimin unuttuğu gençlere -kitapta Fransa özelinde olsa da- Batı da sırtını dönüyor. Kitap farklı şartlardan gelen dört gencin hayatı üzerinden ülkenin düştüğü çıkmazı anlatmayı planlamış -sanırım-. İşte bu kadar noktada beklenti ile kitabı verdikleri bir ayrıma giriyor. Çünkü oldukça güçlü ve geniş bir yelpazede yazılabilecek bir alanda sizi birbirine tam olarak bağlanmayan, aslında her biri çok önemli olmasına karşın yaratılan karmaşada anlamsızlaşan hikayecikler karşılıyor. Muhtemelen -çizimlerinden de anladığım kadarıyla- hikayeyi oldukça sade ve net bir şekilde anlatmak istemiş ancak bu daha çok özensiz bir derlemeye dönüşmüş. Bunda sanırım temel sebep; Helena Aldeguer her ne kadar Orta-Doğu ve Kuzey Afrika üzerine uzman olsa da kitabı Tunus’ta geçirdiği bir aylık bir sürecin ardından hazırlamış. Yani okuduğunuzda Yasemin Devrimi’ne dair bildiklerinizden daha farklı bir şey eklenmediği gibi içeriden bir gözün düşüncelerini takip edememenin eksikliğini de yaşıyorsunuz.

Arap Baharı’nı başlatan, sonrasında yapılan seçimlerin bedelini ağır ödeyen, iktidar tarafından baskıya uğrayan ancak buna rağmen daha güzel bir yarınlar için başlarını kaldırıp dik durmaya ve sokaklarda çoğalmaya çalışan bir gençliği keşke daha iyi bir çizer ve yazarın elinden okusaydım diye düşündüm. Muhtemelen dilimize çevrilmeyecektir ama yine de benim gibi hikayesine kapılıp merak eden olursa diye ön uyarımı yapmak istedim.Benzer bir şekilde daha siyasi ve benzer coğrafya dertlerini grafik roman olarak okumak isterseniz; Baobab Yayınları’ndan çıkan Mana Neyastani’nin İran Usulü Metamorfoz kitabını tavsiye ederim.

[Rod Brown · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some Tunisian twentysomethings flounder about in their personal lives as their country remains in turmoil a couple years after the revolution of the Arab Spring. The work of a French woman who visited Tunisia for a month, it's one of those unsatisfying stories that doesn't make much sense without reading all the background information provided in the back of the book, which is written in deathly dull prose. At the same time, the amount of political background the author still manages to shove into the main story steals screen time from the characters and my ability to learn much about them. It doesn't help that the art is simplistic and vague, making it a bit difficult to tell people apart.

The end result is just one giant muddle: a snapshot of young folks and a country caught in a moment where everything is up in the air and nothing is really resolved.

"So we had a revolution. What do you want to do tonight?"
"I don't know, what you do you want to do?"
"I don't know."

[Rick · Rating 3 out of 5]

While this was interesting, I was a little disappointed. It is a fascinating slice-of-life look at events in Tunisia in the aftermath of the “Arab Spring”, but the art was a bit distracting. It was difficult to easily differentiate characters and most of the background information for any reader not familiar with Tunisian politics and recent history was located in the back after the story was over. The characterizations were very thin, but the characters themselves were complex with many different points of view and changing perspectives. So there was a lot of interesting things being said, but it wasn’t really being presented in a very engaging manner.

[Laurie · Rating 2 out of 5]

It pains me to rate this novel only 2.5 stars. A female authored graphic novel and one in translation was a must read for me. Even though I saw relatively low ratings, I was determined to give it a try. The drawings are rather basic and many character's heads are badly drawn. Giving a head in profile some depth so it doesn't look completely flat must not be easy, but Aldeguer struggled with that perspective. It's obvious that simplicity is her style but too simplistic did not work for such weighty topics. The characters argue about a revolutionary movement in Tunisia and advocate a complete change in the government. There are protests with police responding with tear gas. The flat, simple faces needed more expression to adequately portray the range of emotion in such tense scenes.

I learned some about the Arab spring in Tunisia which I knew nothing about, but I wish the timeline included at the end which gave some explanation of events leading up to and including the protests had been at the beginning of the book. Most people outside of North Africa probably don't know enough about people and events being referred to throughout the book, and reading the timeline at the beginning would have been a tremendous help.

[~:The N:~ · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too flat and bland for my liking and I don't like the illustrations either. Sad.

[Carol Tilley · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Bryan Parys]

rating this wouldn't be quite fair. it's a fascinating and necessary look into post-arab spring life, particularly for the age group that is just now taking over as the culture-makers and workforce. there was a significant amount of footnote context to take in, which distracted from the story, but that's an issue not with the writer, but with a western audience that knows so little of this cultural context (i put myself very much in this space, and was thus grateful for the education).

[Dakota Morgan · Rating 2 out of 5]

After the Spring offers a gloomy, if accurate look at Tunisia after the overthrow of a dictatorship. The new government is corrupt, there are no jobs, the outlook is dismal. Did anything really change? Revolt is still on the tip of everyone's tongue.

The book would have been helped by a clearer throughline and improved art. It reads like a pastiche, with numerous, nearly identical characters floating through the pages, all glum and underemployed. You don't get a sense of the country's history or a big picture of current events until the endnotes. For "a day in the life"-style read of a post-revolutionary country, I didn't expect to find myself so bored.

[Katra · Rating 2 out of 5]

Insightful, but lacking structure. It gave a good understanding of ongoing tensions, but ultimately, the story didn't go anywhere.

[Meepelous · Rating 4 out of 5]

Today's pick is After The Spring: A Story of Tunisian Youth by Hélène Aldeguer. Please pardon my horrendous French pronunciation. Depicting events from 2013, this volume was originally published in French in 2018. Translated to English by Edward Gauvin, After the Spring was subsequently published in 2019 by IDW Comics.

I picked this volume up because of my general interest in reviewing more comics from and about Arab countries.

Content notes for police violence, tear gas, guns, self emulation, and drowned migrants.

Keywords that came to mind: disenfranchised youth, protest, corruption, imprisonment, marriage and migration.

First off I'll admit to not knowing very much at all about Tunisia before picking up this book and I'm certainly still far from an expert even now. This is also written by a French born author/illustrator, although she has worked as a journalist in Tunisia and seems to pride herself on coverage of the Arab world. Although she also doesn't talk about herself at all in this volume, which is not my preference.

So I might be completely off base but I found this book pretty interesting and liked it. It also seemed to my outsider perspective that characters were deeply humanized. Looking a bit further afield then just goodreads for English language reviews, I would say there is a fair amount of critique and dislike for the volume but it seems to entirely centre around people's feelings about the art, lack of big picture context and perhaps being a bit dull. Which I think is fair, and I would encourage all my viewers to take my enjoyment with a grain of salt as your mileage may vary, but is not the same thing as being inaccurate. To her credit, we do get a political outline and timeline of events at the very end. But let's dig a bit deeper.

The art style, as you can see, is a dramatic black and white that leans on the simpler side. Definitely something I expect to rub many people the wrong way. I tend to like dramatic black and white styles; there were some expressive page layouts that I enjoyed and I thought Hélène used irregular pattern in a really interesting way.

The structure of the volume that similarly came under fire was a very slice of life look at ordinary people. Which is something that I really value when I'm reading books about people around the globe (in contrast to the exotification and/or demonization I feel is pretty common in English language coverage of Arab countries) and certainly biased me in favor of this volume. We certainly live completely different lives, but the issues of state violence, using drug law to imprison political dissidents, and economic hopelessness are themes that certainly reverberate through the lives of the people around me too. We even had a nod to the way militaries can target poor youth for enlistment.

Looking at Hélène Aldeguer as we already mentioned she worked in tunisia between 2014 and 2020. She's created a number of graphic novels including ones about Tunisian youth in France, the relationship between France and Israel/Palestine, protesting in France as well as illustrating an introduction to Islam. Although none of these other titles  appear to have been translated into English yet.

Looking at the intersecting identities as I always do.

I would say that place, class, sexuality and gender played a fairly large roll in the story. The parts about city vs small town and rampant unemployment were much more highly focused on then in many titles I read. Sexuality and gender were still very heterosexual and cisgender but I appreciated this window into the difficulties that youth face both culturally and economically pursuing the kinds of pairing off relationships that are still expected of them.

Either race or racially adjacent, we do have some discussion of citizenship, immigration and refugees. Including the discovery of refugees drowned on a beach.

I did not make note of anything around ability and disability.

Wrapping things up, I think I really liked it which translates to four stars.

[Ty · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was initially excited to find a comic at the library about the aftereffects of the Tunisian revolution, but then annoyed to realize that it's by a French person who spent exactly one month in the country. Like, I lived there for six months and can't imagine believing that would qualify me to write a book about it. That said, I thought Aldeguer did a surprisingly good job at depicting a few fairly nuanced examples of Tunisian social political perspectives. The art is simple but well-suited to this type of work, and Aldeguer is good at writing dialogue (or Edward Gauvin is good at translating it). As a snapshot of one specific year (2013) it's pretty effective, but a lot has changed since then. I'm also not sure who this is intended for - anyone somewhat familiar with Tunisia's political context won't learn much here, and anyone unfamiliar with it will likely have a hard time understanding much that's discussed. Showing us a wider swath of time - like maybe the 3 years before the revolution and the 3 years after it, rather than just one random year 2 years after it - would obviously be a completely different project and a much more ambitious one, but I think it would've made a more informative and more impactful book.

[Christine · Rating 2 out of 5]

A large cast of characters and incredibly simple art with few distinguishing characteristics made this hard to follow. At the back there is a prose chunk of information about the timeline, but no mention at the start or during the graphic novel that it exists.
Even if it was easy to tell which character was which, it would be hard to follow the plot which has 1-2 footnotes on some pages, but fails to explain the majority of events or context within the story itself.
Better framing of actually relaying relevant information, providing characters with individual designs or personalities, and plot progression beyond people being unhappy with corruption and unemployment after a dictatorship would have made this a compelling read. As it was, it was just a disappointing and bland graphic novel that fails to inform or evoke emotion.

Unfortunately, a disappointment for Women in Translation month, though that’s on me for grabbing it from the library without checking reviews first.

I’ve added the author to my list of authors I wouldn’t read again, because the confusion caused by the art and the poor framing with an info dump in post are issues I imagine would be true across stories.

[Shallowreader VaVeros · Rating 3 out of 5]

There was an overwhelming sense of sadness and hopelessness in this story illustrating the lives of these four young Tunisians who are trying to grapple with the changes in the country since the Arab Spring.

[Lucille]

Felt a little simple yet to me. Simultaneously not enough information to understand the story, and too much political information to be confined to only 136 pages of a graphic novel. I imagine it is better if you already have a robust understanding of Tunisian politics leading up to and after the Arab spring. I wish we got a bit more with any of the characters.

[René Paquin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cette BD documentaire raconte la jeunesse tunisienne des années 2010, les affrontements politiques, le bouillonnement d’une société déchirée entre les mouvements religieux radicaux et le spectre de la dictature. Tout y passe: manque de travail, horizon bouché, l’exil de la jeunesse (à l’intérieur du pays mais aussi vers la France). Le dessin aurait pu être différent afin de permettre de mieux identifier les personnages, ce qui est souvent difficile. Mais le portrait de la jeunesse tunisienne est fort et révélateur d’une société qui se cherche. Excellente BD!

[Bee · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was really hard to tell who is who from the art but it doesn’t matter in the end because you don’t know enough about any of the people to care, nor have you any idea (just by reading the book) about what happened in Tunusia. It is vague and so didactic as if it was written by someone who struggled to understand what happened and struggled even more to express that. I would have given it a one-star rating but I save that for offensive books and this is jusy bland and nothing-y.

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ms. Aldeguer gives us a snapshot of “After the Tunisian Spring” in 2013-14, after the conservative Islamic party took over the national government.

The snapshots in graphic novel format include intertwining lives of four young adults: two women and two men. You learn how their social/financial class limits their options in different ways.

Due to the size and scope of the book, we understand the 4 protagonists’ general outlook and motivations, and how their daily lives are affected by the Ennahdha movement, which “becomes a conservative Islamist political party.”(p131).

Accessibility for the general reader:
1) Definitions are included throughout to make the non-Tunisian reader aware of various social and political figures and groups, positive and negative.
2) The author outlines the political aftermath that occurred in 2013-2014 at the back of the book.
3) The book is easy to read and would be great for students to read and understand experiences of other young people.

This book serves as a reminder of the negativity coming up in the world these days, as selfish men in power change lives of families and generations of people in Tunisia. Sadly, we’re not immune, anywhere—sad, scared, men around the world use politics or religion (or both) to disempower people of color, women, people who are LGBTQIA and people without the financial resources to escape their political captors.

[Marc · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another library find for me. While I was aware of the Arab Spring in a very general sense, I'm not sure I was actually familiar with the Jasmine Revolution, nor could I easily point out Tunisia on a map (just laying my ignorance cards on the table here). What Aldeguer succeeds in doing here is capturing the disillusion, disenfranchisement, and anger of several individual youth caught up in the political upheaval of Tunisia from 2013 to 2014 where an oppressive government struggles to hold power through violence. The rural population is feeling overlooked and facing deep unemployment. Public demonstrations pop up after various flashpoint events. The youth have little option but to hope education leads to opportunity, to turn to crime, or to leave for Europe (whose response to immigration is disturbingly captured by a scene in which yet another body washes up on Tunisia's shores after a failed attempt to migrate by boat). The artwork is flat and somewhat simple, but had a certain charm to it. Despite the context provided by a dense timeline of political events in the back of the book, it still felt like most readers would be a little lost in the complex social/political/religious dynamics at work.

[Mickey Bits · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really wanted to love this book. It's exactly the genre I like. The author takes focuses on some issue in the world and makes an illustrated story. Here it's obviously about the beginning of the Arab Spring in Tunisia.

It was difficult to keep track of the characters. Who is whose brother? Which person is this? With the style of the art, it was difficult for me to differentiate them. The story also feels incomplete. It as if the reader is dropped into a situation that has already been going on, stays to see what goes on over some weeks and then is yanked from the story. I want some resolution. I want to know what happens. I guess that's what the author is meaning to do, nevertheless, I didn't have that sated feeling that I get when finishing a book.

I did appreciate the footnote explainers that gave context to some of the more esoteric story elements (e.g., Tunisian political parties, events familiar to Tunisians but not to most Westerners.)

I wouldn't tell you not to buy or read this book, just that I didn't enjoy it as much as I wanted. I hope her other titles can be translated into English.

[Alex Andrasik · Rating 4 out of 5]

An award-winning look at some of what happens with revolutionary social movements after the world media looks away, told through the stories of four young people with similar backgrounds yet unique experiences. These four young Tunisians must contend with a faltering economy, family expectations, resurgent authoritarianism, political uncertainty, continued mass protests, love, volatility, and assassinations. It's told simply and clearly, with lots of footnotes explaining the particulars of recent Tunisian political history that the characters take as a given. The art is extremely simple, to the point that I had some difficulty differentiating the four main characters, but I appreciate the almost woodcut style of it, especially in scenes with large crowds, demonstrations, and cityscapes. I picked up this book look for something hopeful, and while it does not seem so on the surface, with its direct depiction of the continuing struggles of an Arab country after a period of popular unrest, the fact that these young people continue to strive for better lives does, in the end, point towards the hopefulness of human resilience.

[Wajdi Filali · Rating 4 out of 5]

Une bande dessinée qui revient sur les maux des jeunes. L'histoire de la trahison d'une génération qui a vu son rêve se faire kidnappé. La BD est facile à lire mais pénibles à digérer. Se résigner à admettre ce récit est inévitable. On ne peut y échapper.

La BD revient sur la troisième année après la révolution. Année charnière pour l'adoption de la nouvelle constitution, mais aussi, année qui marque le début d'une série d'assassinats politiques et d'opérations terroristes qui continuent jusqu'à ce jour à secouer le pays.

À la fin de la BD, Hélène Aldeguer revient sur la chronologie des événements les plus marquants de l'année en seulement six pages. Cette synthèse, si courte, capture excellemment l'année.

Aujourd'hui, après (dix ans) le printemps ne porte pas les espoirs accrochés sur les branches de son Jasmin. L'éclosion des fleurs ne s'est pas entamée (Mais la) jeuness telle qu'une brindille, pourra changer les narratifs.
Nous pourrons mener le changement.

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

What's happening in Tunisia since the Arab spring? Activities by panel space:
1. Scowling while smoking cigarettes
2. Complaining about how much Tunisia sucks since the Arab spring
3. Complaining about how much Tunisia sucked before the Arab spring
4. Protesting/attending the funerals of martyred reformist politicians
5. Sitting on the beach/stony desert while engaging in items 2 or 3
6. Trying to find a place to make out when you are living with your conservative parents

This wasn't really bad, just not that good. Not being able to find a job and being hassled by the police sucks, but I wasn't able to generate a lot of feeling for the characters.

The art is also a little weak. Better than I could manage, but there are more than a few weird looking hands and mouths.

[Jo Oehrlein · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting to see what happens after the initial revolution in Tunisia.

We see unemployment affecting young people (those who went to college and those who didn't), including their chance of marrying. We see people trying to survive in the rural areas and in the city.

Corruption feels like the order of the day, especially with the police.

Parties are specializing in dividing the people and making everything seem binary -- "us vs them". Some even make the time before the revolution seem better.

Migrants are dying trying to get to Europe on boats.
People are leaving for Libya or Syria to fight or get a job.

It's easy to see the hopelessness of it all.

We still see a young woman who is becoming a lawyer and who wants to stay and help her country change.

[Jesse · Rating 3 out of 5]

I mean, it was fine. We see a bunch of disaffected young people, in college and professional school, and a range of responses to 2013, when the aftershocks of the 2011 changes were settling--some leave, some join the military, some just kind of hang out and wish they had more opportunities. Was hoping to teach it in my Modern Middle East class, but it doesn't feel like it conveys the experience with enough specificity and power to make it resonate the way, I dunno, The Arab of the Future does. This is like a magazine piece, in the sense that it gives us a lived sense of frustration and a range of ways that young Tunisians might react to hopes that they wanted to think weren't dashed, but probably were, but it doesn't feel like we get any sufficiently deep characters to care enough.

[Ellen IJzerman (Prowisorio) · Rating 2 out of 5]

De eerste tegenvaller van de Zomerbonustrip rond de wereld. Met name door de titel, want van de trubbels in Tunesië vlak voor en tijdens de Arabische Lente wist ik wel een en ander, maar wat er sinds die tijd gebeurd is veel minder. Maar het overgrote deel van deze stripnovelle ging over de tijd vlak voor de volksopstand, en de periode van de opstand. Er is wel wat aandacht voor de periode na de opstand, maar te weinig om waar te maken wat de titel belooft.

De tekeningen zijn functioneel, zonder al teveel franje, soms lijkend op houtsnedes. Daar kon ik overigens wel van genieten, maar dat kon het magere verhaal niet goedmaken.

[Chris · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was hoping for a tangible, insightful experience of life far different from my own, and there were glimpses of it, but I was largely disappointed. The narrative was flat and unengaging, heavily reliant on missing context and background knowledge, and the illustrations made it hard to distinguish characters and keep them straight. I'm sure this was a poignant, significant time for the author, but she didn't do an effective job of translating it to readers.

[Ron Turner · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this but it's just a series of simple black-and-white cartoons of folks standing around complaining about politics. I appreciate that's the point. Unemployment and disaffection is high so everyone stands around smoking and feeling hopeless, but it gets old quick.

[JoJo Shanky · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was too detailed with too many insider political references, even for someone like me who follows Tunisian politics. I think the author missed a chance to tell a more broadly appealing story about how the new government was failing its youth. Oh well,back to the library it goes...

[Angela · Rating 3 out of 5]

A visual capturing of a historical time told through the lives of these young characters. It was well explained even though it is hard to understand such a complicated political situation through such a short narrative.

[Malcolm · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sterile graphic style. Story action precisely matches the historical summary at the end. I guess the point is nobody got what they wanted from the overthrow of the dictator, but things are improving and the youth will keep trying.