Thala-Kasserine Disturbances

The Thala-Kasserine Disturbances were an episode of unrest in April 1906 in western Tunisia, the first violent resistance against authority under the French protectorate since its establishment in 1881. Inspired by an Algerian marabout, insurgents killed three French settlers in the Kasserine region before a gunfight in Thala left around a dozen of them dead and the rest in custody.

The region's remoteness and the poverty of its soil had long preserved it from land acquisitions by European settlers. Thus in 1906, of 933,000 hectares, fewer than 10,000 had come under European ownership. However even this small change upset the balance of life for local people, as the land taken by Europeans was the most productive. Even on poorer land, the new owners would prevent the nomadic tribes from passing across it unless they paid a fee for grazing their animals. Furthermore, the two years before the unrest had seen very poor harvests and the local people were sinking to severe hardship, so between 1904 and 1906 the tax revenue fell by half. All of these circumstances created a climate of tension between the local people and the colonists.

The exceptionally harsh winter of 1905-06 was the last straw. At Thala, the snow fell uninterruptedly from 6–10 February and the houses were buried in snowdrifts 2.5m deep. Indeed, some houses collapsed under the weight of the snow. For eight days, the town was completely cut off from the world. Many thousands of animals, already in poor condition as winter started, succumbed to the cold and the lack of provisions. The local Fraichiche nomads lost 9,000 sheep and another 9,000 goats which starved as the pastures were deep in snow. Some people were surviving on wild beets and boiled mallow. Faced with this distress, the authorities did nothing to organise help and refused requests for seed.

A few months previously, a marabout named Amor Ben Othman from Souk Ahras in Algeria had arrived in the region, One of his close associates was Ali ben Mohammed ben Salah, a local sheikh who had been dismissed by the central authorities for misappropriation of funds, who encouraged people to believe that Amor ben Othman had supernatural powers. Against the background of the extreme winter conditions, The presence of Amor ben Othman served as a catalyst for local despair.

On 26 April some dozens of Fraichiche bedouin from the Ouled Néji, Gmata, Hnadra and Hrakta subclans who were encamped on the plain of Foussana, near Kasserine, attacked the farm of a French settler named Lucien Salle who was known as a violent, brutal, and greedy man. They were unaware that Salle himself was absent, and when they arrived at his farm they were met by his brother Henri, who was quickly killed with a single shot. When his servant Domenico Mira tried to help him, he was stabbed and his life only spared because he recited the shahada. Salle's mother had her throat cut while she lay in bed. Another servant, Tournier, was taken prisoner and he too saved his life by reciting the shahada, whereupon he was forcibly circumcised. The farm was looted, and three employees, Graffaud, Martin and Sagnes, who lived nearby on a stud farm, were taken prisoner after accepting forced conversion to Islam.

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