Sidi Arbi 2 – My Master, The Arab 2
Translated to English by Sofian Zerelli
Edited by Znous
Synopsis:
A whole decade has passed since the journey started.
Ten years have passed since Bel Ali fled the country. The patriarch whose regime conditioned the people of Tunisia through terror, frustration, ass-licking, intellectual mediocrity, economical state monopolization, packaged education, the near nonexistence of any form of national culture, and lots of other atrocities.
While looking back on the last decade, we are facing a bitter reality. A reality in which a whole generation has been left
unable to rise above mental and intellectual deprivation and bypass its primitive binary thinking, shaped by obsolete
black & white, us vs. them, Halal & Haram notions. A majority unable to conceive any type of diversity, multiculturalism or pluralism, mentally barely skilled enough to connect some dots or to tick the right box.
While looking back, we realize that the last decade has prevented most of us from undergoing crucial stages of mental
growth and evolution, reducing them to childish and self destructive beings, this is one of the many reasons for the
generalized post revolutionary depression that has plagued Tunisia.
This song is meant to reflect parts of the Tunisian binary thinking, and the political and social and gender fanaticism
that shape Tunisia’s reality ten years after the highjacked popular uprising.
Lyrics translation:
Can anybody grant us patience, we are failing to find the cure
We have been left stuck between Ben Ali’s(1) watch dogs and the Nahdhaouis (2)
Can anybody grant us wrath, and unleash the deluge that sweeps them all
and takes away those who are enslaving us and feeding on our woe
If you don’t want to kiss the Cheikh(3) than you belong to Abir(4)
If you’re not licking Abir’s ass than you belong to the Cheikh
If you’re not putting Seif(5) in a position to fuck Nabil(6)
Abir will be waiting around the corner to fuck you up
If you’re not gonna stick it into the Cheikh’s ass
It’s Abir who’s going to fuck you into oblivion
If you’re not becoming trustworthy like Nabil
Abir will come after you at night like the boogeyman
If you talk with a certain accent than you’re from the countryside
If you don’t agree with my opinions than you’re a dumbass
If you’re loading yourself up with negativity
This population is turning into a +/- battery
If you don’t believe in god than you’re a devil
If you don’t support my football team than you’re a piece of shit
If you do not practice wudu then you’re unpure
And if you don’t listen to Mezwed(7) here’s some Znous
Can anybody grant us patience, we are failing to find the cure
We have been left stuck between Ben Ali’s watch dogs and the Nahdhaouis
Can anybody grant us wrath, and unleash the flood that drowns them all
and takes away those who are enslaving us and feeding on our woe
(1) Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, the former Tunisian president, ousted and exiled in Saudi Arabia where he died in 2019
(2) Nahdhaoui is a reference to the representatives of the Tunisian Islamist Party Ennahdha
(3) “Sheikh” is how partisans and members of Ennahdha, Tunisia’s ruling Islamist party, refer to its leader Rached Ghannouchi
(4) Abir Moussi, who symbolizes the remains of the Ben-Ali Era in post-revolution Tunisian politics
(5) Seifeddine Makhlouf, leader of the Karama Coalition Party, a smaller but significantly more radical Islamist political party than Ennahdha, that “does the dirty work” for them.
(6) Nabil Karoui, Tunisian TV Mogul, fraudster, convicted for money laundering and tax evasion, founder of the political party “Kalb Tounes” and member of the Tunisian parliament
(7) A popular Tunisian music genre
