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View Full Version : Tunisian-born Sicilians -- how many were they? Did most of them return to Sicily?


Sikeliot
02-09-2013, 02:52 AM
I posted a question on Yahoo Answers and I received two interesting answers. I did not in my question mention Tunisia at all but rather it was a separate question.

One of the replies was a girl saying her friend's father was born in Tunisia and his family is Sicilian and had been in Tunisia for a long time.

Another person said that there are a lot of Tunisian-born Sicilians who live in southern France, in his town.

I know that there was historically a population of them.. Claudia Cardinale was born in Tunisia to a Sicilian family.

How large was that population and where are most of them now? Are most of them amongst the Italian Americans? Did most of them move back to Sicily (and if so, how much Tunisian ancestry did they bring back)? How many of them are still in Tunisia?
StonyArabia
02-09-2013, 02:54 AM
They did not look much different from the locals. Some of them converted to Islam and married local women. Hence why many claim to be part Italian, but most often it's distant not recent. In Libya there was community of mixed race people of Italian, not Sicilian with Libyan women, most of the community got absorbed though, probably similar thing happened.
Sikeliot
02-09-2013, 02:58 AM
So they got absorbed into the Tunisian population?

I know that some of them did move back to Sicily and there are some in the US.. this was one of them:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/b1/Marcello.jpg/220px-Marcello.jpg
StonyArabia
02-09-2013, 03:01 AM
So they got absorbed into the Tunisian population?

I know that some of them did move back to Sicily and there are some in the US.. this was one of them:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/b1/Marcello.jpg/220px-Marcello.jpg

Yes most of them got absorbed in the general local population. Some might have returned back to Sicily and went into the U.S, but most just stayed and overtime have become Tunisian.
Sikeliot
02-09-2013, 03:06 AM
Yes most of them got absorbed in the general local population. Some might have returned back to Sicily and went into the U.S, but most just stayed and overtime have become Tunisian.

Ah ok. That is very interesting. I have heard that Sicilian-Tunisians who returned brought couscous in the 1800s which is now common in the west of the island.
alfieb
02-09-2013, 10:40 AM
I've had Sicilian cuscusu in Trapani and found it enjoyable, but as to whether or not it made its way to Sicily in the 19th-20th centuries or earlier, I don't know.

Sicilian-language sources only say that it is a traditional specialty food in the province and can be served with meat or fish.
alfieb
02-23-2013, 02:16 AM
Do you (Sikeliot) know of any photo albums out there about Sicilian-Tunisians? I'm intrigued in seeing how Berberid they would look.
Sikeliot
02-23-2013, 02:18 AM
Do you (Sikeliot) know of any photo albums out there about Sicilian-Tunisians? I'm intrigued in seeing how Berberid they would look.

I'm not sure. I do know someone whose father is Sicilian and was from Tunisia and he does look Middle Eastern.