It took seven years and hundreds of deaths for the total and complete decolonization of Tunisia to finally be effective. It was in Bizerte, the last fraction of territory still in French hands, on October 15, 1963.
On October 15, 1963, seven years after Tunisia’s independence and two years after the Battle of Bizerte, French naval vessels left the city’s harbor. Around 2 p.m., during a discreet ceremony, an officer took down the blue, white and red flag. He folds it in four, puts it under his arm and joins the flagship, which will be the last to leave the port.
The evacuation of the last French soldier ends around 3 p.m. The docks where, until the day before, three cargo ships, twelve warships, an aircraft carrier, three thousand men and tons of equipment were waiting to be loaded are strangely deserted. The French, however, left behind two takeoff runways, an air base with hangar and buildings, a naval air base, a hospital, administrative buildings, a control tower, unfinished underground installations, control, radio and protection equipment. against fires, quays, basins and, above all, around fifteen technicians to ensure the maintenance of the installations and the training of Tunisians capable of taking over.
At the same time, the Aviso Destour, flying the red and white flag, appeared to the right of the harbor. On board, a small group of Tunisian officials watching the last French boat move away. Among them, Bahi Ladgham, vice-president and secretary general of Néo-Destour, Taïeb Mehiri, Hassib Ben Ammar, Mahjoub Ben Ali…
Around 4 p.m., a French officer opened the large iron door, an enormous bunch of keys in his hand. The boat docks at the same place where the French flagship was moored. A small crowd, which invaded the port, sang the national anthem and shouted “Yahya Bourguiba!” » (“Long live Bourguiba!”). Bahi Ladgham hoists the Tunisian flag on the base, then solemnly announces on the telephone to Habib Bourguiba, president of the party and head of state : “Mission accomplished. » Bizerte, “the last legacy of the colonial era”, in the words of Bourguiba, is finally returned to the Tunisians. In the streets of the city, there is jubilation. Soon, joy will spread throughout the country.
Completion of decolonization
Since the withdrawal of French troops from Tunisian territory in 1958, Bourguiba had continued to demand the completion of decolonization through the evacuation of the naval base. To silence the nationalist escalations, both inside (Salah Ben Youssef) and outside (Nasser), he wanted to force the French to surrender Bizerte, and not receive it from their hands, at a time chosen by them .
General de Gaulle, grappling with the Algerian drama, did not intend to allow himself to be “dictated or tore anything from within or without,” as he said. The meeting between the two men, in February 1961, at the Château de Rambouillet, not far from Paris, turned into a dialogue of the deaf. The confrontation had therefore become inevitable between two leaders locked in antagonistic logics.
Hostilities, which began on July 19, 1961, continued until the morning of the 23rd. The forces present were very unbalanced: a well-trained French elite corps and a courageous Tunisian army, but very inexperienced and poorly equipped, backed by volunteers who were more troublesome than useful. Losses: French side, 27 soldiers killed and around a hundred wounded; Tunisian side: 632 dead, including 330 civilians.
The evacuation of French troops will be solemnly celebrated on December 15, 1963, in Bizerte, invaded by more than 300,000 people. Posterity will remember the image of Bourguiba triumphant in the midst of two figures of Arab nationalism, Nasser and Ben Bella, who until then had never stopped criticizing the Tunisian leader’s “compromises” with the West.
With France, everything was already back to normal. Diplomatic relations having been reestablished, Paris resumed its aid. We had almost forgotten, on both sides, the standoff between Bourguiba and de Gaulle, two freedom fighters who had allowed themselves to be drawn into a stupid conflict .
