Capaci Grande: the maritime heart of Little Sicily in Sousse
The area of Capaci Grande, locally pronounced “Gabadji el-Fougani”, was the historical home and maritime heart of Italian immigration to Sousse during the colonial period. It stretches slightly uphill toward Sidi Bou Jaafar beach, and took its name from the town of Capaci near Palermo, Sicily, from where the majority of the families who settled there originated.
Inhabited almost exclusively by Sicilian fishermen and Maltese sailors. Daily life there was marked by a lively atmosphere, with the rhythm of the narrow streets governed by the cycles of the sea: the return of boats, the repair of fishing nets, and the drying of fish under the sun on doorsteps.
Although the French colonial authorities mockingly nicknamed it “Brigand-Ville” (“Bandit Town”), the neighborhood was in reality a space of solidarity and integration. Sicilian immigrants lived side by side with the Tunisian Muslim population, sharing the same precarious economic conditions, which led to a unique cultural blending. One of its most notable expressions was the emergence of a hybrid language mixing Tunisian Arabic and the Sicilian dialect, which transformed the Italian name “Capaci” into its Arabicized form “Gabadji.”
After the Second World War and Tunisia’s independence, most of the Italian families left.
Note: The neighborhood began to be established between 1895 and 1905.
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