Tsawwar…Oumayma Ben Tanfous
“Khalti Henna is a woman who lives on the Kerkennah Islands. I spent all my childhood summers on the islands and for the past 30 years, any time I had the chance to visit, I stopped by her place to say hi. I never remember exactly where her house is, so I always go to her son’s café, ask for him, and he takes me to her. It’s been like this since I was five years old. I was lucky enough to reunite with her in 2023 while working on my book and traveling between Djerba and Kerkennah. We sat in the entrance of her house: it took her a bit more time to remember who I was this time. I picked jasmine flowers from her courtyard and we sat in the shade, waiting. Even though she couldn’t remember me at first, she welcomed me, gave me a scarf and started sharing one amusing story after another.”
Tsawwar is an ongoing visual series in Daftar that explores the stories behind a photograph, taken in the region or by an Arab photographer, written in their own words. Oumayma is a photographer who grew up between Tunis and Montreal. In her self-published debut book, Between I and Lands, she documents her return to Tunisia after 20 years of being away, a journey shaped by the long inability to go back due to paperwork issues, and the deep rupture it created within a central part of her identity. The book combines photographs of places she dreamed that evolved in her absence, journal entries, and a beautiful essay by Taous Dahmani. It’s an ode to the fragility of returning home, and a tender letter to her childhood and her grandparents. Check out her work on @oumaymabtanfous”