Le permanent et le dissident: itinéraires d’exil de Mohammed Harmel et Noureddine Bouarrouj, dirigeants du Parti Communiste Tunisien

The article focuses on two leading figures of the Tunisian Communist Party (PCT), Mohamed Harmel (1929-2011) and Noureddine Bouarrouj (1928-92), and investigates the divergent impact of life abroad on their political career and intellectual journey. The analysis starts with their confrontation with the Tunisian regime, tracks their moves, networks and activities abroad and looks at the outcome of exile. While the departure of Harmel, member of the three-man secretariat, strengthened his leadership within the party, the itinerary of the political bureau member Bouarrouj was that of a so-called dissident who had to counter exclusion. The life trajectories reconstructed by piecing together archives and oral sources shed light on the winners and losers of expatriation, as well as on the transnational dimension of nationalist commitment after independence.