When the colonial governments eased upon censorship in journalism in 1936, Douagi started up his own periodical, "al-Surur", though it only lasted a mere six weeks due to his lack of discipline.[1] Nonetheless, Douagi came to be associated with a group of artists and intellectuals, known as the "Jama’at taht al-sur" ("The Beneath-the-Wall Group"), who congregated nightly in the cafes of the Bab Souika neighbourhood of the old madina in Tunisia to exchange ideas and argue politics.