Aguila's poem, a text that can be echoed in today’s Libya
Aguila's poem was born of the experience of Ben Rajab al-Houaiche Mnefi,
held by the Italian occupiers in Benghazi camp (western
Libya) in the 30’s
The events described in the poem Rajab they are still very present in the collective memory of Libya.
Many people can quote by heart in the east, especially in the Djebel Lakhdar (Green Mountain) where the tribes descended from a wave of Arab conquerors from the eleventh century. While we believe that this affects only local memory.
This kind of improvised poem belongs to those works that are passed from generation to generation orally. This is a product of classical Arabic tradition dating back to pre-Islamic era. Unlike Western poetry, which steps back through the transcript on paper, is the direct expression, improvisation, lived experience, the time that passes, the ephemeral. It is the poetic reading of reality.
The poem by Rajab himself has been transcribed by Ibrahim al-Ghomary, one of his fellow prisoners in the camp Aguila, who managed to get a piece of paper and a pencil, and shared this experience in his memory. The text was then released thanks to the work of the University of Benghazi (northeast) in the 70s, which began to reap what type of Arabic poetry.
It is nonetheless a profoundly popular text. In a group, it is enough that someone starts so that others take over. But we did not necessarily learn in school. I have learned some by drinking tea with friends!
However, the Libyans, who have a great sense of inferiority to the West, do not necessarily reflect the universal scope of this text. Personally, I have realized in Amsterdam by visiting the Anne Frank memorial: his diary so important for Western countries, has precisely universal. I then wanted to know the poem Rajab outside Libya.
Oral poetry has therefore remained a very popular art until today ...
Indeed, it is a big part. For me, the common people have a more transparent reading of events that people in power. They are not tied to a particular interest contrary to policies that always biased look and a distorted reading of situations.
Still, for events that stir my country from the "funny Libyan Spring" and the overthrow of Gaddafi, we only listen to the people in power. You cannot hear the people and the Libyan intellectuals. Yet the Western alliance and obscurantist Islamist forces unleashed a process causing events which we do not yet understand the scope. In an article for Le Monde, I wrote in June 2011 that we are not aware that we fanned "Season in Hell a carrier other deluges."
In the preface to your book you explain that the Libyan nation "still struggling to fulfill its plural identity". Why?
The art of oral poetry is one of the foundations of "libycity". But it is one of the few. Because Libya does not yet exist, it remains a country in the making.
His identity is plural: it is composed of elements Berber (Amazigh), Arab. But not only. Tripolitania (west), it consists in particular elements of Greek, Roman, Turkish, Western (Order of Malta ...), Jews, Christians, southern blacks ... There are so many memories, cultures, ethnicities!
Depending on where one is, whether one is in western or in eastern Libya, people do not have the same cultural references. There is no national feeling, no common sense of belonging to a nation. Instead of saying that they are Libyans, people explain that they are North, South, East, West and they belong to a specific tribe. It is not enough to draw boundaries. It is as if at the time of independence in 1951, told the Libyans, "Now you are a country. Sort this out yourselves! "
Since 2011, the repressed income very quickly. Like many other Arab countries that have experienced the "spring", Libya is in the process of ethnical reshape. The burst scenario is most likely. We might as well go back to what was happening before 1951 with the main ethnic groups: Arab, Berber ...
Consider that Gaddafi reigned by removing all democratic forces. The only force formed in front of him was the mosques: he tried hard but he could not cope with Mohamed, Allah messenger.
Result: today we are in the presence of two major antagonistic forces of two powers. On one hand, there is what I call the religious right, a group of patriots, nationalists, the Muslim Brotherhood, Salafists, and it reigns in Tripoli. On the other, there is what I call the liberal right, supported by the West, who installed his government in Tobruk (east). It includes former Gaddafi officials. Its Parliament was not elected by more than 10-15% of voters.
"The camp Aguila book" presentation and translation by Kamel Ben Hameda, Elyzad editions
The events described in the poem Rajab they are still very present in the collective memory of Libya.
Many people can quote by heart in the east, especially in the Djebel Lakhdar (Green Mountain) where the tribes descended from a wave of Arab conquerors from the eleventh century. While we believe that this affects only local memory.
This kind of improvised poem belongs to those works that are passed from generation to generation orally. This is a product of classical Arabic tradition dating back to pre-Islamic era. Unlike Western poetry, which steps back through the transcript on paper, is the direct expression, improvisation, lived experience, the time that passes, the ephemeral. It is the poetic reading of reality.
The poem by Rajab himself has been transcribed by Ibrahim al-Ghomary, one of his fellow prisoners in the camp Aguila, who managed to get a piece of paper and a pencil, and shared this experience in his memory. The text was then released thanks to the work of the University of Benghazi (northeast) in the 70s, which began to reap what type of Arabic poetry.
It is nonetheless a profoundly popular text. In a group, it is enough that someone starts so that others take over. But we did not necessarily learn in school. I have learned some by drinking tea with friends!
However, the Libyans, who have a great sense of inferiority to the West, do not necessarily reflect the universal scope of this text. Personally, I have realized in Amsterdam by visiting the Anne Frank memorial: his diary so important for Western countries, has precisely universal. I then wanted to know the poem Rajab outside Libya.
Oral poetry has therefore remained a very popular art until today ...
Indeed, it is a big part. For me, the common people have a more transparent reading of events that people in power. They are not tied to a particular interest contrary to policies that always biased look and a distorted reading of situations.
Still, for events that stir my country from the "funny Libyan Spring" and the overthrow of Gaddafi, we only listen to the people in power. You cannot hear the people and the Libyan intellectuals. Yet the Western alliance and obscurantist Islamist forces unleashed a process causing events which we do not yet understand the scope. In an article for Le Monde, I wrote in June 2011 that we are not aware that we fanned "Season in Hell a carrier other deluges."
In the preface to your book you explain that the Libyan nation "still struggling to fulfill its plural identity". Why?
The art of oral poetry is one of the foundations of "libycity". But it is one of the few. Because Libya does not yet exist, it remains a country in the making.
His identity is plural: it is composed of elements Berber (Amazigh), Arab. But not only. Tripolitania (west), it consists in particular elements of Greek, Roman, Turkish, Western (Order of Malta ...), Jews, Christians, southern blacks ... There are so many memories, cultures, ethnicities!
Depending on where one is, whether one is in western or in eastern Libya, people do not have the same cultural references. There is no national feeling, no common sense of belonging to a nation. Instead of saying that they are Libyans, people explain that they are North, South, East, West and they belong to a specific tribe. It is not enough to draw boundaries. It is as if at the time of independence in 1951, told the Libyans, "Now you are a country. Sort this out yourselves! "
Since 2011, the repressed income very quickly. Like many other Arab countries that have experienced the "spring", Libya is in the process of ethnical reshape. The burst scenario is most likely. We might as well go back to what was happening before 1951 with the main ethnic groups: Arab, Berber ...
Consider that Gaddafi reigned by removing all democratic forces. The only force formed in front of him was the mosques: he tried hard but he could not cope with Mohamed, Allah messenger.
Result: today we are in the presence of two major antagonistic forces of two powers. On one hand, there is what I call the religious right, a group of patriots, nationalists, the Muslim Brotherhood, Salafists, and it reigns in Tripoli. On the other, there is what I call the liberal right, supported by the West, who installed his government in Tobruk (east). It includes former Gaddafi officials. Its Parliament was not elected by more than 10-15% of voters.
"The camp Aguila book" presentation and translation by Kamel Ben Hameda, Elyzad editions
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