"It
is not easy to be blacks in Libya," said Noah, choosing his words
carefully, and speaking in a low voice, though no one could hear us. We were sitting at the tables outside the Sky Bar in Tripoli. It was an afternoon of great heat and all customers were seeking shelter inside, with air conditioning. Noah
comes from Niger, works at the bar with tasks rather vague, like any
other foreigner in Libya, especially the blacks who come from
neighboring African countries.
I agree with him, but in Libya do not admit it publicly, we continue to tell us that we are all equal in the sight of Allah, the Islam says, which in theory is true. But I, he and all the other black people in Libya know that the reality is very different, because we do not practice what we preach.
Noah took me a while 'before deciding that he could trust me and that he could speak freely. I had to spend long hours at the bar in the last two months, have a large and reliable source of good internet connection. Due to the long blackout in Tripoli, that table at the corner of the bar has become my office. Tripoli sank in the dark, desperate people were queuing outside the banks all day and slept there on the street overnight. The gas stations were besieged because of fuel shortages.
I agree with him, but in Libya do not admit it publicly, we continue to tell us that we are all equal in the sight of Allah, the Islam says, which in theory is true. But I, he and all the other black people in Libya know that the reality is very different, because we do not practice what we preach.
Noah took me a while 'before deciding that he could trust me and that he could speak freely. I had to spend long hours at the bar in the last two months, have a large and reliable source of good internet connection. Due to the long blackout in Tripoli, that table at the corner of the bar has become my office. Tripoli sank in the dark, desperate people were queuing outside the banks all day and slept there on the street overnight. The gas stations were besieged because of fuel shortages.
The militia commanders have purged Tripoli from any form of resistance
Reading
the statements of some Italian officials of Tripoli, I find it
misleading to say that here there are no mass demonstrations against the
shameful agreement with Italy and the arrival of Italian ships in
Libya. Obviously there are no demonstrations, and there will be none, but not because people approve of all this.
Who would complain? There have been rumors to the contrary. Many journalists have left Tripoli after they have been victims of threats, kidnappings and murders, and things are no better for activists. Who really keeps order in Tripoli, that militia commanders and not the puppet government, he has purged the city from any form of resistance or peaceful opposition. Words such as human rights and legality are absent from their vocabulary. The puppet government tacitly approves the actions of the warlords, there is just to sign what they require to sign, to dance on demand and live with the militias. They use the same old trick in Guide to govern Libya: "starves the dog and the dog will follow you."
Looks lowered
The situation is difficult for everyone, but for Noah things are even worse. The owner of the bar, like all the other owners of shops and bars in Libya, African blacks forcing workers to work hard for many hours a day. They do everything, from the first hours of the night morning anchor, clean the windows and tables, wash the floors, carrying boxes and equipment, they shop, wash their cars and perform any other task may be his assigned, according to the employers' whim work. How to pay, receiving small fractions of the minimum wage, and their passports are requirements as a form of insurance.
Another thing, very important: must always answer "yes sir", can not look the other person straight in the eye too long or refuse to execute an order. At any moment they can be kicked out kicking, sometimes literally. They sit by, invisible, they walk among us with his head down, when your eyes meet theirs, immediately distract the eye, and unless you do not smile or greet them will never turn the word first. They live in Libya as if they were in an elevator, embarrassed, avoiding any eye contact, silent until the elevator doors do not open. Only at that point they can not get out of the elevator and go back to being normal people.
Racism in Libya has very deep roots, is a part of our history that we tend to ignore and not from a generation long time will be grown without knowing it. Maybe today people are not fully aware, perhaps this is why we are likely to repeat it. I never managed to frame accurately these thoughts. Gloria instead knew exactly how to do it.
The history excluded from the history books
I was going to Venice for the premiere of The Order of Things . They had to go from Tunisia before heading to Italy. It was a year of great traffic, so I could not find a direct flight to Venice and I was forced to land in Rome and then to go to Padua, where I spent the night at the home of two of my friends, Gloria Carlini and Matteo Calore. Gloria graduated in socio-cultural anthropology and ethnology with a thesis on sex work and sexuality among young slum of Kampala. Since March of 2014 in the "Shadow of Slavery project in West Africa and beyond".
Gloria told me that there are missing parts of the story, parts of which today are not taught to children in school. You can not delete these chapters, or pretend they do not exist, just because we do not like. So it has taken on the task of telling the children what is excluded from the history books they use in school.
I
agree with you, we all tend to amend the story, but in Libya we do very
often, and not only with the early history, even with the most recent
events. This is the case of serious clashes antimmigrati in 2000, calls slaves revolution , which, paradoxically, in our dialect means "revolution against the slaves." Crowds of angry people attacked and killed dozens of workers from African countries such as Ghana, Niger, Chad and Nigeria. From the town of Al Zawiya the riots have spread throughout the western region of the country, including Tripoli. Who would complain? There have been rumors to the contrary. Many journalists have left Tripoli after they have been victims of threats, kidnappings and murders, and things are no better for activists. Who really keeps order in Tripoli, that militia commanders and not the puppet government, he has purged the city from any form of resistance or peaceful opposition. Words such as human rights and legality are absent from their vocabulary. The puppet government tacitly approves the actions of the warlords, there is just to sign what they require to sign, to dance on demand and live with the militias. They use the same old trick in Guide to govern Libya: "starves the dog and the dog will follow you."
Looks lowered
The situation is difficult for everyone, but for Noah things are even worse. The owner of the bar, like all the other owners of shops and bars in Libya, African blacks forcing workers to work hard for many hours a day. They do everything, from the first hours of the night morning anchor, clean the windows and tables, wash the floors, carrying boxes and equipment, they shop, wash their cars and perform any other task may be his assigned, according to the employers' whim work. How to pay, receiving small fractions of the minimum wage, and their passports are requirements as a form of insurance.
Another thing, very important: must always answer "yes sir", can not look the other person straight in the eye too long or refuse to execute an order. At any moment they can be kicked out kicking, sometimes literally. They sit by, invisible, they walk among us with his head down, when your eyes meet theirs, immediately distract the eye, and unless you do not smile or greet them will never turn the word first. They live in Libya as if they were in an elevator, embarrassed, avoiding any eye contact, silent until the elevator doors do not open. Only at that point they can not get out of the elevator and go back to being normal people.
Racism in Libya has very deep roots, is a part of our history that we tend to ignore and not from a generation long time will be grown without knowing it. Maybe today people are not fully aware, perhaps this is why we are likely to repeat it. I never managed to frame accurately these thoughts. Gloria instead knew exactly how to do it.
The history excluded from the history books
I was going to Venice for the premiere of The Order of Things . They had to go from Tunisia before heading to Italy. It was a year of great traffic, so I could not find a direct flight to Venice and I was forced to land in Rome and then to go to Padua, where I spent the night at the home of two of my friends, Gloria Carlini and Matteo Calore. Gloria graduated in socio-cultural anthropology and ethnology with a thesis on sex work and sexuality among young slum of Kampala. Since March of 2014 in the "Shadow of Slavery project in West Africa and beyond".
Gloria told me that there are missing parts of the story, parts of which today are not taught to children in school. You can not delete these chapters, or pretend they do not exist, just because we do not like. So it has taken on the task of telling the children what is excluded from the history books they use in school.
But we do not even great efforts to hide this feeling of hostility. In July the government based in Al Beida has established new tariffs for weddings: a Libyan who wants to marry a foreign woman has to pay five thousand dinars, a foreigner who wants to marry a Libyan woman has to pay three thousand dinars, for the Libyans who marry other Libyans the rates are 50 dinars. Whatever their justification, it is a punishment for those who do not want to marry a Libyan and a Libyan. Besides the new decree does not mention at all the possibility of granting the Libyan citizenship to children of a Libyan woman married to a foreigner.
I wonder if I'll find even Noah when he returned to Libya. We were never able to complete a conversation, they always interrupted, always had to go do something somewhere else: "Noah come here, go there, Noah, Noah brings this, Noah clean that." Sometimes I thought I would have to call it the "bar Noah."
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