Art Moves Africa – Retracing Roots and Tracing New Routes: Mobility and Touring in North Africa

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Country-Specific Information
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GENERAL INFORMATION
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Libya is the fourth-largest country in Africa and
is among the 20 largest in the world. Spanning
1.770 km, its coastline is the longest of any of
the Mediterranean countries. The largest city and
capital, Tripoli, is located in western Libya, while
the second-largest city, Benghazi, is located in
eastern Libya. Ninety percent of Libya’s population
lives along its coast.
What present-day Libya is has been inhabited
by Amazigh tribes since the late Bronze
Age. Libya was occupied by the Phoenicians,
Greeks, Persians, Egyptians and Romans before
the Islamic conquests. In the 20th century, Libya
was under Italian rule between 1911 and 1947.
Cinemas, theatres, libraries and cultural centres
were built. The country declared its independence
in 1951. Eight years later, the discovery of
massive oil reserves transformed the until-then
poor nation. In 1959, a group of rebel officers
led by Muammar Gaddafi overthrew the
government and established the Libyan Arab
Republic, embracing the principles of Arab
socialism. This coup-d’état was the beginning
of a 42-year dictatorship, marked by
bloody repression of opposition, invasion
of all aspects of private life and negation
of public space.
Libya entered a civil war in 2011, as
protests turned into a rebellion which was
met with force by Gaddafi. A NATO offensive
began in March 2011, bolstering the rebellion.
Gaddafi was killed in October 2011.
Since 2011, Libya has been torn among
rival, armed militias affiliated with distinct
regions, cities and tribes. The power vacuum
has created an opening for tribal militias and
jihadist groups to make incursions. There
are currently two main rival governments:
the Interim Government (IG), based in the
East, formed in 2014; and the Government
of National Accord (GNA), formed in 2016
under UN-led Initiative for a Libyan Political
Agreement, based in the West. Presidential
and parliamentary elections have been
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QUOTE:
« There are a couple old
cinemas that were built
by the Italians in the days of
the Libyan kingdom but none
of them are working.
We have 6 – 7 but none are
working. I found out that
they’re destroying them. I
felt ashamed and sorry. There
is a cinema that’s one of the
most amazing buildings in
Libya, but it was burned down
by the revolutionaries. Why?
Gaddafi was using it
for his things »
Abdul Mohaimen Zarrough,
photographer and
cultural manager,
Tripoli
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planned since 2018, but have yet to be held. At
the time of writing, the Libyan National Army, led
by former Gaddafi general Khalifa Haftar, was
leading a major offensive on the GNA-controlled
city of Tripoli. Tens of thousands of people have
been displaced and hundreds killed, including a
significant number of African refugees.
The relationship between modern Libya
and Africa is difficult to dissociate from Gaddafiera
politics and the migration crisis, as Libya has
become an important passageway. Historically,
nomadic Tuareg and Tabu communities link the
South of Libya and areas to the South. Gaddafi
is known (and sometimes even romanticized)
as a prominent pan-Africanist. He was one of
the founding fathers of the African Union and
supported a number of liberation movements,
including the African National Congress in South
Africa. However, he also funded rebel groups in
Sierra Leone and Liberia and plotted to invade
Chad in 1980. Much of his pro-African policy
centered on personal self-aggrandizement as an
Arab king of Africa. Some commentators have
suggested that anti-Gaddafi backlash may
be fuelling anti-African sentiment in Libya
(see Racism below).
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ARTS AND CULTURE SECTOR
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Libya’s present-day arts and culture sector
has been shaped by the authoritarianism,
censorship, and nationalism that prevailed
under Gaddafi and the profound turmoil that
has reigned since 2011.
The 1973 Cultural Revolution instituted
a climate of intense repression on
the arts and culture, resulting in the arrest
and prosecution of large numbers of cultural
actors, the murder of opposition figures, the
banning of foreign language books and musical
instruments, the destruction of infrastructures
left by Italian colonization and the criminalization
of languages other than Arabic.
In one of his speeches, Gaddafi stated that
“artists are free but their freedom will end