The Libyan diaspora in Benghazi

The concept of citizens becoming expatriates in their own city or even their own country seems absurd on the face of it. How could locals be considered foreigners in their birthplace? Logic dictates that this should be impossible. I will return to explain this article’s title later.
Since antiquity, sages have observed time’s deceptive swiftness. Some posit that centuries compress into months, orchestrating the flow of days among peoples and power among nations. This grand design, they argue, unfolds beyond human comprehension or control.
This perspective often fosters a belief that events — be they momentous and enduring or as trivial and ephemeral as summer clouds — are not mere chance occurrences. Instead, they represent a predestined path that impacted populations must navigate. These events may offer fleeting sweetness, only to be followed by prolonged bitterness, exacting a heavy toll for generations to come.
The event that overthrew King Mohammed Idris Al-Senussi’s rule and toppled the United Kingdom of Libya at the hands of a first lieutenant named Muammar Qaddafi 55 years ago this coming Sunday is one of those events.
Before its oil wealth discovery, monarchical Libya supported Palestine and Arab causes within its means. Relations between Libyans and their Arab neighbors — Egypt eastward, Tunisia and Algeria westward and Sudan southward — were genuinely warm and easygoing. I personally witnessed this unspoiled atmosphere over a year and a half prior to Qaddafi’s “Al-Fateh” revolution.

Qaddafi repeatedly called for Arab unity, inviting Arabs to Libya. He appeared to anticipate the impact on struggling Arab economies.

Bakir Oweida

A pertinent question emerges: Why was the 1969 coup widely embraced by most Libyans and their Arab neighbors, stretching from Iraq through Syria to Lebanon? The full answer, involving the convergence of Western oil interests and revolutionary aspirations to liberate the Arab spirit from its post-defeat malaise, is too complex to detail here.
At the time, it felt natural for many Arabs, myself included, to cheer for the young Qaddafi, who rebelled against the June 1967 defeat, much as we had cheered for Gamal Abdel Nasser’s revolt against the 1948 Nakba.
What followed is well-documented. Qaddafi repeatedly called for Arab unity, inviting Arabs to Libya. He appeared to anticipate the impact on struggling Arab economies.

Soon, Libyan towns and cities were overwhelmed by Arab immigrants, surpassing sustainable levels and creating an unwelcome situation. Tensions inevitably arose between the newcomers and their Libyan hosts.
During one of Qaddafi’s coup anniversaries, a sardonic joke circulated in Benghazi. Some wry locals purportedly sent a telegram to the colonel, reading: “The Libyan community in Benghazi congratulates you on the revolution’s anniversary.” Had Qaddafi heard this quip, his laughter would have been hollow — more akin to weeping than mirth.

• Bakir Oweida is a Palestinian journalist who pursued a professional career in journalism in Libya in 1968, where he worked at Al-Haqiqa newspaper in Benghazi, then Al-Balagh and Al-Jihad in Tripoli. He has written for several Arab publications in Britain since 1978. He worked at Al-Arab newspaper, Al-Thadamun magazine and the international Arabic newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat. He has also worked as a consultant at the online newspaper Elaph.
• This article first appeared in Asharq Al-Awsat.