Revolution as a collective psychotherapy: the Tunisian Experience By Abimbola Lagunju

During the preparation for a visit to Tunisia for a professional meeting recently, I expressed my concern to the organizers of the meeting about the appropriateness of holding the meeting in a country that just underwent a revolution and was preparing for elections. The mental image of Tunisia that I had conjured in my mind was greatly influenced by the events in Libya and also by mentally substituting Nigeria for Tunisia and imagining what Nigeria would look like under these extraordinary circumstances. The organizers reassured me, but I was uneasy until I reached Tunis. I did not know what to expect, and I had made sufficient cash provision to purchase an early ticket out if the situation was as I had imagined.

This was my second visit to Tunisia. The first was in 2004 when Ben Ali was in power and the second was in September 2011, when he had been chased out. I began my observation from the airport. The body language of the Tunisians working in the airport (immigration officials, customs, cleaners, airline staff, and shop assistants) was very instructive. They were quite relaxed as they went about their duties professionally. I did not feel the tension, frustration and apprehension that normally translate into verbal violence in these workers. The airport workers that I saw this year are markedly different in their mien to those that I saw in 2004. A revolution acting on the psyche of a people? Was I imagining things? I reserved my judgment until I came out of the airport. The picture was the same – a friendly people, relaxed, smiling and going about their duties diligently. From Tunis to Hammamet, the Tunisians that I met exuded serenity of a people who had just been relieved of a burden. I felt relaxed – the organizers of our meeting were right after all. No doubt the departure of humiliated Ben Ali was a major therapy for the Tunisian people.

Kefif Macek, a dental surgeon, a political activist and one of the leaders of the Tunisian revolution compared the long reign of the ousted president Ben Ali to a long nightmare, which when suddenly ended was a surprise even to the most ardent demonstrators in the cities and villages in Tunisia. Indeed, all dictatorships are nightmares and waking up through revolutions, peaceful or violent to effect a change is an inevitable event. The fact that no nightmare lasts forever is lost on many sit-tight and oppressive leaders, who, trusting in their absolute control of the state machinery of violence ignore the rightful aspirations of their people. These yearnings gather momentum and become an unstoppable force that ultimately overwhelms and consumes the dictator – a temporary shift in the power equation.

People take part in a revolution for different reasons – some for very personal reasons, because they have at one time or the other suffered injustice from the dictatorship; for some, the burden of oppression has become too much to bear; for others, their self dignity has been trampled upon by the corruption and arrogance of the dictator, his family and political party (when there is one); for others the economic hardship has become unbearable and yet for others, they need a new political breathing space, new faces in the political and economic spheres. Without doubt, everyone that participates in a revolution has his own axe to grind with the dictator or a system. However, they all share something in common – a clean break-up from the past, liberation from the oppression that a dictator or a system represents. A waking up process from a long nightmare. A desire for a new paradigm.

However, the desire to break up with the past is not synonymous with having a vision for the future. In the euphoria of the moment, many assume and believe that the unknown future cannot be worse than the past. Every participant in the revolution expects his grievance to be addressed in the new dawn. Individual and collective expectations in the post-revolution period then grow out of proportion and become a burden to the new dawn with a yet to be defined vision and project. “How do you see the new Tunisia in fifteen to twenty years? I asked Hayet Moussa, a Professor of Sociology in the University of Tunis, who also participated actively in the revolution. After a brief hesitation, she said, “Difficult to predict. Difficult to see even what Tunisia will look like in a couple of years. We must however be vigilant that our revolution is not hijacked by internal or external forces. Our freedom, as Tunisians must be protected.”

“But what exactly are Tunisians looking forward to in the new dispensation?” I insisted.

“Dignity and freedom!” Hayet said without hesitation and Kefif nodded his agreement.

In the quest to create a new political, economic and social order, Tunisians have demonstrated an unparalleled political maturity not only to the Arab world but also to the whole world. Sub-Sahara Africa has a lot to learn from this political astuteness. The challenge to Tunisians at this moment is to create a new Tunisia which will satisfy the expectations of the majority of the people. Tunisians are taking their time to accomplish this – it has been eight months since the departure of Ben Ali and the country continues to function. I quickly remembered the dark curtain of uncertainty, manipulation and the complete paralysis of the Nigerian state during Umaru Yar Adua’s illness and subsequent death. Tunisians have demonstrated to the world that a determined people can make a country function even in the absence of an elected or a self-imposed leader.

As a Nigerian and a Sub Saharan African, I could only admire the determined spirit of Tunisians to make their country a better place. I made a mental comparison between Tunisia (which I was visiting for a second time) and Nigeria. Tunisia has the infrastructures that will keep Nigerians happy for a very long time – they have exactly what we yearn for – good roads, stable electricity, water supply and planned urban and rural development. Nigeria has the wild liberty particularly in freedom of associations that will keep the Tunisians happy for a very long time. There is some degree of unity among Tunisians, whereas this is an abstract concept in Nigeria. Nigeria has weak state institutions while Tunisia suffered under sycophantic ones. In both countries, the state institutions prioritize the desires of the rulership rather than the aspirations of the citizens. Both countries suffer from high level of unemployment among its youths. However, Nigeria largely surpasses Tunisia in the corruption index. Nigeria appears to have all the right conditions for a revolution.

But can a people-led revolution, as was the case in Tunisia, ever happen in Nigeria? It is most unlikely. The Nigerian rulership enjoys and exploits the ethnic, lingual, religious and political differences which characterize the Nigerian citizenry. The Nigeria project is absent in the vision of the average Nigerian; it is doubtful that the Nigerian rulership also has any notion. No Nigerian ruler has ever stated clearly, verbally or written, what is his vision for Nigeria.  Thus, if perchance a revolution happens in Nigeria, it will come in the form of different groupings (ethnic most probably) fighting among themselves rather than a united front against the rulership and its failures. It will be a “revolution” to “disappear” Nigeria as a nation-state and not to improve it.

As I boarded my plane out of Tunisia, I felt a sense of pride and a sense of loss. Sense of pride because the spirit of the people, the collective will, which underscores a nation-state has prevailed against a tyranny in Tunisia. Sense of loss, because this collective will is absent in the Nigerian space. The spirit is alien to us.

And God knows we badly need some collective psychotherapy!

Dial 09141 and Die By Abimbola Lagunju

A Nigerian newborn is probably one of the most courageous human beings in the world. He has overcome all the possible odds in his nine months of uterine life to see the light of the day. Even the process of his birth is a major feat that if transposed on any adult-life challenge, will require the most courageous adult to surmount the odds and live to tell the story. The newborn is born with in-built survival mechanisms. Having overcome all the odds of intra-uterine life and the perilous process of his birth, he comes into the world, endowed with an innate ability to overcome fears and to surmount the comparatively less challenging odds of life.

However, his instinct to survive and live well soon becomes captive of the acquired fears of his environment. The family and the society teach him that the fear of fear is the beginning of wisdom. He is immediately constrained by family and community taboos, founded on their fear of the known and the unknown. He inherits, and is soon held captive by internally generated fears which include cultural fears, fear of the environment and the elements, religious fears, institutional fears, distrust and fear of others, and to this list, he learns to develop and  add his own individual fears.

These fears are characterized by their uncanny ability to self-propagate exponentially in a society already weakened by its internally generated fears. As is the case with fear-induced taboos, the “what” and the consequences of these fears are the only considered factors. The people, heavily burdened by their own internally generated fears do not even have the energy to question the “why” and “how” of the externally induced fears. It is impossible to produce a response to overcome any source of fear if the “how” and “why” are not put under scrutiny. The obsession with “what” and a complete disregard of “why” and “how” in the face of adversity can be illustrated with the recent rumour of a killer cell-phone number.

Someone called me not to take any number that starts with 09141 because it had been reported to have killed some people in one local government in Borno. “A number killed a person? How?” I asked. “I do not know, but someone sent me the message,” my friend said, and warned me not to take any calls starting with any unknown code. He said he was going to switch off his phone until the evil blew away. My friend, an intellectual by all standards, was not overly concerned with “why” and “how”, he was satisfied with the “what” that could threaten his existence. He entrapped himself in fear. Fear took control of his freedom.

There cannot be any kind of freedom in the presence of fear. Freedom abhors fear and vice versa. It is no gainsaying that political freedoms, economic freedoms, social freedoms and progress cannot exist in a fear-driven society. In order to have these freedoms, the society must first learn to liberate itself from the clutches of fear. It must seek the courage to conquer fear. This is the most important pillar of human and societal development. If telephone numbers can send our people scampering for safety, then we should understand that Nigeria is far from any freedom. As the most populous congregation of black people in the world, this does not give a good example of the reasoning capacity of the Black Race. Nigeria should be the light, and not a source of darkness. Nigeria should be a pride to the Black race, not a source of shame and ridicule. Telephone number killing people? Excuse me! We really lost it this time.

Fear depletes society’s resourcefulness capacity. Knowledge is limited to the mastery of others’ outputs and the society is unable to generate adequate answers to its own problems. Some of the governments of the most under-developed (fear-incapacitated) societies in the world today are staffed by academics and scientists who have mastered other cultures’ outputs. However, in their own environment, their knowledge and skills crumble under the society weight of “fate”, fear and self-induced helplessness.

Unlike its victim with his accepted “fate” of helplessness, fear is not static; it seeks to gain more grounds and to metamorphose from its overcome-able form into a real unassailable and formidable force. The victim-society inadvertently, through cowering and lack of imagination actively assists the metamorphosis of fear from its unreal state to a palpable, existing, and overwhelming monster.

A society that has chosen to live in fear fears everything and anything. It fears all odds, small and great, real and imaginary; it fears the consequences of even contemplating to tackle the odds, and it is even more frightened of the imaginary costs of challenging the odds. It draws up very vivid images of life-threatening scenarios if it attempts to change the energy dynamics between it and fear.

This lack of collective internal drive to harness whatever little available energy to overcome fear soon translates into intractable debilitating collective illness, “a cultivated case of social schizophrenia”[i] characterised by a fatalistic resignation to what the society conveniently identifies as its “fate”. Concern for shallow and mundane issues that inhibit productivity, vision, creativity and resourcefulness becomes the principal preoccupation of this society. Life becomes a captive of fear and the right to it cannot be fully exercised physically, economically, politically, mentally and spiritually.

In this prostrate condition, the phobic-society seeks to define its identity within the confines of its “fate”. Values are redefined to portray the relationship of the society with fear. Fear induces “a collapse of a system, a collapse of values, a collapse of sensibilities, indeed a collective blunting of sense of obligations…”[ii]

Haba! Telephone number killing people?  Whither Nigeria?

[i] Wole Soyinka – Interventions I – Bookcraft, Nigeria 2005.

[ii] Wole Soyinka – Interventions I – Bookcraft, Nigeria 2005.

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GADDAFI'S GAFFES (Abla Ungalski) - 13

WOMEN ACCORDING TO THE COLONEL

Now we know

“According to gynecologists women, unlike men, menstruate each month... Since men cannot be impregnated they do not experience the ailments that women do…"
Muammar Al Qathafi: THE GREEN BOOK 1975 

Unto each according to their sex

“…Women should be able to get the education that is suitable for their feminine nature. There has to be one curriculum for men and another for women…”
Address to the Students and Faculty of Meiji University, Japan  December 15, 2009.

They have a natural role

“If a woman is forced to abandon her natural role as regards conception and maternity, she falls victim to … dictatorship.”
Muammar Al Qathafi: THE GREEN BOOK 1975

Because....

“Woman is a female and man is a male.”

“When a woman does not menstruate, she is pregnant.”

Muammar Al Qathafi: THE GREEN BOOK 1975

Nigeria as the 51st American State By Abimbola Lagunju

Crises in all forms and shapes that have defined the Nigerian existence since independence have induced, even in the most patriotic Nigerians, a sense of helplessness and hopelessness of our situation. Nigerians have become fatigued from irresponsible leadership, reckless, visionless and dishonest political class, lack of infrastructure and services, absent state institutions and existential uncertainty. In order words, Nigerians collectively suffer from what can be termed “Citizen Fatigue”, a socio-political psycho-somatic illness.

Nigeria has never really had any peace in about fifty-one years of its existence. The Civil war was a spill-over from the ever-boiling crisis pot. We have no recollection of any moment in our history of which we can say we are proud. We have no historical moments of national lucidity for which we can evoke nostalgia. We have no recollection of peace and security. We have no recollection of when anything ever functioned the way it should.

This geographical entity conceived in mischief in 1914 and born into chaos in 1960 has never been able to find its way to nationhood. Calling it a failed nation-state is assuming that it is a nation-state in the first instance. One can only fail an exam if you appear for it. Nigeria as an entity has never appeared for the nation-state exam. Nigerian politicians have always made sure that Nigeria is always absent. It takes more than a flag, currency, people herded behind borders and a horde of marauding politicians (civilian and military) to call ourselves a nation-state. Nation states are built on sincere collective will. It is this collective will that is at the origin of the phrase: “We the people….”. There is no “We the people…” in the contrivance called Nigeria. The trademark of Nigeria is disunity in all spheres of our existence – ethnic, religious and political. I dare ask, what really unites us?

And their “We the people…” wherever it is written, cannot even be described as a declaration of good intentions because nothing of our 50-year existence attests to any good intentions. What have the politicians done in all these years but to highlight and bring to fore all our differences? If ever a collective will tried to emerge (as in June 12), the politicians destroyed it. Where are the institutions that probably would have nurtured and safe-guarded this declaration of intentions? They are also in crisis. We know about how the Police, the judiciary, the parliaments, the banks and other state institutions have betrayed the trust of us trapped behind the frontiers of this country. What hope do we have? What visions can we build for our children’s future? The politicians have no answer to this, and worse, they have no clue whatsoever. They have made the unworkability of our contraption so evident that Nigerianness is very alien to our thoughts. Our debacle stares us in the face. Nigeria is a political experiment gone haywire. This is the worst case scenario any citizen can find himself/herself in.

Despite the “Citizen Fatigue”, many Nigerians in recent times have been expressing their fears for the present and their uncertainty in the future and have been proposing different solutions. Many are aghast at the bombings attributed to Boko Haram from one section of the contraption, militancy from another section, kidnappings from another section, and armed robbery from yet another part. It appears that evil in all its possible forms has taken permanent residence in Nigeria and each evil form has chosen in which part of the country to reside. A child born into chaos, nurtured in chaos can only beget chaos. There must be a way out. Enough is just enough.

Among the plethora of solutions to solve the present predicament that this geographical entity has found itself, the most commonly proposed in the media are revolution and convocation of a sovereign national conference. Revolution is not workable in Nigeria. There is nothing that unites the people, not even deprivation or poverty. There is no common front. Further, history has shown that leaders of revolutions always turn out to be worse than those they chase out of power. And besides, who will lead the revolution anyway? Some intellectual safely tucked away in diaspora or a local activist? Even our own local experience has shown that newspaper activists or self-proclaimed revolutionaries are not to be trusted with power. In one of the Southwestern States, there was a governor, who until he was elected as a governor was a regular columnist in the Nigerian Tribune. Believing that he meant what he was writing about, people voted him in as a governor. As soon as he got elected, he forgot about his idealistic articles. He joined the reactionaries! What did he do to alleviate the suffering of the masses? Nothing!

The convocation of a Sovereign National Conference to jointly define the conditions of our continued common existence or the parameters of an amicable break-up looks attractive in our present situation. But who will convoke this SNC? Who will be invited to this SNC?  Will it be the same dishonest, corrupt and continuously recycled members of the discredited political class? Will the political class even have the courage to convoke this SNC? The answer is No! The necessity for this SNC is not new. It is something that has been staring at us in the face for the past 50 years and none of our rulers has ever had the courage to put this agenda on the table. There is a Yoruba proverb that says, “Orisha, b’o ba le gbe mi, kuku fi mi sile bi o se ba mi”, which loosely translates into “Orisha, if you cannot add value to my life, better leave me as I was”, but this Orisha, our vicious political class will not add value to our lives and do not have the courage to leave us as were before the drunk Lugard and his girlfriend entrapped us behind the borders to serve the Empire. His successors, our rulers have simply continued the legacy of their British ancestor. There is almost no possibility that a SNC will ever take place in Lugardia, I mean Nigeria.

There just might be another solution. But before we talk about this solution, I will like to state what I suppose majority of us desires as citizens. Firstly we want real democracy, where we count. Secondly, we want strong and incorruptible institutions that are not manipulable by any government in power. Thirdly, we want basic services and basic infrastructure. And lastly we want corruption to disappear from our lives. Our political class cannot deliver any of these. They have shown and proved to us that they cannot. And these are the minimum deliverables that we expect. If our politicians cannot deliver them, then we have to look elsewhere.

The United States has what we, as ordinary citizens want and desire, and we, on the other hand have what they need badly, which is oil. As an alternative to revolution or the convocation of a SNC, Nigeria can ask to become the 51^st State of America. An offshore state, that functions and is ruled like any other American State. Then we will have the dollar as our currency, fly the American Flag and forget “Arise O compatriots”. We will be independent but within the framework of the Constitution of United States, which we copied and have failed woefully to implement as a nation. This is not a return to colonialism. We shall have the same status as any other state in the US. Many of our politicians and bankers already have properties in the US, and some are US citizens, and according to Wikileaks, our politicians low and mighty regularly give their “sitreps” (situation reports) to the American Ambassador in Abuja. They have inadvertently opened the way for Nigeria to become the 51^st American State. And Lugardians (I mean Nigerians) will not need a visa again to go to any part of the world.

The best way to go about this is through a United Nations organized referendum. We cannot trust any of our politicians, even Professor Jega’s INEC with this responsibility. They know that when we become US citizens, many of them will go to jail for a very long time.

GADDAFI'S GAFFES (Abla Ungalski) - 12

Of the Black Race

“The black race is now in a very backward social situation. But such backwardness helps to bring about numerical superiority of the blacks because their low standard of living has protected them from getting to know the means and ways of birth control and family planning. Also their backward social traditions are a reason why there is no limit to marriage, leading to their unlimited growth, while the population of other races has decreased because of birth control, restrictions on marriage and continuous occupation in work, unlike the blacks who are sluggish in a climate which is always hot.”

Muammar Al Qathafi: The Green Book 1975.

And they are very primitive too

“… There are thousands of tribes in Africa. Those tribes fight over water and pastureland…. When the peoples of Africa leave the primitive stage behind them, tribalism will end and so will tribal conflicts…”

Address to the Faculty and Students of Cambridge University October 22,.2007

I will organize them..

“We must unite to establish one big association for the Tribes of the Great Desert. We shall frame a charter that we will all sign and call “The Charter of Timbuktu”…..
"New Challenge" - A Speech in Timbuktu. April 10, 2006.

 

But if I fail....

"I will take Libya out of Africa and put it back into Europe"

BBC 24th February 2011: “In a speech in Addis Ababa Colonel Gaddafi attacked the Ethiopians for what he perceived as racism, accusing them of stuffing the bureaucracy of the African Union with anything but Arabs.”

GADDAFI'S GAFFES (Abla Ungalski) - 11

Let the Africans in…

“At the Libyan border, I recently stopped 1,000 African migrants headed for Europe…. They have the right to do so. .…”

Address to the United Nations General Assembly. October 1, 2009

 Chase those starving and ignorant Africans out!

“There are millions of Africans who want to come in (Europe)".

“We don't know... what will be the reaction of the white and Christian Europeans faced with this influx of starving and ignorant Africans”

"Tomorrow Europe might no longer be European, and may even be black, as there are millions who want to come in, We don't know if Europe will remain an advanced and united continent or if it will be destroyed, as happened with the barbarian invasions....." 

Reported by BBC August 31, 2010

GADDAFI'S GAFFES (Abla Ungalski) - 10

Let us migrate....

“God orders us to migrate to various parts of the Earth. He tells us to go wherever we want in it…. For all those reasons, one is entitled to migrate to different parts of the Earth because God created it for all….”

Address to the African Union/ European Union Ministerial Meeting on Migration and Development, November 22 2006

....Otherwise go back to your roots

“If we are to ban migration, let us then ban the human presence in all continents. Let every one return to the land from which they came. Let the inhabitants of the Americas return to Europe. Let the Europeans go back to Asia. The Arabs of North Africa should return to the Arabian Peninsula. The inhabitants of Australia must return to Britain, Holland or any other country they hail from. The Boer in South Africa, who have become an integral part of its people, must head back to the Netherlands.”

 Address to the African Union/ European Union Ministerial Meeting on Migration and Development, November 22 2006

GADDAFI'S GAFFES (Abla Ungalski) - 9

Close that Door!

“This door must be closed; the door to Security Council membership should be closed…. No one can force us to join the Security Council.”

Address to the United Nations General Assembly. October 1, 2009

But open the Window

“No one can say that the African Union does not deserve a permanent seat….”

Address to the United Nations General Assembly. October 1, 2009

GADDAFI'S GAFFES (Abla Ungalski) - 8

And why can’t I be like Caesar?

“…The senators of Rome once appointed their leader, Julius Caesar, as dictator because it was good for Rome at that time….”

Address to the United Nations General Assembly. October 1, 2009

The Problem is

"I don't have money, I don't have a palace...."
Speech on Libyan Television. February 2011

   
                        

I am their Caesar, anyway..

“If they’re not following Qaddafi, who would they follow? Somebody with a beard?”

Speech on Libyan Television. February 2011

GADDAFI'S GAFFES (Abla Ungalski) - 7

The people exist
“Representation is falsification. The people exist, why should anyone represent them? Who can dream on behalf of the people? ….”

Address to the Faculty and Students of Cambridge University October 22, 2007

 

Con.. or Pro, I am the law

“Constitutions are not the law of the society...”

Muammar Al Qathafi: THE GREEN BOOK 1975

GADDAFI'S GAFFES (Abla Ungalski) - 6

Forget Elections
“Elections bring us no stability and no benefits…”

Address titled “Strategic Vision of an African Cultural Revolution to Preserve the African Identity, its Historical Roots and Age-old Cultural Heritage” to African Intellectuals gathered in Dakar. February 1, 2005

 

I am the Parliament“
A parliament is a misrepresentation of the people”

Muammar Al Qathafi: THE GREEN BOOK 1975

GADDAFI'S GAFFES (Abla Ungalski) - 5

Take your seat, please.
“Democracy is a composite Arabic word. It is made up of two words; demo which means people and “Cracy” which means chairs or seats….”

Address to the Faculty and Students of Cambridge University October 22,.2007

Lest we forget
“Democracy is not for the rich or the most powerful or for those who practice terrorism….”

Address to the United Nations General Assembly. October 1, 2009

GADDAFI'S GAFFES (Abla Ungalski) - 4

A philosophical question..
“Should we have patriarchs? Should we have popes? Should we have gods?”
Address to the United Nations General Assembly. October 1, 2009

We want the prophets..
“Where is the Pope? Where is the Church? Where is Jesus? Where is Moses? Where is Muhammad? Where is Buddha? Where is Zarathustra? Where is Confucius?....”
Address to the Heads of Churches in Libya, some Ambassadors of “Friendly Countries”, Political, Religious and Cultural Figures in Libyan Society. December 30, 2006

GADDAFI'S GAFFES (Abla Ungalski) - 3

I am not an Arab
"Libya is an African country. May Allah help the Arabs and keep them away from us. We don't want anything to do with them...."
Libyan TV, March 2007

I am an Arab
“Arabs have no hostility or animosity towards Israel. We are cousins and of the same race….”
Address to the United Nations General Assembly. October 1, 2009

GADDAFI'S GAFFES (Abla Ungalski) - 2

I am not who I am“I am neither a politician nor a diplomat……”

Address to the Students of Oxford University on Africa in the 21st Century” May 16, 2007

I know who I am"I am an international leader, the dean of the Arab rulers, the king of kings of Africa and the imam of Muslims …"Arab League summit, March 2009

GADDAFI'S GAFFES (Abla Ungalski) - 1

You are Mute devils
“This is a cowardly, despicable world that is incapable of telling the truth. There are mute devils among the adherents of all sects and religions, and in all the nations and the peoples. They are all insignificant and despicable…”

Address to the Heads of Churches in Libya, some Ambassadors of “Friendly Countries”, Political, Religious and Cultural Figures in Libyan Society December 30, 2006

I am not a mute demon…
“He who does not declare the truth is a mute demon, and since nobody wants to be a mute demon, I felt it was my duty to meet with you…”
Address to the Heads of Churches in Libya, some Ambassadors of “Friendly Countries”, Political, Religious and Cultural Figures in Libyan Society December 30, 2006

Gaddafi's Gaffes by Abla Ungalski

I recently came across a book on Muammar Gaddafi written by one Abla Ungalski. The book, released in June 2011 and titled Gaddafi’s Gaffes is a small compilation of quotes from the Colonel’s speeches in different forums. The author did a good job of portraying the complex nature of the now-ousted Libyan president through his own words. For those who do not want to be bothered with long and complicated books on Gaddafi and his 42-year reign in Libya, this book gives the opportunity to have some clues on how Gaddafi managed to make himself a controversial figure.

I will run the book in the small series on this site, believing that the author will see this gesture as a kind of free advertisement and publicity for him.

Here is the introduction as written by the author:

"My interest in Muammar Gaddafi dates back to my childhood years.

We had just been introduced to the works of William Shakespeare in Junior Secondary School. This was a major discovery for our young minds, and I do remember that soon after, all Shakespeare’s works were borrowed out from the school library. I went to the library twice a day to find out if anyone had returned any of his works. No luck. I later found out that a list of potential borrowers of Shakespeare’s books had been created by the library. I added my name to the list. I was either 67th or 76th on the list. I cannot remember precisely. But such was our “thirst” to discover the world’s greatest writer. The school principal soon ordered more of Shakespeare’s books for the library. “The Merchant of Venice” was my first and this marked the beginning of a long journey into the literary world. I memorized many of the lines in the play. And indeed, though a bit fuzzy, I still remember Portia lines to Shylock to “temper justice with mercy” at the trial. My father later bought me a compilation of Shakespeare’s comedies rendered in narrative. In a space of about a year, I had read most of Shakespeare’s comedies either as plays or as narratives. I was thirteen years old.

Then, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi came into my life. I had never heard of Gaddafi before my encounter with him on the pages of a newspaper on one Sunday. The name Shakespeare in the title of the article caught my attention. I was always happy to read anything Shakespeare or anything about him. Any “new discovery” on the master was always something to share proudly with friends and classmates in school. We sought to outdo each other in our knowledge of Shakespeare. I settled down to read the article. Then Colonel Gaddafi rolled in and created what would be, at first doubts, and then a source of annoyance, incredulity and much later, laughter in my life. He claimed in the article that William Shakespeare’s real name was Sheikh Speare! Not only that, but also identified his place of birth as somewhere in Benghazi. Colonel claimed that Shakespeare was not born in Stratford upon Avon but in Benghazi. Sheikh Speare from Benghazi!

Could this be true? I asked myself as I read the article over and over again. Stratford upon Avon or Benghazi? Shakespeare or Sheikh Speare? English or Libyan? I did not know what to believe. There was no internet (at least for civilian use) at the time, so there could not have been Google or any other search engine. My father was my search engine. I waited for him to come back from his club. I showed my father the article on his arrival. He laughed and said “don’t let other people’s dreams become your nightmare. Gaddafi is a dreamer. He imagined it.” I was relieved. Not because Shakespeare turned out not to be an Arab, but because Colonel Gaddafi planted doubts in my young mind. “Can a universally accepted truth be a lie? And more so, is it possible for only one person to know that this truth is a lie?” One doubt leads to another, and in a young mind, the potential damage is without limits. I should say that I make a clear distinction between scientific curiosity and baseless spurious claims.

I became interested in Colonel Gaddafi. I read his speeches. I followed closely his ambition to coerce African States into United States of Africa, which I suspected he wanted to rule over. I followed his frustrations, his fears and his feeling of helplessness. I saw him over the years as a man of contradictions and I saw in him too, a man who kills “the thing he loves”[1]. He loves Libya passionately and is killing his country with his defiance.

Another interesting aspect of this man’s life that has intrigued me is his obsessive desire for universal recognition as a brilliant statesman, a world-class literary scholar, a political philosopher, a religious expert, a social analyst and reformist, an erudite lawyer, an eminent historian and world’s best president. He hungered and thirsted for recognition which the world would not give him. When persuasion failed, he sought to buy this recognition from Sub-Sahara Africa, which he considered the easiest target, by funding various projects in poor African countries. The Africans understood him and paid him lip service to obtain his funds to develop their countries. Over the years, he has seen his goal for recognition go up in smoke and frustration has crept in. His speech and comportment at the United Nations General Assembly in October 2009 can be interpreted as manifestations of his frustrations. Contrary to the way he has dreamt to be perceived by the world, many see him as an eccentric, unpredictable, unreliable and moody ruler of an Arab Nation. This probably hurts him more than the demand on him to quit after more than forty years in power in Libya.

Describing Colonel Gaddafi is a great task. Understanding his thought process is even more daunting.

I leave the readers to judge."

What matters most is how you see yourself !

What matters most is the way you see yourself !