Many Libyan writers werein the forefront of the Libyan revolution in February 2011. The revolutionopened the door wide for endless possibilities in new creative writing.
Modern Libyan literature often reflected thepolitical and social changes of Libya throughout its modern history. Libyasuffered years of wars, famines and poverty. A small number of Libyan eliteswere able to get educated in Turkey or Egypt, while most of the population wereilliterate or acquired limited literacy through traditional Quranic schoolsspread all over the country.
After the defeat of Italy and Germany in NorthAfrica in WWII by the Allies in 1943, many educated Libyans living in exilereturned back to the country and began a long process of rebuilding Libya. Withthe help of the international community, Libya managed to declare independencein 1951. During the process many newspapers and magazines featured literaryworks by a small number of Libyan writers who in their writings reflectedaspects of a country remerging from the smoke of war, like the late short storywriter Wahbi al-Bouri who is considered the pioneer of modern Libyan shortstory.
Golden Age and Gaddafi
During the late 1950’s a generation of Libyanwriters, who witnessed war and poverty in their childhood, and then thedramatic political and social changes in Libya, began refining their artisticstyle. They were influenced by the Arab literary powerhouse of their age,Egypt, but in the same time they addressed the main issues facing the Libyansociety, mainly, social inequality, women rights and nationalism. Kamelal-Maghour, Khalifa Tekbali, Ahmed Fagih, Yousef al-Sharef, Mohamed Shaltami,Ali al-Rageay and later Ibrahim al-Kouni were major writers of theirgeneration.
This generation of Libyan writers dominated theliterary scene of the 1960’s. The period is considered the golden age of Libyanliterature. Many new emerging writers began to publish their books. With theadvance of education and literacy, the country experienced a gush of creativityin the arts, literature and journalism.
Right after the Gaddafi regime came into power in1970’s, a generation of upcoming and politically motivated young writers begana new wave of Libyan literature. It was characterised by experimentalism,breaking the norms and traditions of Libyan classical literature, influencednot only by classical Arab literature, but also by international literature intranslation. Omar al-Kikili, Mohamed Fagih Saleh, Giuma Bukleb, Idris Ben-Tayeband Ahmed al-Faitouri were among a group of writers that emerged in this periodand adopted the wave of new creativity.
The daring and often confrontational character ofthis generation of Libyan writers caused them to clash with main elements ofthe Gaddafi regime, that established control and domination over all aspects oflife in Libya. Eventually the writers found themselves persecuted andimprisoned for a whole decade, which caused a major scar in the modern Libyanliterature.
Recovery
It wasn’t before the mid 1990’s that Libyanliterature breathed a fresh air and managed to produce new kind of literature.This literature still dominates the current scene in Libya. The impact ofpolitical persecution and lack of freedom of speech in Libya made many Libyanwriters, both from the old and new generations, change their style and findways to escape censorship and above all break the isolation and marginalisationimposed on them.
The political tensions during the 1990’s in Libya,the economic sanctions and air embargo imposed on the country, coupled with therise of unemployment and economic stagnation, reflected on the young generationof Libyans. They comprised more than 60 percent of the society. All these factorsinfluenced directly the new generation of Libyan writers.
Writers like Muftah al-Ammari, Salem al-Okali,Abdulsalam al-Ajaili and Ahmed Yousef Agila reflected themes of daily struggleto secure livelihood, the urge to break taboos and old traditions of society, anew thirst to open up to other cultures, and to rediscover and redefine theLibyan identity, combined with more experimentalism, all became features ofthis new wave of Libyan literature.
Breaking the Isolation
The introduction of the internet in Libya in late1998 had a major impact on new Libyan literature. The internet opened a newhorizon, a wide window towards a vast number of audiences, and also thepossibility of reading and learning about other cultures and to reintroduce theLibyan identity that believes in diversity and inclusiveness.
The internet was a crucial tool for majority of newLibyan writers in developing their skills and styles, as it made it easy forthem to connect with the international literary scene. Especially in other Arabcountries, where Libyan writers were absent expect for a handful of names fromthe earlier generation. The internet also made it possible for young writers topublish works outside Libya and escape the tight grip of state censorship andcontrol.
With the advance of the internet, new tools andapplications became readily available for many new writers to publish theirworks without having to fear being persecuted. Discussion forums, electronicnewspapers and magazines, personal websites, blogs and recently social media,all contributed in getting Libyan literature known outside the reach of aregime that has been trying to control all aspects of society.
Features
The main features of the new Libyan literature thatbecame apparent in the last decade, is the emergence of fiction, short storiesand novels, and prose as major forms of Libyan literature. As in all Arabcountries, poetry is considered the main form of Arab literature in general,but many new writers began producing new works in fiction, especially novels.This is an indication that Libyan writers were looking for a form of literaturethat can describe the daily aspects of ordinary Libyans in their struggle to berecognised as respected citizens.
The other major feature was new styles to avoidcensorship and breaking the societal and religious taboo. In a country whichmany would like to describe as conservative, many works of fiction and poetrybegan challenging the norms and traditions which were partly blamed for thecurrent political and social stagnation, combined with the emergence of a newwave of Islamism and religiosity, a form of escapism from confronting the realproblems of the country, dictatorship, corruption and inequality.
The other main feature that characterised new Libyanliterature, was the heavy use of metaphors and the use of famous Libyanhistorical events. It was a way to rediscover the Libyan identity that sufferedgreatly under the Pan-Arab nationalism policy imposed by the Gaddafi regime.This in turn made new Libyan writers avoid adopting any ideological thoughts intheir writings, especially nationalistic ideas, focusing mainly on presentingtheir personal intimate, and in some cases autobiographical, experience of thekind of life they were living in Libya. Abdallah al-Ghazal, Mohamed al-Asfar,Kahled Darwish, Ramez Enwesri, Saleh Gaderboh, Abduldaim Ukwas, Wejdan Ali, andWafa al-Buissa were among these writers.
Many new Libyan writers published their creativeworks through state owned publishing houses or funds, or worked for state ownednewspapers and magazines. But still they managed to publish other works, whichwere expected to be censored or banned, outside the country, especially inEgypt and Lebanon or through literary websites operating outside Libya. Thisphenomenon made many new writers produce two kinds of creative works: oneself-censored and tamed for local publication and another daring and boundlessfor a wider audience outside the country.
Even with these ways to avoid censorship, Libyanwriters continued to have their works banned and confiscated from thebookshops. Some of them had to leave the country to avoid persecution in theform of being banned to write in local newspapers, detention, or in some casestorture and death. In 2005 the Libyan writer and journalist Daif Al Ghazal wasfound dead in Benghazi with signs of torture after he wrote a series ofarticles in a Libyan website outside Libya criticising the government andGaddafi’s notorious revolutionary committees.
Revolution
Libyan writers were inspired by the wave of Arabrevolutions that engulfed the region. The Tunisian revolution was influentialin shaping a new atmosphere of hope to change the current situation, especiallyin a country that has close ties socially and culturally to Libya.
The issues of human rights, the rule of law, freedomof speech and democracy became the main focus of new literary works in thefirst weeks of this year. The Egyptian revolution paved the way for other Arabcountries to demand the fall of regimes and reform. Libya was most in need forthis long awaited change.
Many Libyan writers from different generations andacross the country were in the forefront of the Libyan revolution when itexploded in 15-17th of February 2011. At least a dozen of them were detainedand tortured by the Gaddafi regime because of their involvement indemonstrations and their reporting about the situation in Libya to the media.Some were detained because of their activities on the social media, likeTwitter and Facebook, and others had to escape the grip of the regime as theyrefused the regime’s pressure to denounce the revolution and support Gaddafiand his brutal campaign on peaceful protesters and civilians.
Idris Musmari, Mohamed Suhaim, Atef Atrash, MoahmedBen Lamin, Elhabeb Alamin, and Rabee Shrair: These are just a few of thewriters and journalists that were targeted and detained by the regime for thetheir activities and writings supporting the popular uprising against theGaddafi regime in Libya.
Freedom to Write
The Libyan revolution opened the door wide forendless possibilities and opportunities in creative writing, arts and thejournalism. As state media and censorship became nearly obsolete in free Libya,many new publications sprang up. Pamphlets, newspapers and magazines begancirculating in different forms and different languages.
It is estimated that of July 2011 more than 120publications of different sizes, forms and languages circulate in free Libya.These give a wider opportunity for new Libyan literature and creative writingto flourish. The literature is expected to grow extensively when the conflictis resolved and with the anticipated liberation of the capital Tripoli.
Since the beginning of the revolution several monthsago, a considerable amount of new Libyan literature has been published in localpublications and other Arab publications across the region. There was also agush of new creative writings published online.
Most of these works were either literary works withheavy revolutionary sentiments, especially revolutionary poetry. Some fictionliterary works appeared to examine the period of oppression in Libya under theGaddafi regime, and others drew on the suffering of Libyan people in refugeecamps and in hospitals, like the works of Mohamed Mesrati, Azza al-Maghour, andNajwa Ben-Shatwan.
Many new Libyan writers found the new reality offreedoms daring and in some cases shocking, especially after decades of selfcensorship and thought control by the regime. Most adapt to the new reality andfight to prevent the emergence of social and political censorship. In the sametime they expose Gaddafi regime’s atrocities and redefine the Libyan identity,celebrating its rich diverse history and stressing on social tolerance andcultural Libyan diversity. This diversity has been oppressed for decades,especially the recognition of other Libyan ethnicities like in the case of theAmazigh, Berber ethnicity with its language and culture.
Beyond Revolution
The Amazigh, Berber culture suffered a lot under theGaddafi rule. Its heritage and language were banned, and activists detained andtortured. After liberating the Nafusa Mountain Region in west Libya fromGaddafi rule, many efforts has focused on reintroducing the Amazigh language tothe wider Libyan culture. Many works of forgotten Amazigh literature are beingtranslated into Arabic and English.
It is expected that more Libyan writers from Amazighbackground will find a place to publish their works in the different Amazighpublications already in circulation in Nafusa and all over Libya.
During the last several years many Libyan writersproduced literary works that focused on the impact of the Gaddafi oppressiveregime on the Libyan society. Some works were so daring that the writers neverpublished them. Others had to leave the country to publish independently orthrough other Libyan and Arab publications outside Libya.
Many of these written works of literature, some of whichare memoirs and autobiographies of known Libyan writers, reveal the reality ofliving under the Gaddafi regime. They are now beginning to be published in freeLibya. Other unpublished works are also expected to be printed in books in thenext few months inside Libya. A few new projects attempt to translate andpublish some of these works in the near future.
After decades of oppression it is expected that newLibyan writers will find their way into literature and creative writing. Theywill enjoy more freedoms than before. The path towards building a tolerantdiverse democratic society in Libya will be hard and marred with obstacles thatwill need all the efforts of Libyan writers and intellectuals to overcome.
Many years might pass before we witness the true andlong lasting impact of the Libyan and Arab revolution on all forms ofcreativity, from literature to the arts. The stakes were never higher than now.Many writers are adamant that whatever outcome of these historical events inthe region, we will witness a dramatic change in all aspects of society and afresh new wave of literature.
* The essay isoriginally published in Minerva 3-11
