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Has Africa lost Libya?
Has Africa lost Libya?
by Knox Chitlyo, The Guardian, 18 Sep 2011
Colonel Gaddafi's overthrow has highlighted the country's Arab heritage and created divisions within the continent.
For decades, Libya has been an integral part of Africa. Indeed Sirte, the Colonel Gaddafi stronghold where fighting still continues, was the birthplace of the Organisation of African Unity in 1963. About a quarter of indigenous Libyans are black, while African migrant workers in Libya exceed one million; and during his 40-year rule Gaddafi championed pan-Africanism and African multiculturalism.
But the Libyan uprising, while toppling the old order, has also become an ugly race war. The rebels were angry that black African mercenaries were hired to buttress the old regime – even though most of them were actually migrant workers or indigenous black Libyan soldiers. And a misperception has taken hold of all black Africans being mercenaries which has led to the persecution of African immigrants and black Libyans.
