Art and culture are key to opening up Libya, which ten years after the end of Muammar Gaddafi’s rule, is still a blackbox. The oil producing country of six million is more than 7 times bigger than Germany and was until 2011 the country with the highest GDP per capita in Africa. Since the fall of Gaddafi, media reports paint an image of destruction and chaos. Yet, another Libyan reality continues to exist in parallel to the conflicts, depicting an alternative image. Most of the bureaucratic institutions are still working and traffic jams are the main obstacle for the restart of the oil production. Libyan employees are still receiving their payments 70% percent of which still work for the state. Before the current crisis, the oil production was higher than even before the revolution in February 2011. Despite the war on Tripoli the police forces are out on the streets in shiny white uniforms. Yes, they lack authority such as the two governments and parliaments do. But it is not the Libyan citizens, who should be blamed for the vacuum of power and lack of responsibility. More than 100 free and fair local elections during 8 years of transition were held, which created local and democratic structures that exceed those of most other countries of the so-called “Arab spring”. Nevertheless, Libya became an example of anarchy, where guns not courts and parliaments would dictate rules in an endless chain of local conflicts. Many Libyans were shocked by the meltdown of the State. Yet, the vast majority of the Libyan citizens went back to their daily life and back into their jobs and families after the end of the uprising, only a tiny minority did not. Being a member of an armed group, deludes some fighters, who became thirsty for power, money and recognition. Some of those militias started to impose their ideas of their Libya by the gun. The citizens were overwhelmed by the multiple challenges that had to be solved in the post war phase. Political parties, civil society, freedom of speech, all was new and all had to be discovered. The Libyans were equally surprised by their own diversity. After 2011 many suddenly talked openly about the different languages and cultural backgrounds and identities: Arab, Amazigh, Bedouin, with Greek and Egyptian influences in the East and Maghrebinian influences in the West. The South is a gate to the Sahara, a cultural connecting point as the Mediterranean is to the North. Libyan school books are full of 42 years of the Gaddafi era and pan-Arabic identities, but only a few pages about the Libyan multiple identities can be found. The most famous books about Libya`s rich cultural heritage were written by adventurers and colonial rulers. They produced written accounts of the tribes, customs and ethnic groups that live in the great Sahara desert, the green mountains of Cyreneica or along the 2000 kilometers long shore of the Mediterranean. However, journalists in modern times only wrote about the one famous Libyan the world knew about: Muammar Gaddafi. The Blackbox Libya has not been opened yet. The political and military crises after 2011 forced many human rights activists and journalists to leave their country. Their void has been filled by artists, musicians and cultural activists. Art- and photo exhibitions, concerts and creative seminars are spreading, online and and offline in many Libyan cities. The Blackbox Libya tour through Germany in late 2019 was a moment of shedding light on a group of creatives that want to overcome tensions between geographical regions and political camps. Despite their variety and use of different concepts and styles, they all share one message: There is more to tell about Libya and North Africa than stories of oppression, war and conflict. Libya is in the midst of a transitional phase that will take much longer than mayn might have expected. “Its success will be measured by how much we will accept each other”, a friend from Benghazi said in summer 2011. “We didn’t know that Libya is such a melting pot of cultures and people”, he added. Art, culture and identity are the mechanisms to develop a culture of tolerance. The friend in Benghazi was Ibrahim Shebani, the founder of the “Libyan Magazine”. Already during the times of the uprising, he felt that Libyans had to learn about each other before a reconciliation process could even start. The motto of the young editorial team of the “Libyan Magazine” resembles the unspoken motto of the Blackbox tour: This is who we are! Blackbox Libya is cooperation of Heinrich Boell Foundation and Breaking the Ice project.

Blackbox Libya is a cooperation of Heinrich Boell Foundation and Breaking the Ice

https://tn.boell.org/en/blackbox-libya-political-dynamics-and-spaces-artistic-intervention