Following Gheddafi`s famous speech at the city Zuara in 1973, the city that its name was changed to the City of the five points! That speech was concentrated in five points, one of these points was the so called the declaration of the Cultural Revolution. What does that mean?
Gheddafi`s cultural revolution was based on forming a state that fits with his political ideas and his future political ambitions, Gheddafi announced his hidden war against intellectuals, writers, journalists and singers! Any cultural space was emarginated and controlled, the theatre became the favourite place for his secret agents, Libraries and cinema houses were disappeared even the soccer stadiums were considered a real threat for Gheddafi!
Many writers had to leave the country or had to write different topics but politics, Sadiq annaihum, Ibrahim Alkuni, Said almahruq. The first was from Benghazi but spent his life in Finland until he passed away in 1994. While the second one is a Tuareg from the south of Libya but he still live in Switzerland! The last one is a Berber from Tripoli but lived in terrible conditions with frequent visits of Gheddafi`s secret agents!
Three years later in 1976 he introduced his Green Book which was a sort of mental disease but it was the fulcrum of ruling Libya for long decades, Through his green book Gheddafi controlled even the musical production of Libya, where one of that book verses say: the peoples don’t enjoy but their arts and their heritage!
Where according to Gheddafi`s sacrum book, Giuseppe Verdi and Dante Alighieri would be appreciated just by the Italians not the rest of the humanity; we Libyans don’t have to read the marvels of Shakespeare or to enjoy the Beatles as they were just local British culture! The result of such nonsense was the ban of the Western musical instruments like the Drums and the guitar (of Andalusian origins) in the Libyan song! Famous Libyan singers had to leave the country, Ahmed Fakrun who born in Benghazi had to stay years in France and Italy as his guitar was a fatal weapon! Nasser Almizdawi from Tripoli left the country for years and had almost to stop singing because of the Green book hate to the Guitars! The other Benghazi born composer and guitarist Hamid Alshaery had to suffer years in Egypt as his guitar was Anti Gheddafi, before becoming a pioneer Arab composer. Today those three Guitarists and singers are those who revolutionised and modernised the Arabic song and launched hundreds of Arab singers.
With Gheddafi’s cultural revolutions and Green Book, Libyans had renounced the use of foreign languages as well; Italian was considered the language of the sad past, while English and French are the languages of colonisers and imperialist! Even our history was modified following the rule of the Roman Empire (memory Damnation)! The real Libyan history was started just in 1969 therefore such historical Libyan heroes like Septimius Severus and Ahmed pasha Karamanly were a result of foreign invading powers to the Libyan soil!
The Libyans post 17th of February revolution; have to fight strongly to get rid of Gheddafi cultural theories. On the other hand, The Libyan government of today has to encourage Libyans to visit Libya`s archaeological sites and museums, teach the people how to be proud of their historical heroes, name the street after them, issue publications about the hidden Libyan history in order to restore the lost image of Libya made of different cultures and languages.
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