Gateway to Europe
A unique insight into the history and lifestyle of Libya
Libya is comparatively a new country with a centuries old name. The name Libya is an indigenous one which is attested in ancient Egyptian texts referring to one of the Berber tribes living west of the Nile. In ancient Greece the term had a broader meaning encompassing all of North Africa west of Egypt. The list of the countries that I have visited over the years and written the travel account of is long and this country, that I have known so well, is almost at the fag end of the current list. The reasons for delaying writing about this wonderful place are many, the main being that there is so much to write about it and I have constraints about the article size. Secondly the beauty of this ‘Gateway’ to Europe has been marred by one man rule over the decades and one feels extremely sorry to see the deterioration of a place which had more potential and better resources than Dubai. Its large size, friendly Mediterranean climate, huge oil reserves and more importantly its very close proximity to Europe are things that make it a class above the tiny Gulf States.
I was sent on deputation to the Ministry of Health in this North African country in summers. Not knowing much about the place and internet facilities not yet available I was somewhat blank in my perception about it. There wasn’t much literature available either so I drew a picture of the place in my imagination; a boundless sea of sand, inhabited by tall, dark Africans, where the life would be without much charm. When I landed in Benghazi, the second largest city of Libya, it was around midnight in the month of June. Moving out of the airport I realized it was cold out there in the open but I assumed that this was how the nights in the desert were likely to be. I was, however, delighted to find out the following morning that it was wonderfully pleasant even during the day and that the temperatures during these months averaged around 30 to 33 degree Celsius in that part of the country. Back home in Pakistan, where I was living until a day earlier, it was sizzling hot and such low temperature at my new destination was ‘too good to believe’. The first thing that I saw from my hotel window in the morning was the Mediterranean Sea. Desert was nowhere in sight.
Benghazi, right on the Mediterranean, is a colourful small town with moderate climate. Eastern Libya’s main port, this city was completely destroyed in the Second World War before being liberated by Field Marshal Montgomery in 1942. It has been rebuilt on modern lines with high rise buildings, a beautiful University Campus and a sprawling sports city. It has pleasant summers with short spells of heat waves not lasting more than a few days. Winters are mild but windy and as the rainy season also falls in winters, it becomes somewhat uncomfortable at times especially when you do not see the winter sun for weeks. The sea breeze is so consistently strong that, like a weather-cock, the young trees in the open are invariably tilted along the direction of the wind. It is always advisable to keep light woolies in the car for the afternoons, especially for the kids. The temperatures rarely touch zero degrees Celsius though I have witnessed snow once during my stay there when a thick white blanket covered a vast area in and around Benghazi. It was after decades that it had snowed there, which otherwise, is not a common phenomenon. In the eastern town of Al Bayda, on the Green Mountains, snow fall in winters is not uncommon. Bayda in Arabic means white, hence the name.
The Libyan coastline, stretching to nearly eighteen hundred km along the Mediterranean, is the longest of any African country. Libyan Desert, one of the most arid places on earth where decades may pass without rain, covers most of the southern region. Majority of the population of the country lives in the fertile coastal belt while the scantily populated vast desert has three oases habitations besides the oil fields producing the prized ‘liquid gold’. The fertile coastal areas have endless fruit orchards where a large variety of quality Mediterranean fruits grow in abundance. Wheat is also grown in the hilly areas. Wheat farms with mechanized water sprinklers have also been set up in the middle of the desert which is a commendable effort. No wonder the Libyans are self sufficient in food. The Great Man Made River (GMR) project ambitiously launched in 1984 and to be completed in twenty five years is still off target because of high operational costs.
Libya is Africa’s fourth largest country with an area double the size of Pakistan, 90% of which is covered by desert. Traditionally this country is divided into three parts namely; Tripolitania, Cyrenica and Fezzan. Capital Tripoli is in the western Tripolitania while the second city Benghazi is the capital of the eastern region of Cyrenica. Fezzan to the south, bordering Sudan, Chad and Niger, is a parched desert with a Negroid population. Libya’s per capita income is staggeringly high at US$ 8,400 per annum. Huge oil reserves contribute mainly to the high GDP while significantly low density of population is the other contributing factor. Total population of the republic is slightly over half a million, 90% of which lives in less than 10% of the area along the coast. The coastal areas of Tripolitania and Cyrenica have a population of three people per sq. km while it is less than one person per sq. km elsewhere in the country. 97% Libyans are Sunni Muslims. Libya’s is the only flag in the world with one colour and no design, no insignia or other details.
Libya has a very old history; with the Greeks, Romans, Ottoman Turks and Italians having ruled them over the centuries but it is the Arabs who have had the last laugh making it typically Arabic by pushing the indigenous Berbers to the south. While the country is adorned with a wide array of Greco-Roman ruins and Italian language words are frequently used by the locals, especially the senior citizenry, the untasselled Fez is perhaps the only relic left of the Ottoman rule. World war one saw this country switch to the Italian yoke from the Ottoman rule and later became a joint principality of the Americans, British and the French after the Second World War, winning ultimate independence in 1951under a Monarch. The discovery of oil in 1959 saw it transform from one of the poorest nations in the world to an extremely wealthy state. The end of the Monarchy in 1969 also saw the end of freedom of press and speech and the country now enjoys the ignominious reputation of one of the poorest human rights record holders in the world. Its notoriously fire brand military dictator has aligned himself with contemporary carpet baggers like Idi Ameen of Uganda and Cuba’s Fidel Castro, making it a police state.
Like in all countries under perpetual one man rule, in spite of its vast resources, Libya has also lagged way behind in development. All fair and unfair means are used by its ‘democratic Monarch’ to prolong his hold on the country’s affairs. It has been cut off from the modern world and any Libyan getting a chance to settle abroad hardly ever thinks of returning to the motherland. That said there are many good things about the government as well. Libya has an impressive level of social security, education and housing. Health care is free and excellent. Education is free and compulsory with a literacy rate of 83%, the highest in Africa. The number of universities in the country has gone up from two in the mid nineteen seventies to nine in 2004. The best part of their school system is that they have uniform syllabi and children would get admission to the schools of the area only. This parity is visible in other social sectors as well. A visionary leadership would have done wonders in developing this country into another Malaysia, Singapore or even Dubai. The big negative is that, like in all other oil rich Arab states, the Libyans also do not like to work. The system is working because of the foreign work force only. They got to realize that oil wells are going to dry up one day.
The social set up of the Libyans is excellent. They are generally honest people with lively disposition and like to enjoy life in spite of all the political odds. They eat well, have picnics, go to beaches and are fond of camping. Fast cars are their obsession. They drive recklessly leading to fatal accidents on the high ways. The number of maxillofacial surgeries we had to perform in that small town averaged over three a week. The number of dead was many fold but that seldom deterred them from pushing the accelerator to the floor. Weekend picnics are common. Every vehicle would be headed to the east to reach the scenic Green Mountains for a day out in the open. Returning in the afternoon the rows of cars running bumper to bumper presented an excellent sight. Again a negative; the people of Benghazi and Tripoli dislike each other to the extent of hatred. It is surprising especially when the distribution of national resources is not the bone of contention. I once asked a Libyan about this ill-will between the two city dwellers to which he replied, ‘Pakistan and India also do not see eye to eye with each other’.
These Green Mountains start eighty km east of Benghazi near Tokra and stretch up to Tobruk near the Egyptian border. Many wonderful towns fall on the way. The first town of significance is Al Merj which was a Greco Roman port by the name of Tolmeita and has historical ruins including a Hellenistic Greek palace. It is a beautifully planned city and a treat to visit. Next is Shahat, formerly Cyrene, two hundred km from Benghazi, giving an impressive view along the plateau overlooking the Mediterranean where a Juniper forest adds to the beauty of the place. The 7th century tall historical columns of Cyrene, set in the back drop of scenic mountain slopes, are a visual feast for the visitors. Twenty km further east is the ancient port city of Susa with its vast array of ruins. Derna and Tobruk are historical places with the former being a Greek port in the centuries gone by while Tobruk is famous for World War-2 cemeteries with around 12000 graves of European and Australian soldiers. The famous Hollywood bloc buster ‘The Guns of Navarone’ starring Gregory Peck was shot at locations in this area. This winding coastal high way goes up to Alexandria in Egypt.
West of Benghazi, Leptis Magna, now known as Al Khums, is a well preserved old city. A port of call under the Phoenician trade route it was part of the Roman Empire and has all types of ruins a Roman city of yore can boast of. The distance between Benghazi and Tripoli is 1000 km and the road runs along the sea coast. Further on is the Tunisian border, just ninety km to the west. The main means of communication in Libya is the road net work. A regular ferry service also operates between Tripoli and Malta but it is the air transport that is mainly used for international travel. The railway in operation until the end of the WW2, probably for military use, was dismantled after the war. A rail terminal still stands next to the seven storey high Dental Faculty in Benghazi where some rail track is also intact. When the Libyan President visited our faculty on its inauguration, he was in my office for nearly twenty minutes discussing the obsolete rail system in the country. It was here in this very office that I received the famous Hollywood star Anthony Quinn and extended him some dental treatment when he was on a shoot of the movie The Lion of the Desert.
The Libyans are fond of beaches which are aplenty. Benghazi alone has a number of them in the town besides many virgin beaches just outside the municipal limits. In fact every department has its own beach with a club house. There are French, British, American, Medical, Family and other beaches along the coast. A lovely promenade, right near the old traditional souks, is frequented by the visitors in the afternoons. During the high tide this is virtually washed with the sea water that reaches as far as the nearby road soaking the parked vehicles. The covered markets have maintained the flavour of the Arab traditions. Picnics and camping have become a culture of modern Libya. There are innumerable picnic spots on the sea beach, in the mountains and along the green meadows. Camping is without caravans. Luxury tents are pitched somewhere in the jungle in a circle, cars are parked in between the tents, a bonfire is lit in the middle and the fun starts. We have left our tents and belongings unguarded for hours and driven to far off places from the camping site and believe me not a single item was ever pilfered. Thefts and brigandage are things the Libyans are not familiar with. We had even had night picnics in the jungle and it was as safe in the dark as in broad day light.
There are many fruit and vegetable farms around the town and it is a common practice in Libya to visit them on the weekends. It is a pleasure picking up fresh fruit or green vegetables from the farms which is also a good learning experience for the kids. We had a European guest staying with us in Lahore last December and she told us that she was a member of one such farm back home where she goes on the weekends to get the green grocery for her kitchen. She was a paying member of that farm near Geneva, while in Libya any one with a few ready bucks in his wallet could walk into one. Driving on the highway on the weekends small time peasants are seen vending fresh fruits and seasonal vegetables alongside the road. The lovely fields in the hilly areas have beautiful farm houses. Every farm house is state financed having a grassy lawn with seasonal flowers, a garage with a tractor, pick up and a car and comfortable living quarters for the land lord and his workers.
Libya is not a place for the tourists. It requires concerted efforts on the part of the government to develop this culture which, in this country, is non existent. People are nice but the country is inhospitable. Visas are difficult to get. If a Ministry of Tourism exists it must be only in name as tourist information offices are nowhere to be seen. Foreigners have to go around the place in individual capacity by renting motor cars as group tour arrangements are not there. The Libyans have a false notion that any one visiting their country is looking for a job. For the narrow minded oil rich Libyans Cairo is the end of the world and this myopic approach does not auger well for the promotion of tourism. One has to be broad minded communicating in languages other than their own and welcome the visitors wishing to explore their country. Tourism provides a great learning opportunity for the overseas visitors as well the host country. The Libyan government, I am sure, understands these intricacies well but changing of attitudes does not suit their authoritarian rule. They seem to have turned their country in to a closed society rather deliberately.
Written by Dr. Shahid Qayyum
Published by Alisha Khuram
