Abstract
This chapter engages with the ways in which Ibrahim al-Koni’s Al Waram (‘The Tumor’), Ahmed Fagih’s Homeless Rats, and Hisham Matar’s In The Country of Men and Anatomy of a Disappearance diagnose the ills of the Qaddafiera and trace the political trajectory that eventually brought down the dictator. It thus analyses the four novels as: incisive parodies of a despot masquerading as a popular leader; fictional reconfigurations of decades of oppressive surveillance, brutal disappearances, and revolutionary exiles; and imaginative visions of a society that was always, even if silently, on the brink of an uprising.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
See Ahmida (2012) for an excellent discussion of the false premises and perceptions of tribalism in Libya.
In an op-ed piece in the New York Times, Ahmida wrote: ‘What is most striking about the rhetoric of the rebellion is how the anticolonialist theme that Colonel Qaddafionce deployed has now been turned against him and is being used on Twitter and Facebook’ (2011, n. pag.). As for the specific re-appropriation of al-Mukhtar iconography and rhetoric by Qaddafiand then the rebels against him, many commentators have noted this, including Ahmida (2012), Hammond (2011), McGregor (2011), and al-Khatib (2012).
According to Article 2 of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, this act signifies ‘the arrest, detention, abduction or any other form of deprivation of liberty by agents of the State or by persons or groups of persons acting with the authorization, support or acquiescence of the State, followed by a refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of liberty or by concealment of the fate or whereabouts of the disappeared person, which place such a person outside the protection of the law’.
According to a Human Rights Watch news piece published in 2006: ‘In the summer of 1996, stories began to filter out of Libya about a mass killing in Tripoli’s Abu Salim prison. The details remained scarce, and the government initially denied that an incident had taken place. Libyan groups outside the country said up to 1,200 prisoners had died. In 2001 and 2002, Libyan authorities began to inform some families with a relative in Abu Salim that their family-member had died, although they did not provide the body or details on the cause of death. In April 2004 Libyan leader Mu’ammar al-Qadhafipublicly acknowledged that killings had taken place in Abu Salim, and said that prisoners’ families have the right to know what took place.’ See Hisham Matar’s BBC interview on the subject of his father’s disappearance into Abu Salim: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/ impact_asia/8531182.stm.
The New-York based Libyan poet Khaled Mattawa portrays the tribulations of African illegal immigrants in Libya in his poem ‘East of Carthage’ (see Falola, Morgan and Oyeniyi, 2012, p. 55).
These comparisons are the subject of Alain Badiou (2012).
See Massad (2012) and my discussion, in the introduction, of his analysis of the love and fear of Arab dictators.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2013 Rita Sakr
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Sakr, R. (2013). ‘Here It’s Either Silence Or Exile’: The Stories of ‘Rats’ that Rebelled in Libya. In: ‘Anticipating’ the 2011 Arab Uprisings: Revolutionary Literatures and Political Geographies. Palgrave Pivot, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137294739_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137294739_3
Publisher Name: Palgrave Pivot, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-45158-6
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-29473-9
eBook Packages: Palgrave Literature CollectionLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)