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There were other journals: Al Arraqeeb, Al Kashaf, AlasI' Alijadeed, Al Mirsad, and the satirical journal, Abu Qisha, so-called after the pen name of its owner and editor. These published news as well as satirical articles, poems, and linguistic and religious studies. There was also a magazine specialising in science called Arts. It was the beginning of a literary and cultural revival, taking its cue from the new spirit that was prevailing in the Arab homeland. With Egypt holding the torch; the same spirit made one of Libya's prominent personalities, Suleiman el Baruni, travel, establish his printing press, publish his newspaper The Muslim Lion, and print the first Libyan book of verse - a selection of his poems. To quote the Libyan historian Khalifa Talisi, describing the period:
'The country witnessed a literary revival most manifest in classical studies, the publication of a number of newspapers and the emergence of new literary trends influencing and being influenced by the ones that already existed in the east' He goes on to say, 'As was the case in other Arab countries, the dominant literary form was poetry as well as studies on language and religion.' Unfortunately all this had to come to an abrupt halt Nothing could better illustrate the loss suffered by cultural life in Libya than the record kept by the National Library that sixteen journals and periodicals which had appeared regularly just before the Italian invasion were all suppressed by the Italians.
The invaders met with a fierce resistance and for the following twenty years the country and its people had to undergo extreme hardship in the attempt to drive out the invading forces. The Italians' behaviour was contrary even to the usual imperialist philosophy and practice, which would leave some marginal outlet for the natives to enjoy a tiny scope for national development and education. The Italians, in their determination to assimilate the whole country to their own, took no chance. Mussolini called the country 'Libya Italia.na' and named it the fourth shore - 'Quatro Spora' - as an extension of Italy. They launched a racist physical and cultural war of extermination. No schools were built for the Libyans, and places of education were limited to mosques, Quranic circles, or the schools of handicrafts which were established during the Ottoman period. The few papers that appeared in these thirty years ceased publication as soon as they came out. Amongst these ill-fated journals was Alluwa al-Tarabulsi edited by Othman Qizani, which lent voice to the Libyan people's aspirations. However three other journals managed to continue, they were Abdulla Banoun's Aladl, Mahinoud bin Moussa's Alrageeb Alateed, cand Awad Abinghila's Al Wattan (which appeared in Benghazi). The only Arabic magazine which dedicated some pages to new forms of literature like the short story was the monthly Illustrated Libya, first published in 1935, under the supervision of the Italian administration. Poetry was the main champion during this period of struggle. The poet Suleiman Albarani was one of the leaders of the liberation war, yet he found time to write poetry and to publish in other Arab countries.
He continued to fight and write until he died in exile in India in 1940. Another poet that the Italians felt was dangerous to their rule was Rafiq al-Muhdawi. They banished him from his country; then he wrote his epic poem, 'Our separation is so painful. Farewell my redeemed land'. He lived in exile in Istanbul and never came back until the Italians left Libya. Ahmed al Sharif was another major literary figure of the period. He was a poet of great potential. He was also a scholar in Islamic law, serving as Judge in the Islamic courts. He had to go through difficult times himself, and wrote a poem urging people to fight.
You can take away our lives
Before our times are up
But there is no way you can take away our pride! .
The poet Al Usta Omar joined the ranks of the resistance. His poetry was directly inspired by close involvement with the battlefield. Poets like Ahmed Qunaba and Alfagi Hassan tried to arouse the fighting spirit of the people with their poems and by founding cultural clubs that were subject to closure and other repressive measures. Naturally enough' most of the poets concentrated on the message they meant to convey to their oppressed people. The cause was all-important to them. Artistic treatment and style were set aside or considered of secondary importance. Theirs was a direct, militant poetry, whose effect subsided with the occasion that inspired it. But it was exactly this and nothing else that it sought. This poetry was intended as political agitation arousing national fervour, and alerting the people to the atrocities committed by the colonialists. Another understandable reason for the poets' sacrifice of artistic perfection was the intellectual level of their readers, who were genuine in their feelings and original in their attitudes to life, but who were denied the simplest means of education and cultural knowledge. The poet had to relegate highly polished writings to a secondary place. Nevertheless, there are a few examples showing clearly that Libyan poets were capable of attaining a high degree of artistic achievement. Some of Rafiq's love poems are a good indication of this. But the real role was reserved for oral literature and vernacular poetry. Here was a true register of the people's emotions and the battles they fought, and it still lives with us. An example is the poem beginning,
The elderly horseman
Who rides away
Through the fields of fire
Another poem describes the place where the Libyan fighters used to meet:
Blessed is the tent
That has become
Our meeting place
Another tells of the concentration camps that were built by the Italians in the Alagiela area:
I have no illnesses
But the illness of that
Concentration camp
When in 1949 the United Nations recognised the Libyan people's right to independence - which was declared two years later - it was, for the Libyans, the end of nightmares of tyranny, oppression, and coercion. The people were poor beyond comprehension, had scarcely any education and only very primitive and backward means of production. At the time, Libya was described by the United Nations as the poorest of all countries. The people were to wait until 1947 to get their first secondary schools, and till 1956 for their first university to be established. Against this historical background and in the face of such social and cultural circumstances the pioneering writers of the modern era started to found a new literary movement. The post-war era witnessed the homecoming of Libyans living abroad. This was in the late forties, when an active political movement was growing, creating afresh climate for debates and controversies. Many newspapers appeared, representing different lines of thought, and alongside them, literary trends and particularly the Libyan poetry movement, which welcomed and echoed the poetry schools in the eastern part of the Arab world. Some of the new voices in poetry were Ali Sidgi with his book of free poetry, Dreams and Revolutions, Ali Raque with a collection called Thirsty Nostalgia, Khalid Zaghbia with The Great Wall, Hassan Saleh with After the War. They all adopted the new school of poetry, dropping rhymes and keeping the music and the rhythm. Their enthusiasm for modern trends matched their deep awareness of social issues and concern for the poor and downtrodden. The poets identified themselves with their causes, were in _onstant conflict with the ruling cliques of the time, expressing their patriotic feeling and voicing what the ordinary people felt against the neo-colonist forces that were invading the country in the form of military bases. It was a poetry that was very much influenced by the school of social realism so popular amongst Arab writers of the time, who took their example from social poets with a universal appeal and worldwide reputation - Aragon, Neruda, Nazim Hikmet, and Auden - and who took their lead from Arab poets such as Nazik Almalaika, Al Sayab, Albayati, and the younger poets just making their impact through the well-known Lebanese literary magazine AI Adab: Salah Abdul Saboor, Al Fituro, and others. It was natural that the social and political issues of their country sllould take precedence in their world outlook and their vision for it was harmonious with their cultural and educational background.
The short story, a from newly introduced to the literary scene in Libya, proved a suitable and convenient medium to express the anger and grievances of the writers and to convey their strong indignation against a backward and unjust social system. The most able and accomplished of them was a young lawyer who was educated in Cairo and influenced by the cultural movement there, where the literary page of the Almisri newspaper played a leading role. It was edited by writers renowned for their socialist commitment, such as Abdul Rahman al Khamisi and Abdulrahman Alshirgawi. El Maghor returned to become the undisputed pioneer of the realistic story when he wrote tales with very heavy social content at no cost to artistic form. The Romantic school succeeded to a lesser degree and for a shorter time through its spokesman, story writer Abdul Kader Abu Harros. In 1957 he published a collection of short stories under the title Restless Souls. They were about emotional frustration and socially imposed separation between men and women. His colleague in the battle for Romanticism was Farid Syala, who published in the same year his book about women's liberation under the title Towards a Brighter Day to Come and a sentimental novel, Confessions of a Human Being.
The same decade saw the tireless efforts of many Libyan intellectuals to establish the Islamic and Arabic identity of the country which the Italian colonialists had tried in vain to bury. Significant contributions were made by people like Ali Khushaim and Ali Mustafa Almisrati, in his books Literary Glimpses from Libya, Libyan Journalism in Half a Century, and his biographies of Libyan freedom fighters such as Khoma, Sadoon, and literary figures such as AI Sharif, Alusta Ul11or and others. Another colleague of Ali Almisrati is Abdulla Algwiri, who wrote a play about Omar Mukhtar, and another book called The Meaning of Being, reflections on the nature of Libyan society.
Historians also assisted in the new revival of national heritage. Sheikh Taher el-Zawi with his books Heroic Struggle and The Country's Chronicles, and other historical studies, written by Mohammed bin Masoud, Mohal11l11et Bazama and Mustapha Bayou, helped to make up for a serious shortage of studies about Libyan personalities and characteristics. As for literary criticism, prominent among critics was Khalifa AI Talisi who began publishing in 1948, identifying himself with the modern school in literary criticism of which Mohammed Mandour, Maroun Abbod, and Ehsan Abbas were the front runners. Equipped with the knowledge of two foreign languages - Italian and English - an understanding of the works of other nations, as well as a good knowledge of heritage of Arabic literature, Talisi was able to reflect the spirit of the new era when he started to publish his critique of the Libyan writings, his studies of Arabic literature such as that comparing Al Shabby and Yibran, and his book on Rafiq, The Poet of the Nation.
The newspapers and reviews of the day lent their pages for the publication of creative writings and cultural debates. Among the central issues on the platform was commitment in arts and literature. Such discussions appeared in papers like Al Raed, Fazzan, Trapolous Alqarb. Other debates widely argued in the fifties were classical verse versus free verse, and the use of the vernacular in written dialogue of stories, plays and novels. These discussions reflected a movement seeking its proper direction and increasing its power of perception. Most such activities at the time were attempts to imitate or echo what was happening in the eastern part of the Arab world, particularly Egypt; and whenever a topic became a matter of public debate in these countries, it normally found a place in the Libyan press, with the people taking sides. Every prominent writer would have his imitators and followers inside the country.
The whole literary movement was geared towards the great search for its own identity, for a season of harvest and blossom beyond the horizon. This imitation was yet more apparent in other arts - music, acting, singing. Although this temporal classification has its restrictions and limitations we can still say that as the fifties approached their end, a more vigorous era was about to be ushered in; the overall picture became clearer; writers who before had spoken with the same voice now did their best to speak each in his own unique voice. Direct influence started to disappear; new visions were handled with more accomplished modes of expression; plays, philosophical problems, made their impact.
But the greatest transformation was yet to come; namely, the effects of the oil revenues, which started to pour in in the early sixties. The whole nature of Libyan society began to change, and the cultural impetus had to shift direction and modify its structure. A new reality brought new questions and anxieties. The familiar poverty receded, prosperity although not completely universal changed considerably the standards of living. But the social and cultural upheaval that came with the oil discovery had had its bitter aftermath and brought some negative phenomena, that writers could not ignore; issues such as authenticity in the face. of new modernisation, the cultural assimilation, as well as a strong sense of local identity, were evoked, to help resist the invading values of the commercial and consumer society.
The feeling grew that the new wealth, which should be the common property of all the people, was controlled by powers that were alien to the peoples' aspirations and ambitions. Italian merchants were the most active in commerce, the Italian community had a near-monopoly of agriculture, and the foreign banks enjoyed a free hand with no surveillance imposed on them by the Libyan government. Libyan workers were exploited by oil companies, and the American and British military bases were active in maintaining the status quo. All of this contributed to a feeling of bitterness that was reflected in Libyan literature of the sixties. The mood of that era is very well reflected in some of the poems by Ali al Ragai who died on 23rd November 1966. He says in a poem entitled 'Flameless Candles' :
What can rain do to barren land
Only the thorns of these cursed cactus Spreading over the land
I wish these blindfolded eyes could desire to see the light of day
I wish these blindfolded eyes could cry
Could sing
Could suffer
I wish it could remove the mask
Who could open the door
That leads to the fertile land
O ..." canary
Who could protect us from the vanity of false desires
And from the agony of barrenness
Before the rust overwhelms our soul
Who could rekindle the flames of passion
Within ourselves and bring forth the melody
Of the coming spring
And close the doors
Against this barbaric wind
0 generations of flameless
. And thirsty candles
Who will rekindle the flames
Of passion within
Before this rust overwhelms souls.
A vein of political anxiety runs deep into most of the literary creations of the period. This anxiety can be gathered from a review of the titles that were published at the time. Rebellion is the collection of short stories by the late Khalifa Takbali. The title story tells of a Libyan worker defying his American boss. The Wall by Yousif AI Sharif, dwells lengthily on the wall that was erected ever higher and higher between people, and describes the growth of class distinction, and the unfair distribution of the newly acquired wealth. Sorrows of Uncle Dokali by Bashir al-Hashmi tries to capture the ordinary people's daily preoccupation with their livelihood. Handful of Ashes and The Torn Sail by Ali Misrati are about the frustrations and di_appointments people experience every day. The Yesterday that was Strangled by Kamel el Maghor refers to the collapse of the old political system and voices hope for a better and more just alternative. To give more telling examples, a play by, Abdullah Algwiri, The Voice and the Echo, is a premonition of an impending catastrophe which will take place unless rescue arrives.
Another important aspect of the literature of the sixties was undoubtedly the Arab defeat of June 1967, which was to stamp writers with pessimism and dark visions and bitterness. Such was the situation when in 1969 the revolution came to overthrow all those powers which had taken control of society, and to confirm the Arabic and Islamic character of the country, liberating it from the remnants of the colonial power represented by the military bases and foreign influence, and meeting many of the demands of Libyan writers. Short story writer Bashir al-Hashmi talking about preRevolutionary literature, says: 'The literary output before the revolution represents a social document much aware of life then. It is a document full of signs telling in its condemnation of the past, dying regime.' The revolution was to transform society radically and to put it in the forefront of our age. The literary scene in the seventies was to witness the first Writers Conference, and the first grouping of writers in the Union of Authors and Writers, later to be called the Authors' and Artists' Association. The seventies also witnessed the founding of a number of publishing houses subsidised by the state, such as the General Establishment for Publishing and the Arab Books House. Before the revolution, publishing was in the hands of the private sector, where the state gives no support. With the public sector helping and encouraging the publication of new writing, books are now being published in large numbers. The circle of writers enlarges year after year. Newcomers are constantly arriving with original offerings and a' fresher outlook. The striking feature of the creative works written in this period, as Mohamed Al Zawi, was the emergence of the intellectual as a major character. There are two reasons for this phenomenon. First, the wide programme of education. The educated man became an integral part of society and not, as in previous times, an invisible minority. Second, the emergence of new intellectual and philosophical preoccupations in the minds of our writers. These are so deep and complex that writers cannot just put them into the.mouths of the old type characters which were in most cases workers or village people.
This has been a very quick look at the background of modern Libyan literature which, in turn, is only a small part of the shade and colour of the vast and rich panorama of modern Arabic literature. |