Abstract
The region of Cyrenaica covers the entire eastern part of Libya, and alongside Tripolitania in the west and Fezzan in the south forms one of the three major regions of the country. Since 2011, Cyrenaica has witnessed the often violent competition between a number of different political models and practices (state-like, tribal, Islamic, jihadist, federalist, and separatist). In addition, controversial discourses about history, identity, and the role of Cyrenaica within Libya have emerged, and a quest for reliable and legitimate forms of conflict resolution is currently taking place. Against the background of the ongoing civil war in Libya, Cyrenaica has been characterized as the adversary camp of the internationally recognized government in Tripolitania. Our contribution aims to provide a conceptual and empirical perspective that goes beyond such categorizations. It will explore three interconnected thematic fields: (1) Politics in Cyrenaica: State Politics, Non-state Politics, and Political Economy; (2) The Making of Identity in Cyrenaica; and (3) Politics, Practices, and Understandings of Justice.
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Notes
- 1.
This is partly due to questions of accessibility. As the political centre of modern Libya, Tripoli and the surrounding region have enjoyed particular attention by scholars and professional observers. Thus, most of the contacts of these professional groups are located in the west of Libya rather than in the east. The international recognition of the Government of National Accord (GNA) led Fayez al-Sarraj suspended the legitimacy of the House of Representatives (HoR). Since then, Cyrenaica has been seen as an insurgent region led by the warlord Khalifa Haftar. We do not want to take a political position at this point, but we would like to point out that historical constellations, like the discrimination against Cyrenaica by Qadhafi, are continuing.
- 2.
- 3.
Adapted from the title of the international conference: No country for anthropologists? Contemporary ethnographic research in the Middle East, University of Zurich, November 2018.
- 4.
This chapter is based on the continuous empirical work on Libya in general and Cyrenaica in particular since 2002 by the authors (Hüsken & Klute, 2015; Hüsken, 2019; Obeidi, 2001, 2019a, 2019b). However, since our project about Cyrenaica only started in 2021, some of our findings and arguments are of a preliminary character.
- 5.
The concept of heterarchy has been discussed by Hanau and Moro (2017). Lacher (2020) uses the concept of “fragmentation” instead, but does describe similar processes. The political scientists Bouziane et al. (2013) refer to the concept of practical norms in their approach to local politics in the Arab world.
- 6.
The Libyan economy depends primarily upon revenues from the oil sector, which prior to the civil war used to account for over half of the country’s GDP and 97% of its exports. Libya holds the largest proven oil reserves in Africa and is an important contributor to the global supply of sweet crude oil. In general, there are many ongoing challenges for the Libyan economy. Firstly, it is estimated that 85% of the total workforce in Libya is made up of civil servants, whose salaries and wages drain over half the annual national budget. Secondly, the private sector is quite weak and employs only 15% of the Libyan workforce; and thirdly, the national budget is severely affected by the fact that employees in the public sector often hold several jobs simultaneously. Other challenges also include child labour, and the informal sector, which is dominated by skilled migrant workers due to poor educational levels in Libya and the failure of Libyan training centres to meet market requirements (Al Hasse, 2020).
- 7.
The Tebu (or Tobou and Tubu) are a Saharan ethnic group who live in northern Chad, southern Libya, northeastern Niger, and northwestern Sudan. There are about 110,000 Tebu in Libya.
- 8.
- 9.
Interview conducted by Amal Obeidi with a member of the Constitutional Drafting Committee, Benghazi, September 2021.
- 10.
Most cases are handled by tribal leaders on the basis of customary law. Their mediations also enjoy the highest social acceptance due to their rootedness in tradition and culture. The role of armed groups varies according to the context and situation. They can play a special role where they have a monopoly on the use of force and act as peacekeepers.
- 11.
At the same time, current legal cases such as murder, victimization in the context of armed conflict, and domestic violence (especially against women and children) often go beyond the capacity of traditional customary law, and are thus often only poorly resolved.
- 12.
According to Hanser and von Trotha (2002), every society has to find ways to control and regulate violence (the use of physical force to injure, abuse, damage, or destroy) to ensure its continued existence.
- 13.
- 14.
We borrow the terms “disenchantment and grievance” from De Vries et al. (2019).
- 15.
These interviews were conducted by Amal Obeidi with local tribal leaders and heads of tribal councils in the spring and summer of 2018 and 2019.
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Hüsken, T., Obeidi, A.S. (2022). Cyrenaica Contemporary: Politics, Identity, and Justice in Times of Transition. In: Neubert, D., Lauth, HJ., Mohamad-Klotzbach, C. (eds) Local Self-Governance and Varieties of Statehood. Contributions to Political Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-14996-2_9
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