Beyond Qaddafi’s Shadows: Subnational Narratives in Research on Post-Revolutionary Libya
Beyond Qaddafi’s Shadows: Subnational Narratives in Research on Post-Revolutionary Libya

Summary/Abstract: Post-Qaddafi Libya – a country driven by protracted civil conflict – has been marked by rising divisions among actors, whose identities are identified on sub-national, rather than national or state level. These actors are related to cities, towns or regions, tribal groups, ethnic minorities or religious fractions. Despite the recent attention paid to revolutionary and post-revolutionary Libya, there can be identified a general lack of publications dealing with the internal developments. The present article aims to review recent research pieces dealing with the local, tribal, ethnic and religious actors, their respective mutually overlapping identities, and to identify narratives related to these actors discussed in recent researches. The text discusses several multiple overlapping narratives that testify to the diversity of identities and ties of actors in Libya’s public space. Key to all the narratives is the legacy of the Qaddafi régime. In the present text, the most clearly defined narratives are considered to be the local ones tied to actors in towns or cities including the western cities Zintan and Misrata struggling for control of the Tripoli institutions, loyalist Bani Walid or eastern cities of Tobruk and Benghazi, which are striving to regain their ability to self- govern. Narratives on the Tebu, Tuareg, and Amazigh ethnic minorities are put in the context of their fight for self-determination and of the security-related issues posed by the respective ethnic’s activities in Southeast and West of Libya. The article presents the “Islamist” narrative as one that is diversified in relation to several Islamist groups and their strategies. Finally, the tribal narrative is considered to be rather vague and worthy of further empirical exploration.

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