‘King of Kings of Africa’
Racializing Qaddafi in the Visual Output of the 2011 Libyan Revolution
In: Middle East Journal of Culture and CommunicationSearch for other papers by Christiane Gruber in
Current site
Google Scholar
Abstract
During the 2011 uprisings, artists and cultural agents unleashed biting pictorial forms of ridicule in Libya’s public domain. Their chief target was Muʿammar Qaddafi, the ‘Brother Leader’ of the Libyan Arab Republic and the so-called ‘King of Kings of Africa’. After failing to win support from Arab governments, Qaddafi campaigned for African unity, fashioning himself as a traditional sub-Saharan chief during the decade leading up to the ‘Arab Spring’. His bombastic African title, his Afro-like (shafshufa) hairstyle and his eye-catching robes made him an easy target for visual satire, which turned visibly more racist when he and his son, Sayf al-Islam, resorted to using mercenaries from the Sudan, Chad, Niger and Mali to violently suppress street demonstrations. Throughout the uprisings, anti-government actors sought to degrade Qaddafi through the use of ethnic stereotypes, revealing that, in the particular case of Libya, satirical contentions during the so-called ‘Arab Spring’ were not just transgressive and factional, but instrumentally racist as well.
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| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
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‘King of Kings of Africa’
Racializing Qaddafi in the Visual Output of the 2011 Libyan Revolution
In: Middle East Journal of Culture and CommunicationSearch for other papers by Christiane Gruber in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Abstract
During the 2011 uprisings, artists and cultural agents unleashed biting pictorial forms of ridicule in Libya’s public domain. Their chief target was Muʿammar Qaddafi, the ‘Brother Leader’ of the Libyan Arab Republic and the so-called ‘King of Kings of Africa’. After failing to win support from Arab governments, Qaddafi campaigned for African unity, fashioning himself as a traditional sub-Saharan chief during the decade leading up to the ‘Arab Spring’. His bombastic African title, his Afro-like (shafshufa) hairstyle and his eye-catching robes made him an easy target for visual satire, which turned visibly more racist when he and his son, Sayf al-Islam, resorted to using mercenaries from the Sudan, Chad, Niger and Mali to violently suppress street demonstrations. Throughout the uprisings, anti-government actors sought to degrade Qaddafi through the use of ethnic stereotypes, revealing that, in the particular case of Libya, satirical contentions during the so-called ‘Arab Spring’ were not just transgressive and factional, but instrumentally racist as well.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 1617 | 206 | 37 |
| Full Text Views | 366 | 5 | 0 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 132 | 7 | 0 |
