Forgotten Voices

by Ali Abdullatif Ahmida

In Forgotten Voices, Ali Abdullatif Ahmida employs archival research, oral interviews and comparative analysis to rethink the history of colonial and nationalist categories and analyses of modern Libya. He explores the ambiguities, failures, and silences manufactured by current colonial and nationalist scholarships, and he presents the voices of the Libyan people as they have confronted contradictions of modernity, the nation-state, and alienation in the contemporary nation. Forgotten Voices analyzes the context of power and human agency to capture the complex social history of Libyan peasants, tribesmen, women, slaves, and victims of fascist concentration camps in their diverse strategies for survival.

124 pages, Paperback

First published August 18, 2005

Reviews

[Radia]

Free Download:

http://en.bookfi.org/book/1110449

[Jason Bennett · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hightlights:

Chapter 3 on collaboration in Libya regards Italian occupation.

Chapter 4 on the characterization of Italian fascism as moderate or benign and of German fascism as evil and horrific.

Chapter 6 on the West's characterization of Libya entirely by our view of Qaddafi.

Disliked:
Other than to explain the different forms of collaboration — chapter 1 was unnecessary (for this book, not in general scholarship).
Chapter 5 does absolutely nothing for the book.

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Forgotten Voices is a great overview of Libya under Italian colonialism and the author is correct that the struggle of the Libyan people is too often ignored in contemporary scholarship regarding Africa. Ahmida also discusses how Libyans have reacted to the political situation through media like literature and poetry. It is relatively short and easy to read. It would have been nice if Ahmida would have included more about the situation of Libyan women who were also extremely active in anti-imperialism and continue to be.