Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: Did the West Engineer the Fall of Gaddafi?

One of the pitfalls of African scholarship, historically and contemporaneously, is how erudite some of us can be when it comes to echoing the narrative of the Oppressor, which, of course, makes us sound scholarly to the ears of the oppressor. Too many of us are caught in the trap of Eurocentric lenses for not only viewing ourselves and our possibilities but also for viewing world affairs. In respect of African descendants, in his classic The Souls of Black Folk, W.E.B. DuBois framed this phenomenon as a case of double-consciousness: "a peculiar sensation, ... this sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of the others, of measuring one's soul by the tape of a world that looks on in bemused contempt and pity." For the continental African, I submit that we too suffer from a subconscious double-consciousness arising from our legacy of colonialism, which, as you know, sought to remake Africa in the image of Europe. How many of the universities in Africa are still steeped in this Eurocentric epistemological framework in the social sciences and the humanities? But did the colonial project reproduce Europe or a caricature of it? To transcend that subconscious double-consciousness, we must recognize, confront, and methodically replace it with African-centered consciousness. It is a process; it does not happen overnight by mere wishful thinking. But we have to be humble enough to acknowledge that it exists.

On Mon, May 19, 2025 at 12:06 AM Cornelius Hamelberg <corneliushamelberg@gmail.com> wrote:

Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju,

Concerning the murder of Colonel Gaddafi, indeed, sitting in relative safety over there in Nigeria or at Cambridge, in Merry England, or wherever it was that you were at those moments, it is understandable and no surprise at all, that you may as you say ." recall things differently"

I also listened live and direct to Saif Al-Islam broadcast to the rebels at Benghazi on the evening of  20th February 2011 on Al Jazeera

I continued to follow the news as  - with Hillary Clinton in the saddle NATO swung into force overnight, to declare a no-fly zone over Libya… on that fateful night…

On Thursday, 15 May 2025 at 19:05:39 UTC+2 Oluwatoyin Adepoju wrote:

I keep coming across claims that the West engineered the fall of Libya's Gaddafi but I recall things differently.

My own memory is that Gaddafi was a victim of his own stubbornness in his determination to spend his life as a dictator in Libya.

The Arab Spring was brewing, ignited by the self immolation of Muhammad Boazizi in Algeria over govt oppression.

Mubarak in Egypt tried to use the army against protesters.

The army eventually refused. Mubarak stepped down.

One or two other Arab/North African leaders did the same thing.

Saudi Arabia responded by bribing its own people with cash gifts to forestall demonstrations possibly demanding democratic rule and it worked.

The demonstrations reached Libya.

The demonstrators wanted a democratic govt.

Gaddafi had spent decades on the throne and seemed set to create a dynastic succession. 

He fought the demonstrators and civil war broke out.

There was no evidence of Western involvement to the best of my knowledge.

The West became involved when the tide turned against the rebels and Gaddafi was matching towards their last stronghold when the West struck, leading Gaddafi to take refuge in a safe house, from where he tried to escape upon which a Western fighter plane took out the vehicle he was escaping in upon which the Libyan rebels set upon him.

I see Gaddafi as incorrectly reading the tides of history against his own interests and that of his country.

Thanks 

Toyin 

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/20dab91b-0c9a-453d-a08f-167bfa67128bn%40googlegroups.com.

--

Sincerely,

Victor O. Okafor, Ph.D.

Professor and Head

Department of Africology and African American Studies

Eastern Michigan University

Email: vokafor@emich.edu

https://www.emich.edu/aaas/faculty/v-okafor.php

https://www.facebook.com/DAAASEMU/

Tel: 734.487.9594 

Food for Thought: 

"I myself do not judge a man [or a woman] by  the color of his [or her] skin. The yardstick that I use to judge a man [or a woman] is his [ or her] deeds, his [her] behavior,  and his [or her] intentions." -- Malcolm X.

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/CAO3oEczH19SUuh236FShkPUUY%3D9tb4nHuQwT2jsTMU%3D6Vpn3Rw%40mail.gmail.com.