AFRICA SECOND STOP LIBYA

Background:

Africa covers 6 per cent of the surface of the Earth and provides 20.4 per cent of Earth’s landmass. Occupying this massive and significant territory there are 1.1 Billion people. Africa is the second largest and second most populous continent on Earth.

LIBYA

We continue our study of Africa, moving from last week’s subject Egypt, to the West  and into Libya. Libya lies on the coast of the Mediterranean and is bounded by Egypt in the East, Tunisia and Algeria in the West and Niger, Chad and Sudan in the South. Libya is the fourth largest country in Africa in area, and seventeenth largest in the world.

Only 2% of the territory of Libya receives sufficient rainfall for stable agriculture. Much of the remaining 98% is part of the Sahara Desert.

The population of Libya is approx.. 6,240,000. Mohammedanism is the dominant religion of the country. The languages spoken are local Arabic, Berber and Italian. There are two large cities – Tripoli with over 1,000,000 people and Benghazi . Libya has the tenth largest proven oil reserves of any country in the world. 

Since the beginning of recorded history, Libya has been occupied by the Berber people. But the country has had Phoenician Trading colonies, and later was variously ruled by the Greeks in city states, then by the Persians, the Egyptians and Greek Egyptians and then the Romans. It became a Christian nation in due course until , in the seventh Century the bloody invasion of the Mohammedans brought it under Arab Mohammedan domination. This was briefly interrupted by the actions of the Spanish and the Knights of Saint John occupying Tripoli until the Ottoman rule began in 1551. It lasted until the Italians invaded in 1911 and they were not removed until the Second World War.In 1951 Libya became an independent Kingdom, but a military coup in 1969 led eventually to the assumption of power by Muammar Gaddafi , more generally known as Colonel Gaddafi. He retained power until 2011 when a Revolution overthrew him and a democratic election led to a new Government and a rival Islamic “Government” of Tripoli.

The deposing of Gaddafi removed from the world stage one of its most colourful characters in his exotic gowns and splendid tents, but he had been a cunning survivor for a long time despite his numerous outrageous actions internationally.

   



 Colonel Gaddafi in military splendour, and entertaining none other than Vladimir Putin in a tent pitched in New York City.



In Roman times, there were extensive settlements across North Africa and the region of modern day  Libya was no exception. Modern day Tripoli gains its name for the region known as Tripolitania for the three great cities within it –Leptis Magna , Oea and Sabratha. The ruins of Leptis Magna are testimony to the greatness and modernity of that Roman city as the image shows. Much has been written about them and the sophistication of their drainage, water storage and other features. The Romans were attracted to the region because of its abundant production of grains- wheat and corn, and Olives and Olive oil and all of this readily accessible to them from Rome’s port of Ostia. The Roman settlements of North Africa became famous for not only produce , but for education and especially the education of lawyers.

                                 Leptis Magna  a small portion of the ruins


In due course it happened that Septimius Severus (ruled AD 193 – the year of the 5 Emperors -to AD 211) became Emperor and he was a native of Leptis Magna.

Reflecting on these ruins and those of a large number of other Roman cities in North Africa, one quickly realises that what seems so powerful and energetic “to-day” can swiftly descend into the rubbish bin of History under the assaults of barbarians.

It is sad to note that just as she has been in the past, Libya is surrounded by strife in Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria , Niger, Chad and Sudan. Most of this strife , as within Libya itself, comes from Mohammedan zealots.

 

AFRICA THE BEGINNING : EGYPT

AFRICA OBJECT OF MY STUDY

My AFRICA begins with EGYPT

Background: 

Africa covers 6 per cent of the surface of the Earth

 and provides 20.4 per cent of Earth’s landmass. 

Occupying this massive and significant territory there are 1.1 Billion people. 

Africa is the second largest and second most populous continent on Earth.

We begin by studying Egypt.

Set in the North Eastern corner of Africa, Egypt at once presents us with an anomaly – a significant portion of its territory –Sinai- is not in Africa but adjacent to it.

Unlike much of Africa, the recorded history of Egypt is exceptionally long and detailed by world standards, and is characterised by  super abundance of ruins, artifacts and written records. Although Egypt is largely desert, the rich fertile soil of the Nile Valley and the regularity of its annual inundation, provided the means to encourage and support a mighty civilisation thousands of years B.C. It was a civilisation that was to become the object of the keen interest of the Romans, because it held out the promise of abundant, regular grain supplies.

Egypt became familiar to Western civilisation not only through its interaction with Roman and Greek civilisation, but more importantly through its integration into the story of the Old and even the New Testaments. These associations created and kept alive a strong interest in matters Egyptian, whether it be regarding Joseph and his coat of many colours or Moses and the Exodus and the watery end of Pharaoh’s Army, or Kadesh ,and then finally, the Flight into Egypt which appealed as a  perpetual mystery as to detail. 

In the 18^th and 19^th Centuries exploration of Egyptian ruins and tombs exploded in the most unscientific way, further titillating the popular imagination. Then came the Corsican Corporal – the Emperor (self-styled) Napoleon Bonaparte  and his team of more scientific researchers and artists to record their findings. Egyptology had arrived! In 1799 the French soldier Bouchard discovered what has become known as the Rosetta Stone. This stele is rightly famous for with its triple inscription in Egyptian Hieroglyphs, Demotic Script and Ancient Greek, it provided the key to understanding ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphs after Champollion perfected the translation. This in effect, unlocked the whole of millennia of Egyptian ruins and tombs and the civilisation that produced them, to our understanding. Later archaeological activities by the British and the Americans , each with their successive waves of wealth, saw the most intense levels of activity in Egypt. But no doubt the height of interest was achieved by the discovery of the still richly endowed tomb of the minor Pharaoh Tutankamen son of the “heretic” Pharaoh Akhenaten . Although the tomb had been disturbed in antiquity, it had been hastily but effectively re-packed with nearly all its treasures, sealed up and undiscovered until Howard Carter located it in 1922.

  

But the “modern” history of Egypt is something else again.

POLITICS

After a long period of relative stability under the successive Governments of Nasser, Sadat and Mubarak – all autocratic with strong military backing, the country was swept by a popular revolutionary sentiment sympathetic to the so-called Arab Spring movement. In fact the powerful Muslim Brotherhood was at work seeking to ensure that its interests benefited in the process. There was an interim Government for a year. The Muslim Brotherhood was pleased to see Muslim Mohammed Morsi elected as the first ever democratically elected Head of Government in Egypt’s long history. Their glee was short-lived when the Army forced him out promising fresh elections in the future. It is quite clear, even at the level of popular demonstrations that the country is strongly divided between Islamist and anti-Islamist opinion.

African though she is, Egypt has played a vital role in the Middle Eastern political scene following World War II and the establishment of the modern State of Israel  in 1948 by United Nations fiat. This action set off a chain reaction which continues until to-day. The action led to the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their ancestral homes. Their grievances and the sympathetic reaction of the surrounding Mohammedan States, including Egypt, led to many conflicts and reached a peak in the "Six Day War" of 1967 which was started by a pre-emptive strike by Israel against Egypt which was outstandingly successful and subsequently successful attacks on Jordan and Syria when they endeavoured to come to Egypt's aid. In 1978 the Camp David Accords brought a prolonged period of relative peace and Egypt and Israel became mutually wary but non- belligerent neighbours.

People

A surprisingly high proportion (91%) of the population is ethnically Egyptian – surprising given the cosmopolitan nature of much of North Africa and the Middle East. Some 923,000 Egyptians live in neighbouring Saudi Arabia, and 332,000 Egyptians live in Libya Egypt’s African neighbour to the West. In 2013 the Egyptian population was 84 Millions making the country the most populous in the Middle East and the third most populous in Africa.

Given its size and very long recorded history, Egypt is remarkable in having retained its integrity as a country through the whole time, having changed its religion three times –pagan, Christian and then in bloody conquest, Mohammedan.

Economy

The country has a reasonably diverse economy, but it must be remembered that it is heavily buttressed by United States foreign aid which in recent years has run at the rate of US 2.2 Billions per annum. Tourism has been a long term strength of the economy bringing in around US 10 Billions per annum. Egypt exports Coal – mined in Sinai, Natural Gas –of which she has large reserves, hydro electric power is generated from the great Aswan High Dam and the historic agricultural output of the Nile Valley remains a significant part of her wealth.

Summary

So much for Egypt! It was an interesting exercise, bringing together much that I always knew supplemented by research on the Internet for specific dates and numbers. The most important result, has been to fix firmly in my mind the actual geographic location of Egypt, which I "knew" but somehow never had fixed "photographically" in my memory.

Next we take a step to the West and look at neighbouring Libya - a very different kettle of fish!

Till next week!

AFRICA - THE GETTING OF KNOWLEDGE

AFRICA - IMMENSE AND DIVERSE

AFRICA - the challenge that confronts me for 2015.

As you might have read, I intend to start with Egypt , then move backwards and forwards across the Continent, country by country, learning what I can about each one, and how it relates to the whole, its present but also its past, its peoples and their religions, commerce and prospects.

I will use this map as a point of reference as we examine each country so that we have  consistency in the impression we develop.

It is an exciting, but I must say daunting project .....I hope I am not biting off more than I can chew!!

It will be a good test of my ability to use the Internet for research purposes in the most effective manner, and, as time goes by, should hone those skills quite a bit. So, I won't cheat by starting a day early....but tomorrow New Year's Day it begins -Africa starts in Egypt!

Ready for the work.

A LONG TIME BETWEEN DRINKS

  Me about three years ago before the Doctors got me.

Yes, it has been"a long time between drinks", as the saying goes. But all the medical cares of this fading year are now well behind me, and we are settling well into our fine new home. I even have a moderate sized and well-equipped "study" . So, time to get back to writing. 

To create a discipline around which other writing can re- develop, I have decided that for the New Year I will begin a systematic effort to correct a sizeable deficiency in my knowledge. Like most Australians, I have a very poor grasp on the geography of Africa. In fact, I have found that even beyond that, I have not even had a true idea of the size of Africa compared to Australia.

I want to correct that and, if you wish , you can come along with me through 2015 as I fill in the massive blank spaces in my knowledge of "Mother Africa" as the song calls her.

It has been my pleasure and privilege to actually get to know some African people, in real life and via Facebook during the last several years, and it has opened my eyes to many shortcomings in my world view, and in most Australians' relative ignorance of the giant across the Indian Ocean. 

I am looking forward keenly to learning so much from the rich history, reality, and activity of that energetic continent and her marvellous and varied people, and to correct even my stupid ideas about where various countries are on that Continent.

I would like you to come along with me, and perhaps - especially any African readers - to comment and correct any errors you believe I am  making.

My Africa

Here I am, closing in rapidly on 75 yrs of age. When I was a child, Africa was the "dark continent" of fabled literature, gradually emerging into the false light of Hollywood movies.

Here in Australia, we did not even have the steady flow of news and concerns the British had for their interests in Africa. After all, to them, we Australians were just another lot of convenient Colonials like the African settlers and their native populations. Nor did we have the continual flow of Colonial Administrators  going out and coming "home" with their tales of the lives they had led and the "knowledge" they had acquired ( or perhaps the prejudices they had formed and fed.) No, for us Africa was largely the impression we got from our Mercator Projection maps, literature and , as I say, increasingly from the false light of Hollywood movies.

So what was that all like? Well take a look at Mercator's projection of the world and it is obvious : particularly in the flattened out sphere projections our school maps provided, Australia was very nearly as big as Africa, but the truth is that Africa is about 2.5 times the size of Australia. 

Literature had tended to present Africa as an unending source of mystery and danger to the white man who carried the " burden" of opening up these strange lands to civilisation. The influence of novels , which exploded into popularity in the 1800s and early 1900s was tremendous . The works of H.Rider Haggard , Joseph Conrad and others set the tone. Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" was particularly influential. At the same time the the tale of the finding of Doctor Livingstone  caused a sensation and every child knew the reporter's greeting "Doctor Livingstone, I presume?" . The quest for the discovery of the source of the Nile - finally resolved by John Hanning Speke in 1858,  contributed to a romantic air surrounding the Continent of Africa. 

This romantic legend tended also to flourish as a result, of the very real commercial activities of the British Cecil Rhodes who was not only a mining entrepreneur , but an enthusiastic British Imperialist whose dream was to build a Cape to Cairo Railway to advance and cement British dominance over the African Continent.

Had we, children of my era, been taught about Africa in a systematic way, this Nineteenth Century preoccupation would have been more strongly founded in earlier history as we were taught it. But no, to us, Egypt was Egypt and not so much thought of as part of Africa (even the Romans were ahead of us there - Scipio Africanus for example - and of course, we were not taught why Africa (Egypt) was so important to the Romans ( grain supplies). We were not even taught systematically the importance of the early Church in North Africa with 160 Dioceses  (including Saint Augustine's Hippo)  Suffice it to say  that Mohammed wrote the Koran in A.D.625 and by A.D. 700 Catholicism in North Africa was wiped out in military slaughter.

Nor were we systematically educated about  missionary activity deeper into Africa or about slavery out of Africa and its extermination. The result was that we were left to absorb the Hollywood, therefore American, idea of slavery. That is that it was a racial, black phenomenon period. Of course that suited American political ideas as they had developed by the time of my childhood, but it did not have so much relationship to the whole history of slavery, which has more often been national based (as opposed to race) or later religion based with Christians being made slaves of Mohammedans.

So, I suppose I am saying that it is little wonder that my ideas of Africa, from my childhood became inadequately formed.

Actual contact with African people, strangely enough came to me at about 4 years of age. My Mum and my Aunt Nell were taking me to Manly Beach and we went part of the way by tram. Sitting opposite us were three American Servicemen all in uniform then proudly worn in war time , and all of them black. They very kindly and politely offered to hand me down from the height of the tram while they also helped the ladies. Well! What a surprising bit of courtesy in a time when Aussie men were painfully awkward about any display of gentility. 

                            Me to-day after the Doctors have done their best.

  I hope by now you can get some idea of the reasoning behind my enthusiasm for this project, and I hope that it will prove interesting to you also. For example it might provoke in some of my African  readers  thoughts about their actual first encounter with a white man, and how it went?

I shall give myself a short break before embarking on the project from the first week in 2015 , at the rate of one country per week, save for the tiniest , which I might deal with in the same week as a larger neighbor.  I plan to start in the North East of Africa and progress across the continent in broad bands coming back to the East each time I hit the the West Coast. Accordingly, my first country will be Egypt! A baptism of fire!

JUST LIKE TO-DAY - IT WAS A TUESDAY

YOUR MOTHER NEVER KNEW

ARMENTIERES - THE BATTLEFIELD _ GERMAN BUNDESARCHIV PHOTOGRAPH

On this cool and cloudy Aussie morning

I recall that other Tuesday 14th May, ........96 years ago,

and on the other side of the world:

IT WAS A TUESDAY, WASN’T IT BILLY? JUST LIKE TO-DAY

                 - TUESDAY, 14TH MAY, 1918

Private James William“BILLY”Wilson   Service No. 5659

17TH Battalion, Australian Imperial Force

KILLED IN ACTION Near / Armentieres FRANCE In the course of repelling the German Forces, whose attempt to reach the Sea had already failed.

Did you know it was Tuesday, or in that Hell around Armentieres, blasted to Kingdom Come for miles and miles - did you really care what day it was?

THE ICONIC AUSTRALIAN SLOUCH HAT

They didn’t tell your Mum how you died - blown to pieces by a German shell blast .But your Superior Officer took the trouble to tell my Grandma and Grandad – your Sister Louisa (“doll’s eyes” you called her) and her German husband Ted .

Louisa was distraught at losing her only brother. She loved you so much. In due course, the Army provided your Mother with a Certificate of Burial for which Ted made an ornate carved wooden frame with all the flags of the Allies around its edges. (I guess he inherited that skill from his Grandfather Carl Dopmeyer whose sculpture and wood carving gained him fame in Germany in the second half of the 1800’s.

We don’t seem to have a photo of you Billy, which is strange for your time. But we know a little about you:

You enlisted on 16th November, 1915. You were said to be 27 years old and 3 months, of dark complexion weighing 119 lbs. and 5 Feet 3 ½ “in height. So you were a little bloke by Aussie standards but true to your English born parents’ physique. You had no distinguishing marks on your body. You were a Laborer.

But what’s this? You were Discharged just over a month later on 22nd December, 1915. Because you had insufficient teeth to masticate!

17th Battalion A.I.F. (AUSTRALIAN  IMPERIAL FORCE) COLOUR PATCH

But you can’t keep a good bloke down, and on 24th February, 1916 you enlist again! By now you have a “Fresh” complexion, Brown eyes, Brown Hair, your height is the same but at 27 years and 6 months you weigh in at 116lbs And you have acquired a scar at your Right eye, on your Right thigh and inside your Right knee. Did this happen during your initial enlistment? An accident? All the injury was on your right side and the inclusion of a scar behind your right knee doesn’t sound like a fight!

Whatever the case, the lack of teeth , (stated to have occurred over the 10 preceding years due to cavities)– perhaps you had obtained dentures (?)- did not stop you being accepted again.

You appear to have been buried initially at Fouilloy and later exhumed and re-interred at the great Australian War Cemetery at Villers- Bretonneux.

"

The sun shining down on these green fields of France

The warm wind blows gently and the red poppies dance

   The trenches have vanished long under the plow
    
    No gas, no barbed wire, no guns firing now    
    But here in this graveyard that's still no mans land
    The countless white crosses in mute witness stand
    
    To man's blind indifference to his fellow man
    And a whole generation were butchered and damned
      Did they beat the drums slowly ?
      Did they play the fife lowly ?
      Did they sound the death march, as they lowered you down? ?
      Did the band play the last post and chorus ?
      Did the pipes play the flowers of the forest ?

     (The Green Fields of France - Eric Bogle)

The Australian War Memorial at Villers Bretonneux

On 4 th February, 1919 your Mother received from the Army your personal effects – you know how pitifully few and pathetic they were. You had made your Mother your Next of Kin because your Father had died previously.

 

CONCLUSION

I’m sorry Billy, that I haven’t yet got more information about you and the War you fought, but I am on the job and will set the record straight as best I can.I do now have your official Army records in facsimile. I am still striving to locate a photograph!

You and your comrades, who already went through Hell on earth in France, are in my daily prayers for the repose of your Souls. And we who live our lives to-day are forever grateful to you.

 

*MY FATHER CRYING? WHAT COULD THIS MEAN?

Sixty Six years ago to-day, my paternal Grandma died - at age Sixty - six years.
Here is a Post from 2011 which covers what for Eight Years old me , was a sadly memorable event.

MY FATHER CRYING ? WHAT COULD THIS MEAN ?

                                                      My Dad John Joseph Dixon at about the age I was that morning.........

His Mother Eleanor Margaret Dixon  taken the same day as Dad above.

Friday , 20th August, 1948:  I was asleep in my bed, just clear of the inward opening door of my bedroom at the front right hand side (facing), of our two bedroom timber cottage in Second Avenue Berala NSW. I was woken when the door opened hastily.

There stood my 41 years old Dad .A tumble of thoughts into my gathering consciousness : Dad doesn't wake me in the morning ( Shift work meant he was either at work, or not long in from work and sleeping at this hour),  why was his hat crammed on his head in the house? and....... what! My Dad was crying..... what could this mean?  "You'd better get up quick Anth, Ma has died ",and he sobbed even more. 

Turmoil, Mum was already up at Grandma's which was in Third avenue just behind us and a tad higher on the gentle hill. Up I got, dressed quickly, no breakfast and round we went. The 1900 vintage cream painted timber house, had originally been much smaller, but had been added onto. Up the front steps into the hall and I was taken down to Mum who was busy holding the family together, consoling this one calming that one and meanwhile getting them fed. My maiden Aunt Nell who was a very good hearted soul, but at that stage of her life very tense, afflicted with a bad stutter, suggested while Dad was there that I should be taken into Grandma's room to see her body. You can perhaps imagine my horror - at eight years of age - at the suggestion. I had no experience of death and I had no desire to see the Grandma I loved so devotedly , and who loved me , in death. I would NOT go in.

 Dad was too absorbed in grief to intervene, but mercifully Mum across, asked what the fuss was, saw my reaction and put an end to that idea. I can't remember the rest of the day.

The funeral was some days later from our Church-School St. Peter Chanel's on the hill at Berala.My mind boggled at all the relatives and friends and fellow Parishoners - the Dixons were not the greatest Church goers( masterly understatement - I'm getting better at it!) , but in earlier times the wooden Church as well as the Convent, had been in Fourth Avenue behind Grandma's place  and there weren't many houses in those earlier days ,so " Mag. Dixon" was well known to the Nuns and to many Parishoners. That old wooden Church had been hauled up the hill to the new Parish location sometime in the 20's or 30's,and was now the Parish Hall.

Grandma was 66 years old.

Dad's Father, Thomas James Dixon died on the 2nd August, 1950. I had rarely seen him. He had left the family home many years before, had a major problem with drink, and was not a very endearing person (actually, I'm getting better at it!) He was 66 years old also - I had never realised the coincidence of their ages at death until a minute ago ,when I came to write this !

Deaths in August were to become more common in the family for some reason as you will see if you bear with me.And, as it happened, when my dear Mum died in August, 1971 she was also 66 years old.