Gaddafi is gone; what are Africans mourning? | The Rwanda Focus

Gaddafi is gone; what are Africans mourning?

Many news reports liked to refer to the late Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi as “the maverick leader.” That obviously was some conscious editorial decision on the part of the media houses to be more diplomatic than would be the case if they used apt words, for instance: the stark raving lunatic of Tripoli.

The late Muammar Gaddafi. (Internet photo)

Gaddafi’s behaviour, especially in the later years of his rule, wasn’t that of a sane person. Far from it. And that fact became obvious for anyone who came in touch with him. The foreign affairs minister of Kenya Moses Wetangula for example, in a recent interview on the BBC told of his astonishment – and that of a number of other dignitaries at an African Union meet – when Gaddafi slapped his foreign affairs minister, Abdelati Obeid accrss the face in full view of everyone.

Reports of the man’s eccentricities are many. There was the all female guard of voluptuous brunettes who went everywhere with “the guide of the Libyan Revolution.” There were the cam­els they transported everywhere the guide went, to provide him the favourite ingredient of his breakfast – fresh camel milk. There were the numerous headaches he gave his hosts, with his insis­tence on pitching a tent in the middle of whatever city he visited, preferably in the main square; the man even tried to pitch a tent in a New York City square a year ago during the annual UN Gen­eral Assembly.

Gaddafi was as disruptive as he was eccentric. I was a journalist in South Africa in 2002 and I remember news reports the week the African Union was inaugurated to take the place of the defunct OAU. That was to take place in the South African coastal city of Durban. Every other head of state observed the normal proto­cols: bringing in pre-agreed upon numbers of members of their entourages; proscribed numbers of personal bodyguards with agreed-upon amounts of small weapons, and so on. Well, Gaddafi wouldn’t have been Gaddafi if he instead didn’t see an opportunity to display a sample of the firepower at his command. Six Boeing jumbo jets flew into Durban from Tripoli, positively bristling with machine guns, SMGs, assault rifles, RPGs…, as well as several mem­bers of the Libyan military.

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Gaddafi is gone; what are Africans mourning? | The Rwanda Focus