Nizar Awad - 3/15/2011
Were the Spanish author of “The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha” Miguel de Cervantes alive today he would be surprised to encounter a living and breathing clone of his delusional antihero Don Quixote of La Mancha. The similarities don’t stop with character and mental state but also to pursuits for this outlandishly clad fellow wrestles with his own windmills thinking that they are monstrous giants worthy of conquest. While Don Quixote in his bouts with insanity imagined himself a chivalrous knight-errant riding his noble steed and fighting towering adversaries and rescuing damsels in distress the equally lunatic Ghaddafi of camp Bab (door of) al-A’zayziya where he has his fortress also rides a white steed and imagines himself a god sent savior who could single handedly win his jousts with the world giants (US & USSR) and triumphantly rescue the whole world from itself. In terms of sidekicks or squires like Sancho Panza who rides his malnourished donkey alongside the equally malnourished horse of Don Quixote one would also notice that there is no shortage of those among Ghaddafi’s entourage. As a matter of fact a well known devotee of Ghaddafi by the name of Ali al-Sha’ri once stood in owe of the sight of his idol riding his white horse then openly declared over the loudspeaker that he wishes he were a horse so that the colonel could ride him instead. Now that is devotion and Sancho Panza “Eat your heart out”. But seriously folks I don’t think that the dimwitted Sancho Panza could match such dedication to the point of wishing that he could be magically transformed into a beast so that his benefactor Don Quixote could climb on his back and go for a joy ride. Despite Panza’s devotion to his master he still valued his dignity and his independence unlike those squires or as Ghaddafi calls them “disciples” around him. Even though he was an opportunist like many of Ghaddafi’s men, he opted to be his own man and ride his sickly donkey alongside his quirky knight.
Now that the connection between the two protagonists has been firmly established I would like to exploit the similarities in character and circumstances between the two as much as I could. Because our culprit Muammar Ghaddafi is afflicted with delusions of grandeur and deeply impeded narcissism his imaginary adversaries are more numerous than those of his namesake Don Quixote.
Furthermore while Don Quixote obsession with books of chivalry triggered his bouts with insanity it would appear that Ghaddafi’s slide into megalomania was the result of reading too many books about world conquerors and saviors including prophets to the point that he even urged his followers to call him “prophet of the desert”. Since Ghaddafi’s adversaries, schemes and adventures or as Cervantes’ would call them “windmills” are too numerous to account for here, I would like to focus on the most memorable few. What better to start with than his fancying himself the unifier of the Arabs even to the point of seeing himself playing a similar role to that of the German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck who unified Germany by “Iron and blood”.
However the comparison between the two stops here for when Ghaddafi decided to emulate Bismarck and unite the Arab world starting with Egypt, he sent bulldozers to destroy the border checkpoints between the two countries. This act of vandalism unnerved the Egyptian President Anwar Sadat who in a fit of anger sent his battle hardened army to teach him a lesson for forgetting the wisdom of having borders or even walls between nations to keep the peace or as the American poet Robert Frost puts it “good walls make good neighbors”. To make a story short Ghaddafi’s army received the spanking administered to discipline “the crazy boy” as Sadat used to call Ghaddafi back then. Ghaddafi did what he because he took the words of the late Arab nationalist leader Gamal abd al-Nasser that “My brother and my friend Muammar Ghaddafi is the custodian on Arab nationalism and Arab unity” to heart and acted accordingly instead of taking them in the spirit they were intended and accept them as a compliment and not a pretext to throw down the gauntlet at the foot of his first windmill and wage war against the giant of the Arab world. He, being in a hurry to wrap himself in the glory of the anointed custodian didn’t waste any time to act upon them thereby causing the needless and senseless boarder skirmish between the two countries in July 1977 which cost too many Egyptian and Libyan lives. Due to his incessant pursuit of Arab glory the erratic colonel was shunned on several occasions in Arab summits for his intrusive, indiscriminate and rude remarks about present and absent Arab leaders. Arab and none Arab people probably still remember the severe thrashing Ghaddafi received from King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, during the 2003 Arab League Summit and who ended his verbal assault on the stunned leader with the memorable words that “Lies are in front of you and the grave is a head of you.”
Once his pursuit of the Arab unity’s windmill turned into a fleeting mirage and was apparently going nowhere he turned his focus on Africa as a place he could unite with his god given charisma and spellbinding insight. After wrapping himself in the legacy of the Ghanaian revolutionary leader Kwame Nkrumah who envisioned a union between all African states, Ghaddafi having swapped his Arab and Libyan attires with colorful African attires embarked upon his campaign to unite the continent either by inserting himself into destructive civil or interstate wars including those in Uganda, Chad and Liberia or by using bribes from Libya’s oil wealth to sway the skeptics among Africa’s strongmen like Filed Marshal Idi Amen Dada of Uganda who later orchestrated his own genocide against his own people for which he deservedly earned himself the title “Butcher of Uganda” . He even bought off many of the African leaders and heads of states such as President Idriss Dibi of Chad and President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe whose countries are nowadays supplying the besieged Ghaddafi with mercenaries and military hardware not so much to save his hide as to keep bribe money and monetary gifts flowing into their coffers.
Who could forget the hilarious episode involving the gifted philosopher of Africa and Jean-Bedel Bokassa, ruler of the Central African Republic? To make a story short Bokassa who was a Christian came to Libya and announced his conversion to Islam in the presence Ghaddafi and for which he was handsomely rewarded. Soon after his return to his country Bokassa converted back to Christianity, changed the status of his country to empire (the Central African Empire) with him of course becoming the emperor. Bokassa, thanks to the hefty reward awarded him by the duped colonel, had himself a fairy tale coronation that could only be matched with those of the Windsor Royal Family in Buckingham Palace. Although I have no doubt that many Africans are receptive to the idea of expanding and enhancing the AU (African Union) along the lines of EU (European Union) however I also believe in my heart of hearts that the majority of them truly see themselves in a win-win situation. On the one hand they are being entertained by the frequent appearances of this so-called “Africa’s king of kings” and “the wise man of Africa” on their door steps dressed in ridiculous African garbs and presumably teaching them the way of the world in his ludicrous and unscripted ramblings. On the other they also certain that with a little patience and perseverance they could endure his farfetched analysis of their condition and by extension the human condition and as a reward they would end up laughing all the way to the bank to cash his checks which for some African dictators would pay for vacations in Europe where they would enjoy times of leisure frolicking on the sandy beaches of France, Spain or Italy just to name a few. Now if you ask me where is this adventure heading? I would venture to say it is definitely going the way of his scheme for Arab unity. After all, the Libyan revolutionaries’ determination to storm his bunker in the capital Tripoli would only mean that this modern day Don Quixote would have to retire his horse, hang up his armor and head for the door then run as far as his feet could carry him.
Even though one would normally think that Ghaddafi’s colossal failures as a unifier of Arabs and Africans would reduce him to size and dissuade him from pursuing any more insurmountable undertakings he instead raised the bar even higher and decreed himself the supreme leader of the Muslim world and a world leader to boot. This third and way more absurd undertaking or should I say a third windmill for our formidable and multitasking troubadour to vanquish, paved the way for his becoming the unrivaled world freak and the laughingstock of world leaders and populace north and south of the equator. After consorting with his invisible airborne muses apparently circling just above his swaying head (Ghaddafi always look upward and around when addressing someone) he even declared that the flab of his tent is always open to welcome world leaders who are encouraged to embark on a pilgrimage to Sirt (Ghaddafi’s birth place) in order to have their fill of the Guru’s infinite wisdom and miraculous vision. As soon as the word got out about the international scholar and his open invitation to world leader, which was incidentally laced with promises of lucrative oil contracts, Leaders actually started flocking Ghaddafi’s air-conditioned and lavishly furnished tent including the former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the former US Secretary of State Condalisa Rice, Italy’s Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and the French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
Knowing Ghaddafi and what he is capable of over the past forty two years made many Libyans anticipate the day when his overinflated ego is punctured and deflated for that would certainly result in unleashing his wrath on the oppressed Libyan people. Well that day has come and our young revolutionaries with their modest military capabilities but with hearts brimming with faith, courage and anger did puncture the overblown ego of this unpredictable dictator. From the looks of things on the ground there is no doubt that they would eventually emerge victorious. While Don Quixote of La Mancha subsequently snapped out of his delusions and grandiose schemes thereby restoring his sanity, Ghaddafi of al-A’zaziya would never relinquish his demons and grand designs and would undoubtedly hold on to them till the very end. My advice to the people of Libya is the fight against the regime of Ghaddafi should from now on proceed in two but parallel direction. The first direction is now being handled by the courageous revolutionaries who took it upon themselves to dismantle the regime and all its symbols prick by prick till it is no more. The second direction should aim to unravel the hyped up and fabricated legacy of Ghaddafi and his system of Jamahiriya (Government of the masses) so that all the fallacies of the regime are exposed for all to see.
Now that the connection between the two protagonists has been firmly established I would like to exploit the similarities in character and circumstances between the two as much as I could. Because our culprit Muammar Ghaddafi is afflicted with delusions of grandeur and deeply impeded narcissism his imaginary adversaries are more numerous than those of his namesake Don Quixote.
Furthermore while Don Quixote obsession with books of chivalry triggered his bouts with insanity it would appear that Ghaddafi’s slide into megalomania was the result of reading too many books about world conquerors and saviors including prophets to the point that he even urged his followers to call him “prophet of the desert”. Since Ghaddafi’s adversaries, schemes and adventures or as Cervantes’ would call them “windmills” are too numerous to account for here, I would like to focus on the most memorable few. What better to start with than his fancying himself the unifier of the Arabs even to the point of seeing himself playing a similar role to that of the German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck who unified Germany by “Iron and blood”.
However the comparison between the two stops here for when Ghaddafi decided to emulate Bismarck and unite the Arab world starting with Egypt, he sent bulldozers to destroy the border checkpoints between the two countries. This act of vandalism unnerved the Egyptian President Anwar Sadat who in a fit of anger sent his battle hardened army to teach him a lesson for forgetting the wisdom of having borders or even walls between nations to keep the peace or as the American poet Robert Frost puts it “good walls make good neighbors”. To make a story short Ghaddafi’s army received the spanking administered to discipline “the crazy boy” as Sadat used to call Ghaddafi back then. Ghaddafi did what he because he took the words of the late Arab nationalist leader Gamal abd al-Nasser that “My brother and my friend Muammar Ghaddafi is the custodian on Arab nationalism and Arab unity” to heart and acted accordingly instead of taking them in the spirit they were intended and accept them as a compliment and not a pretext to throw down the gauntlet at the foot of his first windmill and wage war against the giant of the Arab world. He, being in a hurry to wrap himself in the glory of the anointed custodian didn’t waste any time to act upon them thereby causing the needless and senseless boarder skirmish between the two countries in July 1977 which cost too many Egyptian and Libyan lives. Due to his incessant pursuit of Arab glory the erratic colonel was shunned on several occasions in Arab summits for his intrusive, indiscriminate and rude remarks about present and absent Arab leaders. Arab and none Arab people probably still remember the severe thrashing Ghaddafi received from King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, during the 2003 Arab League Summit and who ended his verbal assault on the stunned leader with the memorable words that “Lies are in front of you and the grave is a head of you.”
Once his pursuit of the Arab unity’s windmill turned into a fleeting mirage and was apparently going nowhere he turned his focus on Africa as a place he could unite with his god given charisma and spellbinding insight. After wrapping himself in the legacy of the Ghanaian revolutionary leader Kwame Nkrumah who envisioned a union between all African states, Ghaddafi having swapped his Arab and Libyan attires with colorful African attires embarked upon his campaign to unite the continent either by inserting himself into destructive civil or interstate wars including those in Uganda, Chad and Liberia or by using bribes from Libya’s oil wealth to sway the skeptics among Africa’s strongmen like Filed Marshal Idi Amen Dada of Uganda who later orchestrated his own genocide against his own people for which he deservedly earned himself the title “Butcher of Uganda” . He even bought off many of the African leaders and heads of states such as President Idriss Dibi of Chad and President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe whose countries are nowadays supplying the besieged Ghaddafi with mercenaries and military hardware not so much to save his hide as to keep bribe money and monetary gifts flowing into their coffers.
Who could forget the hilarious episode involving the gifted philosopher of Africa and Jean-Bedel Bokassa, ruler of the Central African Republic? To make a story short Bokassa who was a Christian came to Libya and announced his conversion to Islam in the presence Ghaddafi and for which he was handsomely rewarded. Soon after his return to his country Bokassa converted back to Christianity, changed the status of his country to empire (the Central African Empire) with him of course becoming the emperor. Bokassa, thanks to the hefty reward awarded him by the duped colonel, had himself a fairy tale coronation that could only be matched with those of the Windsor Royal Family in Buckingham Palace. Although I have no doubt that many Africans are receptive to the idea of expanding and enhancing the AU (African Union) along the lines of EU (European Union) however I also believe in my heart of hearts that the majority of them truly see themselves in a win-win situation. On the one hand they are being entertained by the frequent appearances of this so-called “Africa’s king of kings” and “the wise man of Africa” on their door steps dressed in ridiculous African garbs and presumably teaching them the way of the world in his ludicrous and unscripted ramblings. On the other they also certain that with a little patience and perseverance they could endure his farfetched analysis of their condition and by extension the human condition and as a reward they would end up laughing all the way to the bank to cash his checks which for some African dictators would pay for vacations in Europe where they would enjoy times of leisure frolicking on the sandy beaches of France, Spain or Italy just to name a few. Now if you ask me where is this adventure heading? I would venture to say it is definitely going the way of his scheme for Arab unity. After all, the Libyan revolutionaries’ determination to storm his bunker in the capital Tripoli would only mean that this modern day Don Quixote would have to retire his horse, hang up his armor and head for the door then run as far as his feet could carry him.
Even though one would normally think that Ghaddafi’s colossal failures as a unifier of Arabs and Africans would reduce him to size and dissuade him from pursuing any more insurmountable undertakings he instead raised the bar even higher and decreed himself the supreme leader of the Muslim world and a world leader to boot. This third and way more absurd undertaking or should I say a third windmill for our formidable and multitasking troubadour to vanquish, paved the way for his becoming the unrivaled world freak and the laughingstock of world leaders and populace north and south of the equator. After consorting with his invisible airborne muses apparently circling just above his swaying head (Ghaddafi always look upward and around when addressing someone) he even declared that the flab of his tent is always open to welcome world leaders who are encouraged to embark on a pilgrimage to Sirt (Ghaddafi’s birth place) in order to have their fill of the Guru’s infinite wisdom and miraculous vision. As soon as the word got out about the international scholar and his open invitation to world leader, which was incidentally laced with promises of lucrative oil contracts, Leaders actually started flocking Ghaddafi’s air-conditioned and lavishly furnished tent including the former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the former US Secretary of State Condalisa Rice, Italy’s Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and the French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
Knowing Ghaddafi and what he is capable of over the past forty two years made many Libyans anticipate the day when his overinflated ego is punctured and deflated for that would certainly result in unleashing his wrath on the oppressed Libyan people. Well that day has come and our young revolutionaries with their modest military capabilities but with hearts brimming with faith, courage and anger did puncture the overblown ego of this unpredictable dictator. From the looks of things on the ground there is no doubt that they would eventually emerge victorious. While Don Quixote of La Mancha subsequently snapped out of his delusions and grandiose schemes thereby restoring his sanity, Ghaddafi of al-A’zaziya would never relinquish his demons and grand designs and would undoubtedly hold on to them till the very end. My advice to the people of Libya is the fight against the regime of Ghaddafi should from now on proceed in two but parallel direction. The first direction is now being handled by the courageous revolutionaries who took it upon themselves to dismantle the regime and all its symbols prick by prick till it is no more. The second direction should aim to unravel the hyped up and fabricated legacy of Ghaddafi and his system of Jamahiriya (Government of the masses) so that all the fallacies of the regime are exposed for all to see.
| Nizar Awad is a writer and free lancer whose articles focus on the Middle East, North and Sub-Saharan Africa. Along with Arab and African politics and cultures, Awad's writings also cover Arab/Western relations and Islam in the West particularly in the United States of America. |
