How the “king of Africa” fueled his own country’s racism

It’s ironic given Muammar al-Qaddafi’s pan-African ambitions,  that one of the last legacies of his presidency may be to contribute to his own country’s racial animosity toward sub-Saharan Africans. The Christian Science Monitor‘s Clair MacDougall discusses how Qaddafi’s hiring of African mercenaries has contributed toward a violently hostile atmosphere for African mercenaries in Libya: 

The West African nation of Ghana has repatriated more than 500 of its estimated 10,000 workers in Libya. Many of the workers who moved to cities such as Tripoli and Benghazi in search of a better life have returned with stories of looting, threats, and beatings.

“Day in and out we couldn’t sleep,” says Ibrahim Zachariah, steel fixer from the West African nation of Ghana who made it home last week after braving the threat of violence to leave Libya. “We wore our shoes when we slept, because we knew anything could happen at any time.”

Mr. Zachariah had been living in Benghazi for two years before the uprising began last month. He worked for a construction company, making three times more than he would in Ghana and hoped to save for a house. He said his situation grew dire after the company management ran and left the workers behind without paying them their wages.

Zachariah and the other employees lived within the company’s compound for days as gunshots were fired outside. He says anti-Qaddafi mobs broke into the compound where there were many African migrant workers, stole their money and burned their clothes and the machines.

“This is all I brought to Ghana,” he said pointing to his clothes. “I lost everything.”

Another migrant reported having stones thrown at him and being called "slave" on the street. Sadly, the situation was already pretty bad before the current troubles began: 

In 2000 the Brussels-based International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) condemned attacks and alleged killings of migrant workers from Ghana, Cameroon, Sudan, Niger, Burkina Faso, Chad and Nigeria allegedly by young Libyans targeting black migrants particularly in the East of the country, after the government ordered a crackdown on illegal migrant workers. According to a statement made in 2000 by the ICFTU the attacks “were provoked by news portraying African migrants as being involved in drug-trafficking or dealing in alcohol.”

In addition, there are now concerns in Mali and Niger that returning mercenaries could help restart their forzen internal conflicts. A sad legacy for the leader who sought to portray himself, with little apparent sense of irony, as Africa "king of kings."