Dubiously butchered, but always Remembered
Muammar Gaddafi’ s historic speech to the United Nations (UN) General Assembly in 2009 has a haunting, ambivalent persistence in the global political conversation. Several UN delegates were obviously startled by his emotional and impromptu tirade against the West’ s brazen hypocrisy and double standards, as well as those of Russia and China.
Gaddafi was in the United States for the first time to deliver a major UN address. At the same moment, Barack Obama was delivering his first UN address. Gaddafi was expected to adopt American leaders’ deceptively humble diplomatic manner. It was the unexpected that arose. It was, however, desperately needed.
He was supposed to give a 15- minute speech, but he went on for an hour and a half.
His discursive verbal assault touched on the UN Security Council’ s ” autocratic” nature, colonial reparations, John F. Kennedy’ s assassination, and the theoretical assumption that swine flu was produced by man (via the military) as a biological weapon.
Gaddafi’ s lengthy address, however, fell short of the four- and- a- half- hour mark set by Cuban iconoclast Fidel Castro in 1960. However, it is reminiscent of Robert Mugabe’ s 2017 UN speech, in which he referred to Trump as a ” big gold Goliath” because of his aggression and urged him to ” blow [his] trumpet. “
Although much has been made of Gaddafi’ s quirkiness and spontaneity- a rejection of Western customs— what he said mostly echoed the thoughts of the world’ s oppressed peoples.
Although some of it lacked factual veracity, it nonetheless expressed serious counter- hegemonies stating that Western- style democracy is incompatible with Africans’ relevant material requirements and developmental concerns in their daily lives.
For the most part, one gets the impression that the West was hit hardest by the caustic rhetorical attack. That is why the propaganda machines were despatched so quickly (the UN website erased the English transcript of Gaddafi’ s 2009 UN speech, and all Western media outlets ” removed the transcript from all forms of media resources” ). This was done in order to degrade Gaddafi to an unpredictable, irrational tyrant who was using the US podium to satisfy his egotistic and megalomaniac hunger for limelight.
Gaddafi’ s failure to smooth out his contradictions as Libya’ s leader in the most acceptable way is reasonable. However, no leader is without flaws. And it was surely not Gaddafi who was presented as the ” demon” by the West. During the colonial and post- colonial periods, Western elites committed horrific atrocities.
For the purposes of this article, the list of such atrocities is endless– but in Gaddafi’ s context, a few stand out: colonialism, the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, sanctions against Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, and Zimbabwe, backing military coups in Latin America, and information wars, to name a few.
Gaddafi had harsh words for the United Nations Security Council, which is in charge of maintaining world peace. He demonstrated how the UN Security Council and its permanent members (the US, France, China, Russia, and the UK) are the antithesis of peace.
His thesis was that the Security Council departed from the UN Charter’ s intended functions for personal advantage.
” How can we have global peace of security if the world is dominated by four or five power and authority? ” he wondered. His mockery of the Security Council, which he referred to as a ” terror council” that despises smaller countries, was uncut and unfiltered.
He slammed the permanent members of the Security Council’ s veto power. He demanded that regional organizations such as ” the Arab League, the Organization of American States, the African Union, and the Non- Aligned Movement” be given permanent seats.
Perhaps the most operatic moment in Western perceptions of tyrants was when Gaddafi tore up a copy of the UN Charter, much to the consternation of delegates— ” Are we equals? “
The same members of the council were also the world’ s orchestrators of conflict. Gaddafi saw no difference between the Security Council and al- Qaida— both were terrorist organizations. He demanded that Tony Blair of the United Kingdom and George W. Bush of the United States be tried for causing untold human misery and death as a result of the Iraqi war.
Gaddafi’ s obsession on exposing the UN’ s decadence was designed to demonstrate that equality is the foundation of humanity; everyone, great or tiny, is equal.
He showed how Africa was colonized and ” isolated, ” with slaves and animals treated as property, and how the colonizers had a ” unpaid bill to pay. ” Gaddafi declared that colonized countries must be compensated for the crimes of colonialism in the amount of $7. 7 trillion so that ” no new colonizations, no more usurpation, and no more plundering of the riches of the people” occurs.
And, as discussions about decolonization processes have gained pace, this is a valid point. His logic went on to say that if compensation is provided, illegal immigration will decrease- citing the unlawful and perilous crossings from Libya to Italy as an example.
Gaddafi went on to congratulate Barack Obama on becoming America’ s first black president. Because of the tangled nature of world politics, Obama was ultimately in charge of the illegal offensive to depose Gaddafi for good.
The most important takeaway from Gaddafi’ s historic UN speech in 2009 is that he articulated counter- hegemonic narratives that other African leaders are hesitant to express in international venues. This anti- imperial daring was the catalyst for a continuous propagandistic effort against him, which eventually resulted in his execution.
Whatever one’ s opinion of Gaddafi, what he said in 2009 will live on forever, and Africans should remember him as a leader who fought valiantly for African freedom, a desire to free the continent from imperial capitalist dominance.
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