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Portland, Maine

ΒιΆΉΒγΑΔ Center for Global Humanities presents β€˜The Forgotten Genocide in Libya’

Graphic depicting barbed wire
The lecture, given by ΒιΆΉΒγΑΔ's own Ali Ahmida, will reflect on the oft-forgotten Libyan genocide that occurred from 1929 to 1934.
View more information and watch the event

It may seem like we’re all well aware of the greatest atrocities of the past century, including the short list of genocides most of us can, sadly, recite without much deliberation. But one genocide from the not-so-distant past very nearly slipped through the cracks of history before ΒιΆΉΒγΑΔ scholar Ali Abdullatif Ahmida painstakingly rescued it from obscurity to tell its story: the genocide in Libya that took place between 1929 and 1934.   

A lecture at the ΒιΆΉΒγΑΔ Center for Global Humanities will share the details of Ahmida’s ten years of fieldwork and research as he presents β€œThe Forgotten Genocide in Libya” on Monday, Oct. 11 at 6 p.m. at Innovation Hall at ΒιΆΉΒγΑΔ’s Portland Campus.

A professor of political science at ΒιΆΉΒγΑΔ, Ahmida was born in Waddan, Libya and educated at Cairo University in Egypt and the University of Washington in Seattle. He is the author of numerous books such as :The Making of Modern Libya,” β€œForgotten Voices: Power and Agency in Colonial and Postcolonial Libya,” β€œPost-Orientalism: Critical Reviews of North African Social and Cultural History,” and β€œThe Libya We Do Not Know.” He also edited β€œBeyond Colonialism and Nationalism in the Maghrib” and β€œBridges Across the Sahara.” His most recent book, the 2021 title β€œGenocide in Libya,” forms the basis for this lecture.

In the lecture, Ahmida will explain how he used the oral testimonies of Libyan survivors who were brutalized by the fascist Italian regime as well as previously unexplored archival materials to reconstruct the story of how the Libyans were forcibly removed from their homes, marched across vast tracks of deserts and mountains, and confined behind barbed wire in 16 concentration camps. It is a story that Libyans have recorded in their oral histories and narratives that remained hidden from global view until now.

This second lecture of the Fall 2021 season for the Center for Global Humanities will be followed by three more between now and December. Lectures at the Center are always free, open to the public, and streamed live online. For more information and to watch the event, please visit: /events/2021/forgotten-genocide-libya

Portrait of man in yellow sweater smiling at camera
Ali Ahmida, Ph.D.

About the ΒιΆΉΒγΑΔ

The ΒιΆΉΒγΑΔ is Maine’s largest independent university, with two beautiful coastal campuses in Maine, a one-of-a-kind study abroad campus in Tangier, Morocco, and an array of . In an uncommonly welcoming and supportive community, we offer hands-on learning, empowering students to make a positive impact in a world full of challenges. The state’s top provider of health professionals, we are home to Maine’s only medical college, Maine’s only dental college, a variety of other interprofessionally aligned health care degree programs, as well as nationally recognized programs for marine science degrees, natural and social sciences degrees, arts and humanities degrees, and business degrees.