Enroute to Tripoli (Libya)

After much hassle, the Tunisians finally let me pass through customs. A Libyan taxi driver named Abdullah, who spoke English with a perfect American accent, agreed to take me to Tripoli. But we waited two more hours for a Chadian passenger who was being detained at Tunisian customs. The Chadian was eventually turned back to Tunisia, though he had a valid student visa for the Jamahiriya and could have been admitted to the country had it not been for Tunisian interference. Our driver was frustrated, but he could do nothing about it; we had to leave. Perhaps such is the fate of black Africans in the Maghreb; they are treated with little dignity and respect.

As I had suspected, Abdullah turned out to be an American-educated intellectual who had lived in Texas for more than 7 years. Even more surprisingly, he was married to an American woman and had two adult children in the United States. But by a twist of fate, his family was rendered apart. His passport was revoked without reason by the Libyan authorities when he returned for a brief visit in the early 1990s. As a result, he was forced to stay in Libya and fend for himself, since Colonel Gaddafi had long deprived the intelligentsia of opportunities.

Abdullah became a cabbie plying the lucrative routes between Tunis and Tripoli, transporting passengers to and fro between the two capitals on a daily basis. The taxi business seemed to have earned him a comfortable income, so that he was planning to reopen his short-lived tourist company, which had been erratically suspended by the authorities in the 90's. To make things better, life had visibly improved for him and other Libyans with the UN's rescission of the embargo and the recent normalisation of ties between Tripoli and Washington.

Abdullah openly praised the government for providing many essential services at no cost, such as free housing and health services--made possible thanks to Libya's possession of Africa's largest petrol reserves. Such accolades seemed reasonable, since Libya is reputed to have the top per capita GDP in all of Africa. But when the passengers were dropped off Abdullah cursed Gaddafi for ruining Libya, as if to suggest that beneath the surface of social harmony and economic development signs of dissent were emerging.