For the rebels who toppled Muammar Gaddafi, the new Libyan era has ushered in unbounded political freedom and deep personal joy. For Dijmon, a 25-year-old Nigerian labourer in the newly captured capital, it brought fear.
The rebels' elation at victory has in some places turned into rage at people like Dijmon, whose dark skins identified them with Gaddafi's foreign soldiers of fortune even if they had nothing to do with the former leader.
"There was shooting all around the car wash where I worked," he recalled of the day he fled his home in Tripoli. "Then the boys from the neighborhood came and attacked me with hammers."
The treatment of African migrants and dark-skinned Libyans is an early test of the new rulers' vows to build a democratic state, which their European and U.S. backers feel would justify their intervention against Gaddafi on humanitarian grounds.
Race and skin colour were already dividing lines for Libyans, and as in other north African Arab states, many people have a dismissive attitude toward black Africans. Full story...
Don't miss:
The rebels' elation at victory has in some places turned into rage at people like Dijmon, whose dark skins identified them with Gaddafi's foreign soldiers of fortune even if they had nothing to do with the former leader.
"There was shooting all around the car wash where I worked," he recalled of the day he fled his home in Tripoli. "Then the boys from the neighborhood came and attacked me with hammers."
The treatment of African migrants and dark-skinned Libyans is an early test of the new rulers' vows to build a democratic state, which their European and U.S. backers feel would justify their intervention against Gaddafi on humanitarian grounds.
Race and skin colour were already dividing lines for Libyans, and as in other north African Arab states, many people have a dismissive attitude toward black Africans. Full story...
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