Mohamed Fekini
and the Fight to Free Libya
Angelo Del Boca
Translated by Antony Shugaar
(Italian and Italian American Studies)
Foreword :
This book w ould never have been w ritten had it not been for the determination and persistence of Anwar Fekini, Esq., a Libyan citizen with a degree from the Sorbonne and law offices in London, Paris, and Tripoli. Through Philippe Preti, Esq., of Geneva, Anwar Fekini contacted me to learn if I would be willing to “rédig er une étude historique retraçant la vie et le combat” (“write a historical study of the life and battles”) of his grandfather. Subsequently, when we met in Turin, Anwar Fekini informed me that, in order to facilitate my research, he was willing to give me access to his grandfather’s memoirs,1 as well as to a series of 335 documents consisting of letters that his grandfather wrote and sent to Turkish and Italian authorities (quite a few, in particular, to the Italian general Rodolfo Graziani) and to a number of Libyan chieftains. Last of all, he presented me with a substantial collection of photographs of the Fekini family and of places where his grandfather had lived and worked.
As a historian of Italian colonialism, I was familiar with the life and deeds of Hajj Mohamed Khalifa Fekini. I had written extensively about him in both volumes of my book Gli italiani in Libia,2 and I knew that he had been one of the most stubborn opponents of the Italian occupation of Libya. He was the mutasarrif of the Rojeban tribe during Ottoman rule in Tripolitania; the kaymakam of Fassatu during the early years of the Italian occupation; and the mutasarrif of Fezzan during the brief existence of the Jumhuriyah et-Trabulsiyya (or Tripolitanian Republic). Mohamed Fekini3 soon entered into a head-on collision course with the Italian government. In September 1916, the Italian governor Giovanni Ameglio issued a reward of 10,000 francs for his capture.4 It was, however, particularly in the period beginning in 1920, after the Italians broke their promises and abolished the Statute that had been conceded to the Libyans, that Mohamed Fekini, indifferent to the repeated calls for his surrender, took up arms with the 2,500 men of his mehallas to block the Italian attempts to penetrate into the mountainous region of the Jebel.
On September 13, 1920, in one of the numerous battles against the Berbers fighting under Khalifa ben Askar, who were frequently Italian allies, Mohamed Fekini lost his eldest son, Hassan, who had completed high school in Damascus and had gone on to study law at the University of Turin. Two years later, in an effort to fight back against Graziani’s Gruppo Mobile—or mobile group—which was attempting to reoccupy the Jebel and resettle it with Berber tribes, Mohamed Fekini won a clear victory at the wells of el-Uchim, only to be harshly defeated in the days that followed on the outskirts of the oasis of el-Josh and at the Gorge of As Salamat. During this fighting, he lost a second son, Hussein, who had just turned 20.
Driven out of the Jebel, Mohamed Fekini made a fighting withdrawal into the Ghibla, and from there into the Hamada al Hamra, and from there into Fezzan. In 1930, he was finally driven over the border into Algeria, under a hail of bombs, at the end of a conclusive offensive unleashed by General Graziani. By now 72 years old and verging on blindness, Mohamed Fekini was forced to abandon his country after ten years of being relentlessly hunted through one of the most inhospitable regions on earth, as well as being reduced to hunger by a merciless embargo of all provisions. He and his mujahideen had fought for ten years against a powerful enemy, occasionally managing to strike lucky blows at their foe but more frequently themselves receiving tremendous blows. They left shreds of their flesh everywhere they passed, from the Mediterranean coast to the southernmost borders of Libya, along 1,500 kilometers (a thousand miles) of dunes, serir, and lunar mountains. They only left their country when they felt the hot breath of their adversaries on the back of their necks. Then, and only then, with tears in their eyes and fury in their hearts, did they reluctantly cross the invisible desert frontier.
After surrendering to the French garrison of Fort Tarat, Mohamed Fekini, with his wife Aicha Nouir, his four surviving children, and all that remained of one of the most daring and agressive mehallas of all Libya (now disarmed), undertook a journey that would last for two long years. An authentic biblical exodus through desert regions such as the plateau of Tinrhert and the Great Eastern Erg. On a line with the city of Nefta, Fekini entered Tunisia and, after spending time in Tozeur, Al Hamma, Metlaoui, Degache, and Es Segui, he stopped at Gabes, where he spent the rest of his life, dying on March 28, 1950. He had once been the wealthy owner of houses, olive groves, orange groves, and vast herds of livestock; his total assets, when he left Libya, consisted of 16 camels and the gold jewelry his wife Aicha wore. Just enough to stave off starvation. And yet, one of his sons, Mohieddine, graduated from the Sorbonne and later became prime minister of Libya under King Idris al-Senussi. Another son, Ali Nouredine, went into the field of diplomacy and served as Libya’s ambassador to Tunisia.
I was quite familiar, then, through the documents in our archives, with the story of Mohamed Fekini and his family. It was also my opinion that the material I had already gathered was more than enough to assemble an exhaustive profile of this remarkable man: a warrior and a patriot. But what led me to accept so enthusiastically the offer made by the grandson of the irreducible freedom fighter was the opportunity to add to the already rich trove of Italian documentation a substantial quantity of Arabic documentation: documentation, moreover, that had been written or assembled by Mohamed Fekini himself. For the first time, an Italian historian would have an opportunity to study the thoughts, feelings, passions, and aspirations of the “others,” and at the same time make a comparison of the two versions of events. Since this is a privilege that only a historian can fully value and appreciate, let me add only my heartfelt thanks to Anwar Fekini for the extraordinary opportunity that he has given me.
I am also grateful to Omar Saghi, who translated from Arabic into French Mohamed Fekini’s Memoirs, and to Zahi Kaied, who translated out of Arabic the enclosures, providing us with a clear understanding of the texts. I would further like to express my gratitude to Jean-Pierre Milelli, who has already prepared a splendid French version of One Step Away from the Gallows (original Italian title: A un passo dalla forca; French title: A un pas de la potence). Let me also express my thanks for the invaluable information provided by Fadel and Mohamed Fekini, sons of Lamine Fekini; Embarka Nasr, wife of Lamine Fekini; Mariam Boubaker, daughter of Mohamed Fekini; and Manoubia Ben Hamida, second wife of Ali Nouredine Fekini. And finally, a heartfelt thanks goes to the historian Matteo Dominioni, who has carried out for me fruitful research in the archives of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in Rome.
Turin, December 2006
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