They've overthrown the hated dictator, but it seems Libyans can't quite rid themselves of Gaddafi, as his image pops up in endless caricatures and other memorabilia
Ian Black
guardian.co.uk, Monday 17 October 2011 20.30 BST
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Gaddafi's image is mercilessly pillioried in a huge range of memorabilia in Libya.
Muammar Gaddafi may still be roaming around freely in the depths of the Sahara desert trying to evade capture by the rebels who deposed him in August, but the people he ruled for nearly 42 years are celebrating his departure – big time.
In the space of just a few weeks, Libyans have swapped a culture of officially inspired adulation for bawdy irreverence towards the man they now delight in dissing as "Abu Shafshoufa" – "frizzyhead".
Gaddafi is the subject of endless caricatures and photomontages, the mainstay of a cottage industry of revolutionary memorabilia driven by the sheer exuberance of release from decades of oppression. Stalls in Tripoli's newly renamed Martyrs' Square are doing a roaring trade in pictures of him with former presidents Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and Zein al-Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia – the three veteran autocrats and victims of this year's Arab uprisings.
In one popular spoof they are portrayed – in the company of Yemen's Ali Abdullah Saleh, who is still clinging to power – in unflattering flesh-coloured body-stockings. Postcards and posters show Gaddafi dangling from a gallows, as a baby in nappies or pushing a wheelbarrow containing his second son, Saif al-Islam.
It is a diversion from the struggle to reform a country with few institutions and which has not held elections in more than half a century. But the weight of Gaddafi's presence is astonishing. "It is true that Libyans are erasing Gaddafi's official image but, ironically, they are putting it back everywhere with all these caricatures," says Hoda Abuzeid, whose dissident father was murdered by Gaddafi agents in London and who now works with the rebel government. "In a way, he is even more present than before even though they are mocking him. The real insight is that people can't help drawing him because they are so used to him."
The old stock propaganda pictures have indeed gone, with one striking exception. Rugs bearing Gaddafi's face now serve as doormats at the entrances to hotels and other buildings commandeered by the rebels all over Tripoli. One of these is the new star of my own modest collection of Middle Eastern political souvenirs. It was acquired, courtesy of Tripoli's rebel masters, from a sinister building housing one of the old regime's nastiest security units. On it, in luxuriantly thick woollen pile, Gaddafi looks young and handsome – but utterly oblivious to the risk that he might one day end up on the rubbish heap of Libyan history.
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