Nour Nass TRIPOLI – From the very beginning of the 17 February Revolution, the tricolour flag with the crescent and star has been its rallying symbol. But it is a symbol that has its own story — one that speaks of an earlier struggle for Libyan freedom and unity, an earlier struggle that likewise saw Libyans die in their thousands for freedom. It is estimated that over 100,000 Libyans died during the Italian colonial period. Most perished in the desert, fleeing on foot to Egypt, seeking safety from the Italian forces intent on suppressing the resistance movement in Cyrenaica led by a humble teacher, Omar Mukhtar. He ran the military forces of the Senussi movement, headed from his exile in Egypt by Sayyid Muhammad Idris Al-Mahdi Al-Senussi. Not that the he or they would have identified themselves as Libyans. The name was a recent Italian colonial reinvention. The Italians had decided to run their two colonies of Tripolitania and Cyrenaica as a single colony and needed a name for it. They revived the name of Libya, which had not been used for some 1300 years. But if the name meant nothing, freedom did. On 24 December 1951, 20 years after Mukhtar's execution by the Italians, Libya became an independent kingdom with Sayyid Idris its first and only king. The country had gained its freedom — and by then the named was ingrained in people's minds. A close colleague and friend of the king was Omar Shennib. He became the new Minister of Defense, Vice President of the Libyan National Assembly and Chief of the Royal Cabinet — although not for long; he died in 1953. Shennib too sought to unify the three entities that made up what was then a federal state Cyrenaica, Tripolitania and Fezzan – into a single nation and under one flag. In fact, he designed the flag. Last month, just a few days before his tragic death, Majid Wanis, grandson of Shennib and son of Wanis Gaddafi, the last of King Idris' prime ministers before Muammar Gaddafi (no relation) seized power in 1969, explained the meaning and symbolism of the flag to the Libya Herald. Tripolitania, the northwest region of Libya is in terms of size the smallest of the three historical regions of the country. When in 1918, a group of local leaders declared their Tripolitanian Republic, they chose as its flag a green palm tree with a star above it against a light blue background. The Italian colonists had much the same flag for Tripolitania, except the blue was darker and there was a golden band underneath and a crown above. Under the Ottomans, however, Tripolitania had had a green flag with three crescent moons. Fezzan only came into existence as a separate state in 1943 when the French took it over; previously under the Italians and the Ottomans it had been administered from Tripoli. Under French rule, it had a red flag with a white circle containing a crescent and a star. The Emirate of Cyrenaica, declared as a British protectorate in 1948, had a black flag with a white crescent and star at the centre. According to Wanis, the new flag was intended to represent a bond between the Libyan people – from all regions into one. But the green for Tripolitania, black for Cyrenaica and red for Fezzan meant more. Shennib wanted to honour the martyrs, treasure the freedom so many had fought and died for, and stress the country's faith, Islam. So the red is there to represent the blood of those thousands of earlier martyrs. The green symbolises everything the people fought for – their freedom and independence. The black with the crescent and star represents the Libyan people's way of life – Islam. It more than represents Islam. The first black flag used for Cyrenaica was an actual piece of the black cloth that covered the Kaaba in Mecca, to which the crescent and star were added. On September 1, 1969 Muammar Gaddhafi seized power. The monarchy was abolished, the country's name changed to the Libyan Arab Republic and the old flag thrown out. The new one was similar to that of Egypt. About one year after the military coup, Libya's flag was changed again, to that of the Union of Arab Republics which Libya had joined. Then, nearly eight years later, Gaddafi changed the name of the country to the Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya. The flag was changed once more to solid green. Since mid-February, 2011, the Kingdom of Libya flag proudly flies. Libya's former green flag is despised because of its associations with Qaddafi's Green Book and all his other “Green” ideas that, during the much of his rule were obligatory for school children to study the book at least two hours per week. – Libya Herald
