A day out at Gaddafiland

Tripoli

What to do on a weekend in revolutionary Tripoli? There’s no doubt about the city’s most popular family day out. Hundreds of cars and thousands of Tripolines drive into Bab al-Aziziya, the Gaddafi family fortress. A vast compound strictly off limits for ordinary Libyans until only a few days ago is now the scene of the unlikeliest traffic jams. Threading their way through shot-up, burnt-out armoured BMWs, drivers wind down their windows, honk their horns and shout out anything that comes to mind, “Free Libya!”, “Fuck off Gaddafi!”, “The rat is finished!”

Gaddafi’s house resounds to cries of “Allahu akbar! God is great!” Crowds mill through with mobile phone cameras to the fore. A friend picks up a stash of Gaddafi propaganda portraits as a war memento, puts them on a shelf for a moment and turns around only to see a thrilled Libyan ripping them up into tiny pieces.