On this day in 2011, revolutionary Libyan leader and pan-Africanist Muammar Gaddafi was captured and executed by NATO-backed rebels. Not long after, The Atlantic published an article with the headline: ‘As Qaddafi Died, So Did His Craziest Dream and Mistake: Pan-Africanism.’ Yes, they actually said the quiet part out loud.
The article boldly states, “Qaddafi’s death — and the outpouring of support for the late Libyan leader in sub-Saharan Africa following his demise — is a reminder that pan-Africanism was an historic mistake of enormous proportions — a simple-minded political ideology that for the past 50 years or so has done more harm than good for Africa’s standing in the world.”
People across the political spectrum still debate whether Gaddafi really was the brutal dictator the West made him out to be. Was he killed because he was hated by his own people? Or did his anti-imperialist politics and refusal to bow down to the West play a decisive role? Today, in 2024, there is a significant body of evidence that the West had a vested interest in removing Gaddafi, who was working to liberate and unify Africa. This article by The Atlantic was an early clue.
The most persuasive evidence that there was a Western plot to destroy pan-Africanism through Gaddafi’s assassination comes directly from email correspondences between former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former aide to President Bill Clinton, Sidney Blumenthal. Here’s an extract from one email:
“This [Libyan] gold [reserve] was accumulated prior to the current rebellion and was intended to be used to establish a pan-African currency based on the Libyan golden Dinar. This plan was designed to provide the Francophone African Countries with an alternative to the French franc (CFA)… French intelligence officers discovered this plan shortly after the current rebellion began, and this was one of the factors that influenced President Nicolas Sarkozy’s decision to commit France to the attack on Libya.”
They did not want Africa to unite under the golden dinar currency that Gaddafi proposed, so he had to go.