The culture of Libya - Week 7 - Anneleen Coppens

Anou already told you that we saw a lot of pictures of a dead Qadhafi and Romina mentioned something about heaps of destroyed buildings.

Of course that’s what we expected when we arrived here. But thanks to an old lady living next to us, we heard some positive and pleasant things too.

Since a part of Libya is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, a lot of the inhabitants live there: almost 80%. Most of them are mixed of Berber and Arab ancestry.

The lady herself has a Berber ancestry and she told us the Berbers lived there long before the Arabs ever arrived.

Islam is the official religion of Libya and most people speak Arabs. There’s also a second language which is English.

Right now we are in Zuwarah, it’s a coastal town where a lot of Berber people live. Their dialect is called ‘Tamazight’ and it’s not an official language. Especially the older inhabitants still speak dialects.

Today a lot of families live with a lot of people in one single house. The old lady mentioned the fact that education here is very poor. Because of this, work force became very low. Only 10% of the woman here has an actual job.

The old lady her house

A bit later she showed us our house which was made out of mud bricks. There is only one room in the house and almost all the activities take place in it. Next to their house there is this little shelter for the chicken they keep.

Some people here still wear the traditional clothing because of their beliefs and values, but most of the inhabitants wear western-style clothing.

I guess the old lady has a strong belief: she wore full length robe, contrary to the hot weather right now. Her husband was dressed in a loose cotton shirt and trousers covered by a cloak.

After the delicious but highly spiced soup she made for us, we decided to go to our beds. It was a warm and cozy day but our feet hurt.

See you next week!

Anneleen

Source:

http://www.east-buc.k12.ia.us/00_01/AF/Lib/lib_cul.htm

http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/resources/global-etiquette/libya.html