Libya between Resilience, New Opportunities and Challenges for the Berbers

The International Conference Libya between History and Revolution: Resilience and new narrations of Berber identity convened at the University of Naples “L’Orientale” from the 15th to the 17th January 2018, was dedicated to the contemporary history of Libya. Its purpose was to understand a reality that is for the most part little known to the vast majority of the Italian public, and this despite colonization, its consequences, and the relations that have always existed between the two countries. Conversely, first the promotion of the colonizers’ rationale, then the rhetoric of Qadhafi’s regime, and finally the current representations closely related to terrorist emergencies, immigration, and war within and outside the Islamic world, are all well-known and documented. This volume brings together papers by the scholars (from both Italy and abroad) who took part in the conference. The aim of this collection is to provide insights into a range of crucial issues that affected the country as a consequence of its colonial history and informed the uprisings of 2011; the volume looks in particular at the role of the Berbers in Libya through the prism of the new opportunities and challenges that face them today and which were discussed during the three-day international conference.