Grounds for Change: Libyan Coffee Culture and Its Role Within Libya’s Socio-Political Development

Public domain image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

In his famous assertion that ‘change is the only constant in life,’ Greek philosopher Heraclitus makes it starkly apparent that he never had the chance to study Libya. In examining Libya’s storied history of conflict, violence and instability, while change is undoubtedly central to the Libyan narrative, it becomes clear that there is another constant at play underpinning its development: coffee.

Libya’s love for coffee is well-embedded within its history as a hotbed for trade and commerce: East-African and Yemeni coffee was ported by Arab merchants into Tripoli — a major port city along the Trans-Saharan Trade Route — during the 15th and 16th centuries. Not long after, the incorporation of Libya into the Ottoman Empire brought with it the importation of a distinctly Ottoman institution: the coffeehouse. 

Following suit of their Ottoman counterparts, these Libyan coffeehouses transformed into community hubs for social, political, and cultural discussion and exchange, curating an unprecedented public space for open discourse. The centrality of the coffeehouse to the functioning of Libyan society was so deeply ingrained that in the centuries prior to the 1870 establishment of a municipal city hall, Tripoli’s city leaders would meet in a space called Qahwat Sheyk al-Bilad — aptly, the ‘Café of the Council Chief’.

However, as control over Libya was seized from the Ottomans by the Italians, Libyan coffee culture shifted accordingly, both reinforced and redefined with the arrival of the Italians.

Seeking to maximise their colonial interests through the creation of a Northern African “Fourth Shore,” Italy occupied Libya in 1911 and through a bloody decades-long series of colonial wars and brutal pacification campaigns, created a united Italian Libya from the coastal colonies of Cyrenaica, Fezzan, and Tripolitania, designating Tripoli as its capital. With the establishment of Italian Libya came hordes of Italian settlers who, by the 1939 census, comprised 37% of Tripoli’s population and over 13% of the greater Libyan populace; accordingly, Libyan sociocultural practices became tinged with Italian influence. 

Libyan coffee conventions were drastically upheaved as thick Arabic coffee was swiftly abandoned in favour of the smooth Italian espresso while the cevze — the Turkish copper brewing pot — was replaced by the steam-driven espresso machine. Moreover, the Italian-driven expansion of Tripoli’s Old City incorporated Italian style café-bars within its urban planning endeavours, contributing to the urbanisation of both the town itself and its pace of living.

Coffee thereby became synonymous with the Western-driven ideals of progress and modernity, with Libyan coffee culture now existing as a synthesis of the Ottoman and Italian traditions: it combined the ideal of the public sphere exhibited by the coffeehouse with the intellectual and technological advances denoted by Italian espresso-making methods. In essence, coffee was heralded as being the lifeblood of the thinking class; a tangible representation of the societal progress made over Libya’s long history; a beacon of hope for future peace and prosperity.

Predictably, not all Libyans welcomed this iteration of coffee culture: most notably, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi resented the legacy of Italian influence perpetuated by this such glorification of coffee and the greater Westernisation of Libya that it represented.

Rising to power in 1969, Gaddafi operated on a platform of Arab nationalism and socialistic governance. His understanding of Arab nationalism was largely driven by the notion of anti-imperialism; accordingly, Gaddafi took direct issue with the legacy of Italian colonialism still present and in 1970, forcibly expelled all remaining Italians from Libya, making clear that they had no place within the nation he was envisioning.

Gaddafi also demonised the coffee culture shaped by Italian influence, characterising it as a threat to the very foundations of Libya’s cultural identity. Imposing bans on Western-imported goods (including Italian coffee), Gaddafi sought to staunch the flow of Western ideals into Libya, encouraging the rejection of capitalistic, urban luxury in the revival of a simplistic Bedouin lifestyle. Threatened by the intellectual promise of the coffee house, he further eradicated Libya’s coffee shop industry, leaving only a few cafés in states of severe neglect and closely monitoring them, so as to deter any talk of dissent or even, outright insubordination.

As Gaddafi’s attacks on the West began to ease, the espresso made a gradual return to the realm of Libyan quotidian existence: super finely-ground Arabic beans provided a workaround to the Italian coffee deemed forbidden and luckily, worked well in the pump espresso machines that began to pop up in universities and cafés.

While the coffee wasn’t quite to the standard of authentic Italian espresso, Libyans adapted, deeming the makyata­ (Libyan dialect for macchiato) the new drink of choice — the steamed milk offset the coffee’s bitterness and thickness nicely. In fact, it was not at all the quality or authenticity of the coffee that mattered but rather, the ability to drink it. The espresso symbolised resistance to the isolationism preached by Gaddafi’s regime, realigning Libyans with the international community and revitalising the movement opposing Gaddafi’s authoritarian rule.

With Gaddafi’s fall, the coffee house rose again and has since reclaimed its spot within the heart of Libyan social, political and cultural life. Within the desperate search for stability and national unity within the civil war and chaos now befalling the nation, for the Libyan people, coffee houses serve a dual purpose: firstly, providing them with a sense of calm normalcy within conflict; secondly, reminding them of the legacy of fortitude and perseverance and the ideals of dynamism and progress that have and can again carry them through periods of struggle.