This poem by Sheikh Rajib Buhwaish Al-manfi vividly captures the suffering, agony, frustration, despair, humiliation and devastation thousands of Libyans felt in the concentration camps set up by fascist Italy in the period 1929-1931 in response to the renewed and successful armed struggle led by Sheikh Omar Al-mukhtar. It illustrates in detail the cruelty and barbarity of the Fascists. This poem has garnered a great fanfare and arguably is the most well known Libyan poem. The purpose here is to give those who have read or heard it another chance to get acquainted with it and to give those young Libyans living abroad a glimpse of the role folklore and poetry played in expressing our history.

A short description of
the concentration
camps
  
Some biographical
information
about the poet
The full poem in
Arabic with an
English translation 
  
Some pictures
of the concentration
camps
Listen to a song which
was based on this
poem (from the
theme "rihlat naghim")
  
Many Libyans were
inspired by this poem
to reply and add to it
This page is dedicated to the fighting spirit of my home town of Darna

Copyright 
© 1999,
Khelwat 
El-MrabiT