The Paler Side of the King of Kings
Biyokulule Online
March 12, 2011

In 2003, when the US had invaded Iraq on the pretext that it had possessed weapons of mass destruction and virtually removed Saddam Hussein from power, Qaddafi has changed his spots, opposing violence. He was forced to re-evaluate his position in order to minimize risks. Subsequently, he stopped his ambitions of developing nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons of mass destruction and allowed international inspections of such sites.

After all, Qaddafi wanted not to be alone in the desert sun and the West was interested in his services in the fight against the Arab underground Islamists. The United States was therefore prepared to ignore many things -- but not everything. America`s �Qaddafi package deal� included the cancellation of most economic sanctions; however, Libya remained on the US State Department`s list of countries that sponsor terrorism.

Since then, Qaddafi developed a pale, shy personality with no revolutionary rhetoric � he just became the �Michael Jackson of African revolutionaries�.

Attraction Seeker or a security-conscious king

Michael Jackson`s trademark was to surprise and make bellmen`s eyes pop out, by walking in through the dock entrances of hotels with his bodyguards. He loved to see his bodyguards dress in uniform, wearing jackets with significant quantities of shoulder padding.

Like Michael Jackson, the eccentric Libyan leader loves to have a large entourage of bodyguards with him at all times. And in the early years of his rule, Qaddafi developed a security-conscious mentality and caused stirs in many African and Arab summits, bringing a large entourage of security personnel into the conferences.

To attract the attention of the media, the King of Kings changed all of his male bodyguards and replaced them with agile women dressed in guerilla-uniform, which was not an international custom. He also loves a quartet of female bodyguards (virgins) closely accompanying him in all public events. Sometimes, the King of Kings attends private meetings with the presence of his small army of bodyguards.

For the last few years, the King of Kings was muttering about what he called the �United States of Africa�, instead of Pan-Arabism or dar-al-Islam � expressing his conviction of building a European-African relation based on an equal level.

Megalomania Meets Idiosyncrasies

In show business, nicknames that catch the attention of the public and may hang around for a while have been bestowed on stars. Although this whole nickname business is a little silly, fans have tendencies to use nicknames to refer to their idol, whether he/she deserves to be known as such: James Brown as the Godfather of Soul; Aretha Franklin as the Queen of Soul; and Elvis Presley as the King of Rock `n` Roll. And in late 1980s, the media started to refer to Michael Jackson as the King of Pop. Michael Jackson also earned another flattering epithet, �King of the Sanwi�, for visiting a little village in the southeast of Ivory Coast.

Superstar Michael Jackson and Colonel Qaddafi have a lot in common indeed. Both are referred to as �African king� and elevated themselves to the top of their fields. Both are fascinated with illusion. Michael used to convince people that he was a moonwalker with a lyrical message and that he was not black. Colonel Qaddafi has been telling the world for two decades that he is �the savior of humanity�, �international thinker�, �the king of traditional kings�; and also that �he is the leader of the peoples of Asia and South America, not to mention that of the Arab and African peoples�.

Thirst for Fictitious Legacies

To gain legitimacy, many African leaders shower upon themselves in fictitious legacies of ostentatious titles and the results are wonderfully absurd. To just name a few of these flagrant self-promotion titles that African dictators adopted, evaluate the following prototypical African super chiefs:

Former president of Malawi, Dr Hastings Kamuzu Banda, was nicknamed as �the founding father�, �Big man�. Former Zaire (now DR Congo) president, Joseph-D�sir� Mobutu, changed his name to Mobutu Sese Seko Nkuku Ngbendu wa Za Banga, which translates roughly as �the all-powerful warrior who, because of his endurance and inflexible will to win, goes from conquest to conquest, leaving fire in his wake�.

Huh! And you think that the above nicknames are impressive. How about the prefixes of former Ugandan President Idi Amin Dada:

�His Excellency President for Life, Field Marshal Al Hadji Doctor Idi Amin, VC, DSO, MC, Lord of All the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Sea, and Conqueror of the British Empire in Africa in General and Uganda in Particular�

And the King of Kings, Roobdoon Forum is of course referring to Colonel Qaddafi, the tyrannical despot of Libya, was attributed as: �Mu`ammar Al-Qadhafi, Guide of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, traditional King of Kings of Africa�.

According to his kingship website [See Here], the above title must be referred to him, as demands a document handed out by the Libyan protocol service to the Ethiopian authorities on the eve of the 12^th summit of head of state and government of the African Union (AU) in 2009.

The Year 2009, many African traditional chiefs were duped, without batting an eye lid, to accept the Colonel`s comical and artificial attributes. The most distressing in this comedy is that a Somali traditional clan chief, Boqor Abdullah Bougar Moussa (King kong), has bought as a wholesale Qaddafi`s rattlings about the formation of a Forum of Kings, Sultans, Princes, Sheikhs and Mayors of Africa. �I am prepared to provide anything that this tribal assembly needs�, said Qaddafi to these African chiefs, so long that it is in the King of King`s royal enclosure � Sirte, Libya.

 
Boqor Abdullah Bougar Moussa (King kong) attending one of Colonel Qaddafi`s comical and artificial tribal gatherings held in Sirte, Libya.

Boqor Abdullah Bougar Moussa was pleased to hear Qaddafi`s promises and convinced himself that the future of Africa involves in restoring Africa`s tribal chiefdoms. In the eyes of Kingkong, Jamahiriya is the place to extrapolate from a simple clan chief to a king of Somalia � since the Colonel was bankrolling the conferences of chiefs, kings and sultans. In his writings, Abdullah Bougar Moussa said:

The efforts of the leader to whom the Kings and Sultans have sworn allegiance and who was selected by African politicians to be the President of the African Union, are verily a continuation of the struggling efforts deployed by sisterly Great Libyan Jamahiriya, and thus I hereby bring my own voice to support those of the African kings and elders to confer this title on the leader Muammar al-Qaddafi. [Read Here]

In early 2009, Boqor Abdullah Bougar Moussa rushed back to Puntland, to craft a PR video (Public Relation video), in order to grab his King of Kings` attention. [Watch this video]. However, not all African tribal chiefs were duped that easily; Toivo Ndjebela wrote:

A chief from Zambia, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of victimisation at future conferences, said: �It is a good initiative in principle to have Africa`s traditional leaders meet every year. It is, however, my personal opinion and those of a few counterparts that I spoke to that the leadership of the forum be rotated on a regular basis.�

He continued: �Otherwise this whole project would be a farce because Qaddafi would not live forever and we are not sure his successor would be prepared to splash cash to have us here. And when that`s the case, the forum would collapse.�

� Most of our traditional leaders here are very poor and as such they are just agreeing with everything without any objection. It sounds as if there are clandestine intentions to have us as puppets of this forum in our own countries,� the chief told New Era. [Read Here]

Finally, Roobdoon Forum condemns Colonel Qaddafi`s use of military force against civilians. Such violence, which already drew worldwide condemnation, should also spark a wave of condemnation in all parts of Somalia. Roobdoon Forum appeals to all Puntland Ugaases, Sultans, Boqors, and Garaads to hold the very spirit of African Union. Puntland chiefs, who have not yet condemned Qaddafi`s inhumane acts, please make Puntlanders feel proud and say no to the Colonel, the �Michael Jackson of African Revolutionaries�; say no to his tribal mentality and grow beyond the status of clan leaders; refuse his manipulation and tribal assembly aimed at bolstering his farcical epithet of �King of Kings�.

Roobdoon Forum
Saturday, March 12, 2011