RESEARCH REVIEW (N) VOL.10, NOS. 1& 2, (1994)

MOAMMAR EL KADHAFI ON NATIONAL INTEGRATION: SOME

COMMENTS1

Kwaku Twumasi-Ankrah

Introduction

The creation of nation-states in Africa  in the nineteenth century by European colonization
brought many different tribes and ethnic groups into contact within the same boundaries. The
countries formed  across the continent were not national entities prior to colonization. Their
arbitrarily imposed  geo-political boundaries rarely corresponded with existing ethnic or lin-
guistic boundaries. Some of the groups that were brought together had hitherto been in antago-
nistic  relations. Others had  never  had any  intimate  relationships. Over the years, however,
African countries have experienced many dramatic structural changes, especially since World
War II. National bureaucratic institutions and various political and economic representations
have evolved.

Despite the improvements in social and intergroup relations in the post-independence era,
the African countries still remain predominantly mosaic. During the early decades of African
political independence and nation building, it was observed that most African  states were be-
low the threshold  of  integration  and that the  ruling  elite was preoccupied  with the task of
uniting different  ethnic factions (Rubin and Weinstein,  1977). Wriggins observed that under
the prevailing circumstance, country-men were often times set apart from each other by more
than what bound them together.2 As Wriggins has farther noted:

Fellow feeling is difficult to develop when language differences iso-
late one from  another... Regional  loyalties and differences  remain
one another. People feel themselves to be part of their region, tribe,
or caste before they sense loyally to the wider nation... The art of
empathy, entering into the imagination and subjective experience of
another,  is difficult,  if  impossible... Deep down  in  the innermost
part of one's being, it is felt to be dangerous to reach out to people in
other parts of thesociety (p. 198).

Although Wriggins' observation is somehow exaggerated and is of limited applicability to
present-day Africa,  it comes close to describing the situations in times of conflict  and social
cataclysms. However, it is a reminder that African countries, like others elsewhere, are artifi-
cial creations who members often gravitate towards sectional interests. This sociological phe-
nomenon  develops partly because, as Kadhafi  (1977)  has observed,  "the degree of warmth
involved diminishes "as the relationship (among the people) moves from the smaller  (famiry,
tribal) level to the larger (national) one" (p. 14).

The success of governments in nation-building will always depend on the extent to which
their people accept and identify with their national institutions, especially the political system.

14

This institutional identification can only develop from a common national bond and a sense of
peoplehood. The leaders of the new nations all over the world have long realized that their
national socio-economic development efforts would fail as long as their people remain divided.
In 1977, Moammar El Kadhafi, the Libyan leader, published his political philosophy in The
Green Book. Part Three of The Green Book contains his notion of national integration, the
subject of this essay. He advocates nationalism as the integrative political ideology that would
ensure the survival of mosaic states like his. To a large extent, his perspective is akin to that of
the mid-nineteenth century European thinkers in Germany and Italy who defined the nation as
the ultimate human value and saw in it the source of all good things (Roskin et al, 1994). Like
other proponents, Kadhafi sees nationalism as a means to free the national community and to
build and maintain its integration as an effort to strengthen it so that it might better maintain
internal order, solve problems, and protect itself from  outside threats(Rubin  and Weinstein,
1977).

This essay attempts a scholarly review of Kadhafi's thesis on nationalism and national inte-
gration. Recent internal political developments in countries all over the world, specifically the
civil wars in Somalia, Rwanda, Nigeria, Haiti, Bosnia, Russia and others, make it relevant to
revisit Kadhafi's  notion of nationalism and national integration.

MOAMMAR EL KADHAFI'S VIEWS ON NATIONAL INTEGRATION

On National Integration  as the Driving Force of Human History

Part Three of the Green Book opens with the statement:

The social, i.e. national, factor is the driving force of human history...
The re-lationship between an individual and a group is a social rela-
tionship, i.e., the relationship between the members of a nation. For
nations are founded on nationalism. Those national relationship is the
social relationship... For the group is a nation and the nation is a group
even if they differ in number... the group which is permanent by virtue
of its own national relations.

The preceding passage apparently describes an evolutionary process in which individuals
tram up to form  groups, such as families  and tribes, and these smaller groups subsequently
align themselves to form societies or nations. The individual, the group, the society, and the
nation have, therefore, been conceptualized as inseparable entities which develop in that na-
tional sequence. This is one meaning of that formulation,  which speaks to the ultimacy and
supremacy of the nation as a unit of human social aggregation.1

On the other hand, the observation that "the group is a nation and the nation is a group"
introduces another meaning. Here the position has probably been taken that since the nation is
made up of groups, an individual's relationship with any of those groups is still within the
confines of the nation and should, therefore, be considered "national". Family, tribal and even
"regional" relations are all national relations, according to this line of thinking.

While the two levels of meaning are evident, Kadhafi places emphasis on the evolution and
maintenance of the nation. He has advanced the theory that groups come together to constitute
a nation through "nationalism", and that the coming together of groups to form a nation is to

15

ensure their survival. Nationalism, the social bond, is said to be a natural development which
"works automatically to impel the nation toward survival". In other words, the nation possesses
a "natural innate momentum for survival". Kadhafi has written of nationalism that:

It is an established law of nature. To disregard it or to collide with it
is damaging to life. Thus man's life is damaged when he begins to
disregard nationalism... the secret of survival, (pp. 8 - 9).

As has been noted previously, Kadhafi has taken the position of some mid-nineteenth cen-
tury European thinkers that personal freedom is nothing, and that one achieves true freedom by
subordinating oneself to the nation (Roskin et al., 1994). This is the usually exaggerated belief
in the greatness and unity of the nation that the nationalist  ideology connotes (Roskin et al,
1994). While few human groupings around the world have escaped the driving force that trans-
forms tribes, villages, provinces, clans, ethnic and language groups into peoples with a devel-
oped national consciousness (Susser, 1995), it is doubtful if existence in a group other than the
nation does necessarily lead to the destruction of "man's life". Historically, the greater part of
man's existence on earth has been spent in smaller groups - - bands, hordes, tribes, chiefdoms,
and kingdoms. Kadhafi's thesis overlooks that important historical fact, although he concedes
that the nation comes into existence after other prior existence in bands, hordes, tribes, etc.

The description of nationalism as a "natural automatic" occurrence also presents another
empirical problem. Social bond or integration is a social psychological process which comes
into existence through a process of "social mixing", empathy, and symbolic identification by
members of a group. It is the same process that brings strength and vitality to the family and the
tribe. Kadhafi  appeared to be aware of this when he wrote that the "family  ... grows into a
nation only after passing through the stages of the tribe and its ramifications, as well as through
the  stage of affiliation  which comes about as a result of various types of a social  mixture."
Liebenew  (1986) has noted that the affiliation  and social  mixture in the process of nation-
building result from self-conscious acts on the part of a committed elite to produce new bonds
of solidarity between itself and some or all the masses included in its territorial jurisdiction.
The notion of a natural or inevitable evolutionary force in nation-building is, therefore, ques-
tionable indeed.

One of the foremost theorists on group cohesion, the Frenchman Emile Durkheim (1956),
intimated that a major element in social integration is the extent to which various members of
a  group interact with one another. Durkheim demonstrated in various ways how this can be
achieved. He showed that participation in rituals, for example, is likely to draw members of
religious groups into common activities that would bind them together. Also, work activities
that depend on differentiated, yet complementary tasks, tend to bind workers to the work group.
Related to the frequency of patterned interaction, Durheim again emphasized the importance of
value integration. Value integration is when group members share common values and beliefs/
Homans has also noted that integration depends on the process of elaboration in which new
patterns of organsization among activities, interaction, and sentiment are constantly emerging
by virtue of their interrelatedness with each other and with their external system,5 According to
Homans, "a group elaborates  itself,  complicates  itself,  beyond the demands  of the original
situation, and in so doing it brings about new types of activities, forms of interaction, and types
of sentiments."6

The above observations support the notion that there is a tendency toward human  social
aggregation and association. However, it is apparent that certain conditions must be present for
the association to occur among rational goal-seeking beings.

16

On the Permanence of Nationalism

Another problem with Kadhafl's theory on nationalism is the claim to the permanence of the
group (nation) that it brings into being, relative to other groups. He has noted that "...the group
is a nation and the nation is the group, ...the group which is permanent by virtue of its national
relations." In this view, Kadhafi has taken the position that other groups (such as the tribe) are
only temporary entities which eventually would be swept away in the tide of nationalism. In
other words, sectionalism (e.g., tribalism) would be overridden by nationalism. This, according
to Kadhafi, is in keeping with a natural "innate" tendency in the system, a historical tact.

The problem with the latter position has already been discussed above. But equally problem-
atic is the former position. Is sectionalism transitory phenomenon that withers and disappears
with time? In reality, no nation has been able to completely do away with sectionalism. At best,
sectionalism has been mitigated in some instances. This observation further belies the argu-
ment about the ultimacy of nationalism. Kadhafi  ironically acknowledged that fact when he
stated that "tribalism damages nationalism because tribal allegiance weakens national loyalty
and flourish at its expense." (p.  18). This is an admission that tribalism does not necessary
disappear after nationalism, supposing that nationalism has even arrived. The claim that "the
nation is a large family which has passed through the stage of the tribe..." (p. 19), therefore, is
not accurate. While that can happen, it is not always the case, as we have seen from the African
situation and contemporary eastern European political developments.7

Kadhafi, of course, is aware of the strength and influence of the tribe. He has noted that "the
tribe is a natural social umbrella for social security... (which) provides for its members' collec-
tive payment of ransom, collective fines, collective revenge and collective defence, i.e., social
protection." (p. 17). From a sociological standpoint, tribal affiliation is intrinsically rewarding.
The collective payment of ransom and fines, and the collective revenge and defence by tribes-
men are specific benefits that individuals derive from social relations because their associates
deliberately go to some trouble to provide these benefits for them, to paraphrase Blau (1964).8
Blau indicates that individuals go to the trouble of providing benefits for others because of the
expectation that doing so will bring social rewards - social approval. Blau cautions that selfish
disregard for others makes it impossible to obtain this important reward.

For the nation to  supersede the tribe and exert  itself as the ultimate  unit of  association,
people must experience a high degree of cohesiveness or reinforcement in the activities of the
larger group (i.e.,-the nation). Social approval, one of the reinforcers, may be defined as a
symbolic behaviour charged with sentiments. Festinger and associates (1950) have again iden-
tified another reinforcer as any activity considered valuable in other ways, such as doing some-
thing interesting.9 As Homans (1958) has indicated, the more valuable the sentiments or activ-
ity the members exchange with one another, the greater the average frequency of interaction of
the members, and also the  more valuable the activities that members get the more valuable
these that they must give.

The shift  from  multi-tribal  allegiance and identification  to the nation implies a systemic
change. Eisenstadt (1968) observed that the process involves the "creation and continuity of
organizational pattern directed toward upholding certain collective goals or patterns of behav-
iour and dealing with some of the perennial and universal problems of social life." Eisenstadt
called this an institutionalization process which  is undertaken by people placed in  strategic
positions in the social structure to aspire to crystalize new types of institutional and symbolic
orders. According to Eisenstadt,  the institutionalization  processes and the  relations therein
involve:

17

the creation and definition of norms fhat regulate the major units of
social behaviorand organization of the criteria that control the flow
of resources between the different  individuals and social units that
interact in any such situation, and of the sanctions that insure that
the appropriate norms are upheld.10

We note that the common goals and norms may never be fully accepted by all the members
of society, with some sub-groups exhibiting some autonomy in their attitudes towards these
norms. This undergirds our previous position that sectionalism is inevitable in any heterogene-
ous social environment.

Writing about potent ideologies in the development process, Wriggins has stated that those
that  are  successful  in  answering the  need  among the leaders and  peoples will  amalgamate
elements of ritual, traditional wisdom, and evoke familiarity and trust with ideas from abroad
better adapted to the practical tasks facing  a modernizing society. He has noted that without
indigenous roots, there can be no sound ideological growth and that:

(an) ideal  society, part future,  part  nostalgia, will be evoked, sug-
gesting a future of social harmony and happiness. In this way,m com-
mon goals responsive to the aspirations of many groups in society
maybe defined,  (p. 206)

Successful  ideologies are, therefore,  characterized by the practicality and pragmatism  of
their proponents. Binder (1966) has also observed that the successful  leaders of new nations
have appealed to broadly similar group of instrumental organizational and administrative val-
ues and symbols. He mentioned  national  solidarity,  the one-party  system, state control over
parts of the economy, popular mobilization, and the eradication of individualism as the inter-
mediates between the ultimates of rationality and nationality.11 According to Binder, the pur-
pose in the choice of these intermediates is to seek to change behavior directly through organi-
zational  instrumentalities.

The successful  modernizing elites have attempted to legitimize their positions in part by
providing various immediate benefits to different  social groups. That has been done in the hope
of nurturing the nation  into maturity, after  which the new political  system would ultimately
accrue benefits to the entire population.

The importance of the availability of opportunities and rewards as variables in nation build-
ing has been alluded to by Blau,Homans, Festinger and others, as previously discussed. Wriggins
(1966) has observed that economic growth and diversification provide a way in which opportu-
nity can rapidly expand. He has aptly pointed out that if men see opportunities open to them
beyond the confines of their narrow neighbourhood or their limited traditional group, the old
divisions appear irrelevant. Rather, economic stagnation sharpens conflict and intensifies com-
petition and social antagonism.

Recent occurrences in certain African, Latin American, and southeast Asian countries pro-
vide the empirical  bases of most of our  discussions  so far.  Wriggins  (1966)  has  noted that
although common organizational  centers have been present, certain  crucial human elements
have contributed to the subversion of these as integrative and developmental forces. The arro-
gance of some politicians and their desire to preserve personal privileges, nepotism and favoritism
in the allocation of scarce resources, corruption, lack of accountability of people in high posi-
tions, and gross disregard  and  disrespect  for the  needs and  aspiration  of various  groups in
society have contributed to the alienation and disenfranchisement  of most people.

18

Conclusion

Kadhafi's theory of national integra-

S3S

emerging nations. Kadhafl ii con-

admonished that:

As historical phenomenon, the nation and nationalism  share histo-
ry's quality of transience. For most of the past they did not exist, and
ft is a safe assumption that at some point in the Mure they wi 1 cease
to exist. Thus the perspective of history confirms what empirical analy-
sisof  the c o n t e nd  world will also make evident: the^nation.»
only one of many ways to organize the political loyalties of men. (p.
180)

S 

TS 

teaSJS 

Binder's (1966) observation is equally insightful. He has argued that probably national inte-
EZll 
by divcrscUhs. each suited to the conditions and traditions of the
have also intimated that national integration is not an automatic natoal
i S a nd  nurtured into fmition through deliberate human efforts. Tliere
t intermediate factors that make the fruition possible. These intermedia^
Z S Z ^ J L *.  efllciency,  instrumental-rationality, the availability of opportumUes and
benefits for participation, and ideological savvy These factors are essential to the success of the
political leaders of the new nations.

19

NOTES

1)  An earlier version of this ("A Sociological Appraisal of Moantmar El Kadhafi's Theory
of National  Integration") was presented at, and included in the proceedings of,  the Interna-
tional Symposium on the Socio-Political Thought of  Moammar El Kadhafi in Accra, Ghana,
December 27- 30, 1982.

2)  Howard Wriggins "National Integration," in Myron Weiner 

(1966)

3)  With the spontaneous occurrence of state-formation in Africa  or  elsewhere  in  the
world, it has become common for some  observers to hail nationalism as a persuasive politi-
cal 
force through which modern individuals view the world(Liebenow, 1986; Susser, 1995)

4)  Reviews and commentaries on Durkheim can be found in Lewis Coser (1977); Timasheff

(1976), among others.

5)  Homans' views have been presented in various writings,  including The Human Group
(1950) and "Social Behavior as  Exchange" (1958). Reviews and commentaries can be found
in 

Turner (1978), Mulkay (1971) and Coser (1976).

6)  Turner (1978), p. 226.

7)  The breakup of the former Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia and  other Eastern Block na-

tions, and the subsequent civil wars and internal conflicts within some of the independent
states created thereafter,  provide empirical support to this point of view.

8)  Reprinted in Coser and Rosenberg (1982), pp. 72 - 76.

9)  Also cited in Homans (1958)

10) Eisenstadt (1958), pp. xvi - xviii.

11) It has been assumed that formal organizations, because of  their emphasis on rationality,

impersonality and competence  in the assignment of positions and rewards could help to
mitigate the drive toward sectionalism and consequently induce performance transcendental to
this. Wriggins (1968),  for example, has discussed the roles of the national bureaucracies, the
army, the school system, political  parties, legislative organs, and organized sports in national
integration.

20

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22