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In partnership with our Libyan colleagues, and with support from the U.S. Department of State’s Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation (AFCP), the Cultural Antiquities Task Force (CATF), and the U.S. Libyan External Office (LEO), ASOR is bringing a message of hope through Cultural Heritage Volunteer Weekends (“pop-up” events) and through one-day heritage workshops. ASOR’s one-day Cultural Heritage Outreach and Awareness Events utilize museum suitcase “tool kits” that were described in the Libya Museum Suitcase Overview. The popularity of the Museum Suitcases in Libya continues to grow thanks to the hard work of our team (see previous essays from Ghadames and Tripoli). The essay below reports on a meeting in Derj, where local officials met with members of ASOR’s Museum Suitcase Project team and asked to be part of the project. 

Click here for the Arabic version of this article.

Museum Suitcase Caravan Welcomed in Derj

Talal Bariun and Will Raynolds

Derj is in western Libya, between Nalut and Ghadames. It is marked on the map in red box.

Even in more stable times, a spring road trip into the Libya desert could be hazardous. The gibli winds of March, blowing north from the heart of the Sahara, caused sand dunes to shift in unpredictable ways, stretching and accumulating in new patterns over a matter of hours. In the worst cases, a driver discovered the road ahead was closed by sand. By the time they turned around and retraced their route, they found that another errant dune had closed the road behind them as well, trapping them until they found an alternate way around or through. Under such conditions, careful planning and patience have always been necessary.

Given the current dysfunction of Libyan public services, the roads have become even worse as all maintenance has ceased. A drive that would normally take half an hour now takes an hour and a half. As the Museum in a Suitcase team packed to travel to the UNESCO World Heritage site of Ghadames to host another in our series of cultural heritage outreach events, we knew that we had a long road trip in front of us. At the last possible moment, we received an invitation from the residents of Derj, a small oasis town at the crossroads between Ghadames and the central desert. They had heard about our project and wanted to find a way for the people of Derj to benefit from and join us in our efforts to protect Libyan heritage. After weighing the risks with the team, we all agreed. We couldn’t turn down such an invitation even though it would delay us on our route.

We arrived in Derj with a convoy of five cars, and we needed gas. For years now, there have been fuel shortages around the country, and it has become normal to wait in line for hours to fill up. It wasn’t surprising to find that there were already ten or fifteen cars assembled in front of the only gas station in town, so we decided to join the back of the line and begin our wait before we went to the city offices to meet our hosts. As soon as the residents in Derj heard about our mission, they waved us forward to front of the line and we filled our tanks immediately.

This was just the beginning of our welcome. The mayor greeted us in his office, offering us each a cup of milk and a serving of dates, traditional oasis hospitality. Their sweetness perked us up after a long morning on the road. He then invited us to join him and the rest of the municipal council for a large lunch consisting of lamb and vegetables served over couscous and ftat, a traditional flat bread soaked in oil.

During the meal, Mohammed Harb, a local Scout leader, explained that Derj needed our help. According to him, the historic sites of the city, including the Diab Kasbah, which dates back to the eleventh century A.D., and Taigha Square, which is surrounded by ancient mud brick buildings and has long served as the heart of town, are as important as any historic site in Ghadames but they have never enjoyed the same kind of attention.

He asked for our assistance in building up a community of support for historic Derj by joining the Suitcase Museum project and then assisting the community to connect the historic sites of the city to local and international resources that could help protect them. We saw the hope in his eyes and so we couldn’t refuse.

Though we have now distributed all of the project Suitcases (they are currently active in seventeen cities around Libya) and we had no extra material for Derj, our team member from Zliten decided to gift his suitcase to the city to help jumpstart their program. There is no stronger example of the camaraderie of our team. We intended to present a longer program in Derj on our way back from Ghadames, but the coronavirus pandemic intervened. We will return to this remarkable oasis town as soon as it is written in our fate.

Mud brick buildings surround Taigha Square in Derj.

This historic tower, part of the Diab Kasbah, stands 12m tall and is one of the most prominent landmarks of old Derj.

Members of ASOR’s Museum Suitcase team were welcomed by local officials and community members.