“I had to wear a hijab and change my name to Amina so that my life would be easier,” says Julia, a 43-year-old Christian woman from Nigeria who moved to Sabha 15 years ago.
Changing one’s name is common among Christians here. Emmanuel becomes Mohammad and Philip becomes Ahmad, to avoid harassment and to get a job more easily. As for women, not only do they change their names, but they also wear a hijab to fit-in with the largely Muslim society.
“I had to wear a hijab and change my name to Amina so that my life would be easier,” says Julia, a 43-year-old Christian woman from Nigeria who moved to Sabha 15 years ago.
Changing one’s name is common among Christians here. Emmanuel becomes Mohammad and Philip becomes Ahmad, to avoid harassment and to get a job more easily. As for women, not only do they change their names, but they also wear a hijab to fit-in with the largely Muslim society.
Julia, like most Christian foreigners, attends an unknown church in Sabha on Fridays instead of Sundays so as to not draw attention. She says that the church is located between work stations and informal settlements not often frequented by passersby. She lives in fear of Daesh, likening them to Boko Haram in Nigeria.
“It’s best to melt within the Muslim community to stay safe,” she says.
But Michael, a mechanic, goes by his real name in Sabha and says he is not afraid of anyone, not even Daesh.
Fear of deportation outweighs need for justice
According to a security guard in Sabha, people still remember the murder of a Christian couple “Manuel” and “Nochi” who were slaughtered in the Manshiya area last July. Despite the widely held belief that the murder was because of the couple’s religion, the church did not pursue the case, fearing possible implications on the on the already difficult existance of Christians in Sabha.
A police officer in Gardah’s center, Ibrahim Yehya, claims that they don’t receive any complaints or reports about racism from Christian sub-Saharn Africans because they fear repercussions on their illegal status. Yehya adds that there are no clear rules that criminalise religious oppression or racial discrimination.
Black African corpses
An anonymous source in Sabha medical center said that everyday a representative from the consulate of one of the sub-Saharan African countries reports a missing migrant or to receive a statement that a migrant from his country has died.
The source says that the center faces the big problem of accumulating corpses, some are Christian and others are Muslim. Muslims are buried either in Jadid or Gardah cemeteries, and Christians are buried in the Christian cemetery on the road to Tripoli. The center does not know how to deal with people of unknown religion; these stay in the morgue even longer.
Exploitation of Sub-Saharan Africans
Most Christian sub-Saharan African migrants are fluent in English and or French and work in language centers spread across the city. But they are exploited and given low wages in exchange for long working hours. They are also forced to pay royalties to what they call the “workers’ mafia.”
John, a 34-year-old who has been teaching English at a language center for seven months says he is being “robbed” in different ways. When he arrived from Nigeria to Sabha, John said he was held at a house in Sakra Street for six months by armed men because he was unable to pay 1000 dinars (US $722) as a tax for working in the area to those men who traffic in African workers. “They forcibly take a part of what we earn,” says John. “I pay them 200 dinars (145 dollars) every month, otherwise they will detain me again.”
Julia explains that all foreigners, whether Christian or not, are systematically robbed of their phones and money. “Once, they stole some clothes I intended to sell to support my living,” she says. “They find foreigners easy targets to steal from without being held accountable.”
Laws and Beliefs
Libyan laws prohibit alcohol and public celebration of Christmas and New Year’s Eve, but Christian foreigners have adapted to these laws that are supported by strict social customs and traditions in the country.
According to a Christian in Sabha who spoke under conditions of anonymity, Christians do as some Libyans do; drink alcohol and celebrate the New Year in secret.
“Christian Africans should return to their country if they don’t like living according to the rules of the Islamic country that they illegally migrated to,” says Abdel Hafiz Ali, a 38-year-old Libyan.
ManyLibyans in Sabha believe that people coming from Niger, Mali and Chad are all Muslims and they prefer them over Nigerians and Cameroonians as domestic workers because they follow the Islamic laws. However, Libyans are often disappointed because a large number of immigrants are Christians pretending to be Muslims to get work as cleaning help in Libyan homes.
