THEY NEVER TAUGHT YOU THIS IN SCHOOL

THEY NEVER TAUGHT YOU THIS IN SCHOOL 📚🇱🇾

THE GOLD DINAR, LIBYA, AND THE QUESTION AFRICA STILL ASKS

Under Gaddafi, Libya was ranked #1 in Africa on the UN Human Development Index in 2010.

90% literacy. Free healthcare. Free education. Free water from the Great Man-Made River.

Then everything changed.

WHAT THE LEAKED EMAILS SHOWED

In April 2011, an email to Hillary Clinton from advisor Sidney Blumenthal revealed something explosive:

Libya held 143 tons of gold and a similar amount of silver.
The email said it was meant to back a pan-African currency called the “Gold Dinar” – an alternative to the French CFA franc that kept 14 African countries tied to Paris.

French intelligence allegedly found out early. The email listed this as one factor in France’s decision to push for NATO intervention. Other factors listed: oil access, French influence in North Africa, and Sarkozy’s domestic politics.

WHAT HAPPENED AFTER

October 2011: Gaddafi was killed.
Clinton went on camera and said: “We came, we saw, he died.”

Libya collapsed. The state fractured into militias.
Reports of abuse against Black Libyans and African migrants spread.
By 2015-2016, footage of open-air slave markets in Libya shocked the world.

THE DEBATE

One side says it was about stopping a massacre in Benghazi under UN resolution 1973.

The other side says look at the emails. A gold-backed currency challenging the dollar and CFA was a red line.

Gaddafi had pushed for African monetary unity since the 2000s. The AU even discussed a single currency by 2023. But the Gold Dinar never launched.

WHERE WE ARE NOW

Libya dropped from 55th to 105th on the Human Development Index by 2020.
The CFA franc is still in use today, though reforms are happening.
The dream of an African currency isn’t dead – AfCFTA is still on the table.

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🌍 SO THE QUESTION REMAINS:
What would Africa look like today if the Gold Dinar had survived?
Would we have broken free from dollar and CFA dependence?
Or would it have collapsed under the same divisions we still face?

Africa remembers Libya.
Not just for what was lost, but for what was attempted.

Drop your take below 👇
Was this about democracy, dollars, or control?