On the Abandonment of Old Ways

When I was in Libya a few months ago, one of my primary objectives was to learn as many traditional recipes as possible- not only to be able to make the food, but to know how to make the dishes way my family makes them. Like many countries, Libya’s youth dwells in a society that is becoming increasingly modern and less dependent on the traditional ways. Many of my cousins don’t know how to make the foods which our family has eaten for decades. Recipes, poems, folk tales, and even stories of family history that my aunts and uncles can recite on cue are unknown to many of my generation in Libya now. In my exploration of my Libyan roots, it was always my intention to gather as much knowledge as possible about the way things worked in the years before me- for my own sake, to discover who I am. But as I came to understand the possibility of the extinction of the historic culture of Libya, the gathering of knowledge of the traditional ways became essential as the first step in preservation- and eventually, I hope, the (re-)promulgation- of our families’ ways of life. Collecting these recipes, and the stories, and the photographs, is not just for me; These things are for my cousins, for other young Libyans, and for the next generations, who, at some point, may realize they have come so far but do not know what came before them. And those like me, who may move out from their family’s home and find that they wish to share their favorite foods with their friends or their new families, but realize they don’t know how.

Preparing the noodles for mgata, a traditional Libyan dish with homemade wheat pasta drenched in a spicy tomato sauce and chunks of gideed, preserved meat.

This recipe will be forthcoming in the next couple weeks, from my Auntie’s head to my notebook, to all of you.

Best, L.