C A RACE IN AFRICA TODAY: A Commentary JEMIMA PIERRE Vanderbilt University In the wake of protests against the rule of Muammar Gaddafi in the early weeks of 2011, self-styled opposition leaders established anonymous Twitter accounts to accuse the Libyan leader of mobilizing “African mercenaries” to massacre his own people. 1 Ali al-Essawi, who had resigned as Libyan ambassador to India, seemed to have created the sensation when he said the following on Al Jazeera: [The mercenaries] are from Africa, and speak French and other languages . . . People say they are black Africans and they don’t speak Arabic. They are doing terrible things, going to houses and killing women and children. 2 Western mainstream media outlets quickly seized on the image of “African Mer- cenaries.” On seeing these accounts of “African mercenaries,” I was befuddled. In response, I repeatedly tweeted, “Libya is in Africa.” But the charge against Gaddafi’s “Africans” and the alleged savage acts by “African mercenaries,” including raping women and murdering (non-African?) Libyans, just grew louder. By late spring Human Rights Watch published a report disputing the existence of “African mercenaries,” arguing that the alleged merce- naries “were all black Libyans of African descent” and were “from the south of the country and not African mercenaries as claimed in the international media.” 3 But the damage had already been done—hundreds, if not thousands, of black Libyans were lynched and black towns such as Tawurgha were destroyed. 4 CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY, Vol. 28, Issue 3, pp. 547–551. ISSN 0886-7356, online ISSN 1548-1360. C  2013 by the American Anthropological Association. All rights reserved. DOI: 10.1111/cuan.12023