In the 1930s, a “Commission for the Liberation of Libya” (هيئة تحرير ليبيا) headed by Bashir al-Sa‘dawi published a book entitled The Black-Red Atrocities from the Pages of Italian Colonization in Libya, or, Civilization by Iron and Fire (الفضائع السود الحمر من صفحات الاستعمار الايطالي في ليبيا او التمدين بالحديد والنار) documenting atrocities committed by the Italian colonial occupation in Libya and mocking claims that colonization would lead to modernization and progress for the colonized. It appears to be the case that this book is a revised version of al-Sa‘dawi’s Fadhā’i‘ made by a group of Libyan exiles in Syria. The second printing under this title, in 1948 in Cairo, added a section arguing for Libyan unity and independence after WWII. Together with the earlier edition of Sa‘dawi’s work and Shatwan & Sherif’s “Aspirations et idéal national” it is one of the few Libyan anti-colonial writings of the time.

In the 1930s the Tripolitanian notable and politician Bashir al-Sa‘dawi, later to be viewed as one of the main figures in the movement for Libyan independence, published an essay entitled ‘The atrocities of fascist Italian colonialism in Tripolitania-Barqa’ (مقال: فظائع الاستعمار الايطالي الفاشستي في طرابلس-برقة). Published by the “Association for the defense of Tripolitania-Barqa”, about which I know little, this essay seems to be one of the earliest Libyan anti-fascist and anti-colonial writings.