Nakba (The catastrophe) in pictures

More Reading: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nakba_Day

Marc Garanger: Femme Algerienne

Photo © Marc Garanger

Unlike the conflict in Vietnam, few photographic documents exist from the period of the Algerian War (1954 - 1962).  Algeria's War of Independence from France officially lasted almost a decade, but its genesis goes back to the early 40s. It was one the bloodiest struggles against a brutal colonial power with over a million Algerians killed, with thousands interned in concentration camps.

Marc Garanger’s Algerian Women is one of the few photographic essays dedicated to that painful period.

In 1960, Garanger, a 25-year-old draftee who had already been photographing professionally for ten years, landed in Kabylia, in the small village of Ain Terzine, about seventy-five miles south of Algiers. Like many politically engaged young men, he had put off his departure for the army as long as possible, hoping that the war would end without him. He was soon selected as his regiment’s photographer.

The women that Garanger portrayed came from neighboring villages. Either Berber or Muslim, they had never before come into contact with Europeans. When Garanger arrived, there was a detachment of armed men with machine guns across their shoulders, an interpreter, and the commander. The women would be lined up, then each in turn would sit on a stool outdoors, in front of the whitewashed wall of a house. Without their veils, their disheveled hair and their protective tattoos were exposed. Their lined faces reflected the harshness of their life. The stiffness of their pose and the intensity of their gaze evoke early daguerreotypes.

Photo © Marc Garanger

"In 1960, I was doing my military service in Algeria. The French army had decided that the indigenous peoples were to have a French identity card. I was asked to photograph all the people in the surrounding villages. I took photographs of nearly two thousand persons, the majority of whom were women, at a rate of about two hundred a day. The faces of the women moved me greatly. They had no choice. They were required to unveil themselves and let themselves be photographed. They had to sit on a stool, outdoors, before a white wall. I was struck by their pointblank stares, first witness to their mute, violent protest."

-Marc Garanger, Femmes algériennes 1960 (Anglet, France, 2002)

In the Middle East, the veil is like a second skin among traditional people. It may be taken off only within the secrecy of the walls, among women or between husband and wife, but never publicly. Garanger’s portraits symbolize the collision of two civilizations, Islamic and Western, and serve as an apt metaphor for colonization. The women’s defiant look may be thought of as an ‘evil eye’ that they cast to protect themselves and curse their enemies.

Photo © Marc Garanger

Fifty years after Algeria’s independence was proclaimed, Garanger’s contested portraits have not lost their strength. When he went back to Algeria in 2004 to meet those he had photographed, he found that the pictures he had taken were often the only ones that the women ever had of themselves, and they welcomed his return: he had become the keeper of their memory. 

Read more: women-unveiled-marc-garangers

Photo © Marc Garanger

Bedouin weaving heritage

It is known that weaving is one of the oldest craft forms in the Middle East, but  nomadic lifestyles and cultural interactions of the past, disregard political borders and political agreements, making it very difficult to accurately attribute material culture to specific tribes and places of origin. Long before Islam, these migratory cultures from the vast region of the Arabian Gulf had been influencing one another, sharing weaving techniques and common functions, creative ideas and terminologies.

It is known that weaving is one of the oldest craft forms in the Middle East, but nomadic lifestyles and cultural interactions of the past, disregard political borders and political agreements, making it very difficult to accurately attribute material culture to specific tribes and places of origin. Long before Islam, these migratory cultures from the vast region of the Arabian Gulf had been influencing one another, sharing weaving techniques and common functions, creative ideas and terminologies.

Woven geometric and figurative patterns and symbols, as visual narratives, message the traditional tribal lifestyle, the desert environment and the weavers'the creative self-expression. The textiles and weaving practice can be linked to the extension of the weaver’s hand, and the graceful moving pace of the camel. 

Women wove narrow bands of textiles, which were stitched together to form larger textiles for the traditional Bedouin tent or beit al Sha’ar. The master-weavers wove the decorated side wall panels and furnishings within the tent, including camel bags, storage bags, rugs, cushions and tent dividers or curtains. The tent itself was woven in plain weave using coarse goat hair, while the interior textiles were decorated with repeating patterns and symbols for aesthetic appreciation, and were woven from sheep fleece, camel hair and cotton. 

The tent divider or curtain (gata), was the most impressive and magnificence achievement of the weavers. These large patterned textiles protruded out from the traditional Bedouin tent, to segregate the men and the women’s quarters. The tent divider was recognised by the tribe as highly important and was the most decorated textile; loaded with symbolic cultural meaning, including camel and camel trapping symbols within the decorative shajarah section. 

The nomadic Bedouin tribes survived in harsh desert conditions and were extremely resourceful. They depended upon camels for survival. Traditionally Bedouins required camels for food and transportation during times of migration, when large decorative woven camel bags (khurj), and camel trappings (hawdaj) were used to carry their possessions, and were adorned with shajarah patterns, and tassels (danadish) of varying sizes and colours.

Complete reading: http://www.soas.ac.uk/camelconference2011/file84330.pdf

Know more about bedouins:

Behind the name MARIAM

Miriam or Maryam is a name that is vastly used in many different cultures. We can find it in Africa, Middle East, Persia, Europe, but how come this name is so widely spread?

Miriam is an ancient female name that has taken on many other forms in other languages and cultures, including the English name Mary. 

Origin and variants

The name may have originated from the Egyptian mry "beloved" or mr "love" or the derived ancient Egyptian name Meritamen or Meri-Amun, "beloved of the God Amun". Other suggestions include the word root m-r-r "bitter" (cf. myrrh), or the Hebrew root (מרי m-r-y) "rebellious", or even possibly "wished-for child", or "strong waters". Its earliest appearance in writing may be in the Exodus narrative of the Old Testament, in which the elder sister of Moses and Aaron is called Miriam.

Miriam is a common name and figure that is both sacred in Christianity and Islam. According to the Bible, Mary, also known as Saint Mary or Virgin Mary, was a Jewish woman of Nazareth in Galilee. She is identified in the New Testament as the mother of Jesus through divine intervention. In Islam, Mary (Maryam) also has a revered position, the mother of Jesus, where she holds a singularly distinguished and honored position among women in the Qur'an  and a whole chapter of the Qur'an is devoted to her. 

As a result "Mariam", "Miriam" ,"Mary" gained popoloratiy with the passing of centuries making it one of the most popular and common names in the world. A name with a unique spiritual significance that binds together three Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) under the same linguistic root, tradition and popularity.

Writing Mariam in Arabic 




"Miriam" used in religious and traditional songs

Dimi Mint Abba: The griot diva of the desert

Loula Bint Siddaty Ould Abba, better known as Dimi Mint Abba was the most famous and successful Mauritanian musicians to have emerged from the Iggawin/ Griot tradition. A prominent female singer and ardin player Dimi Mint Abba through her songs manifested her love for her traditions and her homeland. Known as the “Diva of the desert” she was born in 1958 to musical parents. Her mother is a percussionist and ardin player and her father composed the Mauritanian national hymn and presides over the Mauritanian society of authors and composers. Her belonging and her attachment to the griot musical tradition represents much more to Mauritanians than a singer or musician, as their songs convey history, social commentary, poetry, prophecy and tales about the beauty of love. Dimi’s songs were influenced by the crossroads of African and Arabic culture, mixing Arabic scales and improvisation with traditional West African instruments. 

In 1976 she played for the first time on Mauritanian radio. Her breakthrough came a year later in the Om Kolthoum singing competititon in Tunis, which she won with Sawt Elfan, a song which describes the social role of an artist as being more important than that of a fighter. Since then she has been one of the most important singers of the Maghreb and has undertaken many tours through Africa as also through Europe.Although the music of neighbouring Mali, Senegal, Algeria and Morocco are better known outside of Africa, the modern and traditional music of Mauritania boasts a unique fusion of African and Arabic cultures to produce a passionate, expressive singing style over complex rhythms - a powerful influence on other forms of music, including flamenco. 

Score for a Biennial - Dimi Mint Abba & Amino Belyamani 1/4 from Sharjah Art Foundation on Vimeo.

The Queen of Sheba: Exotic romance and legend

Photo: Fatima Abbadi

Queen of Sheba is probably the second most famous female character in Ancient history after the Egyptian Queen Cleopatra, who died with the aid of a serpent.. Very little is known about her but in movies she was either referred as Balqis, or simply as Sheba. The Queen was queen of the ancient kingdom of Sheba and is referred to in Yemenite and Ethiopian history.

The legendary Queen of Sheba was always seen in history as an exotic and mysterious woman of power and immortalized in the world's great religious works, among them the Bible and the Quran. She also appears throughout in history in many Persian and Turkish paintings same as in many medieval Christian mystical works, where she is viewed as the embodiment of Divine Wisdom and a foreteller of the cult of the Holy Cross. In Africa and Arabia her tale is still told to this day and, indeed, her tale has been told and retold in many lands for nearly 3,000 years. 

Ethiopian tradition:

Of all the stories of the Queen of Sheba, those of Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa are those that probably retain the most resonance today with the people who tell them. The stories are immortalized in the Ethiopian

holy book - the Kebra Nagast - where we find accounts of the queen's hairy hoof, her trip to Solomon and her seduction. But these tales go further. Here, the queen returns to her capital, Aksum, in northern Ethiopia, and months later gives birth to Solomon's son, who is named Menelik, meaning 'Son of the Wise'.

The story goes that years later Menelik travelled to Jerusalem to see his father, who greeted him with joy and invited him to remain there to rule after his death. But Menelik refused and decided to return home. Under cover of darkness he left the city - taking with him its most precious relic, the Ark of the Covenant. He took it back to Aksum, where it still resides today, in a specially built treasury in the courtyard of St Mary's Church.

The importance of the queen, the Ark of the Covenant and the Kebra Nagast in Ethiopian history cannot be overstated. Through their reading of the Kebra Nagast, Ethiopians see their country as God's chosen country, the final resting place that he chose for the Ark - and Sheba and her son were the means by which it came there. Thus, Sheba is the mother of their nation, and the kings of the land have divine right to rule because they are directly descended from her. Emperor Haile Selassie even had that fact enshrined in the Ethiopian Constitution of 1955.

Haile Selassie was not, however, the first Emperor to publicly declare the importance of the Kebra Nagast. London's National Archives contain letters dating from 1872, written by Prince Kasa (later King John IV) of Ethiopia to Queen Victoria, in which he writes (translated):

There is a book called Kebra Nagast which contains the law of the whole of Ethiopia, and the names of the shums (governors), churches and provinces are in this book. I pray you will find out who has got this book and send it to me, for in my country my people will not obey my orders without it.

On Victoria's permit, the book was returned to Ethiopia, and it is now kept in Raguel Church in Addis Ababa, where a front page inscription explains its history.

Ultimately though, there is no primary evidence, archaeological or textual, for the queen in Ethiopia. The impressive ruins at Aksum are a thousand years too late for a queen contemporary with Solomon - at least on his traditional dating to the tenth century BC. And the great Sabaean kingdom in southern Arabia, for which we do have textual evidence, lists names of ruling kings at the time when Sheba is supposed to have sat on the throne.

It is only after the second half of the nineteenth century with the of period remarkable for archaeological researches and discoveries, especially by English and French expeditions in Egypt and the Middle East that replaced Greece and Italy as the focus of curiosity, that Queen of Sheba became popular in Europe and contextualized further more through ther orientalist narratives in literature, music and visual art.

Paintings: 

Perhaps the most famous depiction of the Queen of Sheba is 'The visit of the Queen of Sheba to King lion throne' closely follows the detailed description given in the Bible (1 Kings 10:18-20), though the twelve golden lions were further inspired by a colossal stone lion that Layard discovered in 1849 on one side of the doorway into the Temple of Ishtar in Nimrud (now in the British Museum, Room 6: Assyrian sculpture).

Solomon' by Sir Edward John Poynter (1836-1919), whose stunning oil painting is now in the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. The watercolor shown here is one of several studies that Poynter made in preparation for the composition. Trained in Paris under Gleyre,  like many of his contemporaries, Poynter was strongly influenced by the sensational archaeological discoveries of Assyrian palaces in northern Iraq made by the archaeologist Sir Austen Henry Layard (1817-1894). The magnificent '

Movies:

Hollywood, too, has fallen under her spell, releasing its own polished epic version of her story in many numerous movies. The Queen of Sheba (1921) was the first silent film produced by Fox studios about the story of the ill-fated romance between Solomon, King of Israel, and the Queen of Sheba. Written and directed by J. Gordon Edwards, it starred Betty Blythe as the Queen and Fritz Leiber, Sr. as King Solomon. The film is well known amongst silent film buffs for the risqué costumes worn by Blythe, as evidenced by several surviving stills taken during the production. This was a rarity in mainstream Hollywood films at the time. Only a short fragment of the film survives.

Music:

“The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba”, sinfonia for two oboes and strings is one of  George Frideric Handel masterpieces that premiered in London on March 17, 1749, as the first scene of Act III in the oratorio Solomon. One of the last of Handel’s many oratorios, Solomon is rarely performed in its entirety, but Handel’s bright and lively “The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba” interlude is a widely appreciated processional set piece. It often was (and it continues to be) played during wedding ceremonies. A noted public performance of the piece occurred during the opening ceremonies of the London 2012 Olympic Games. 'Solomon' is partly religious, and partly secular, being somewhat graphic in its celebrations of sexual love. It embraces the man at the pinnacle of his powers and popularity, also emphasizing his wisdom, but hinting that his sexual proclivities may be his undoing. Yet in the end, with the arrival of the Queen of Sheba,it is pure choral spectacle. The Queen speaking of how much she has learned and will never forget after her stay with the great ruler.

Following the footsteps of the Rashaida people

 

The rashaida people are an ancient arab bedouin group of Africa and Eritrea living predominantly in the scattered areas in western and northern Eritrea, with some smaller groups also dwelling in parts of Egypt, bordering the Sinai desert and Eastern Sudan. The name "Rashaida" means "refugee". These people are believed to be  Bedouin Arabs who migrated from Saudi Arabia in the mid to late 1800’s and are the last established ethnic group to have settled in Eritrea. Rashaida people speak Arabic language, although some of them can speak impeccable Tigre language. The Rashaida live in isolated communities, preferring not to live with people of other tribes. However, occasionally Rashaida can be found living in Tigre villages or Rashaida men will marry Tigre women.

Rashaida women are famous for their black-and-red geometrically patterened dresses, and their burkas (long, heavy veils) elaborately embroidered with silver thread, beads and sometimes seed perals.

Read more about Rashaida people: link