‘Tarikhi’: Committing Arab Oral History to Print
SOURCE: THE DAILY STAR LEBANON
BY: DEEBA SHADNIA
BEIRUT: “Tarikhi,” a new bi-annual journal, seeks to highlight the importance of individuals’ stories from across the Arab world accounts that are at risk of being lost. Published by the NGO Sharq, the new journal was launched Thursday at Beit Beirut.
Sharq is a Beirut-based organization that aims to promote and strengthen pluralism and independent thought in the Arab world, placing particular value on oral histories.
The NGO’s mission is to give people a platform to share their own stories and Arabs around the world easier access to individuals’ personal narratives.
Sharq’s primary work is in helping people gain skills in expression and debate through publishing, training and cultural initiatives.
“Tarikhi” will showcase the vast archive of oral histories Sharq has amassed over the years, while providing a platform for new narratives to be documented and expressed.
“Our fear is that history will be forgotten” Sharq managing director Reem Maghribi explains.
“The idea is to document basic things about life [to preserve the history]. What we at Sharq have been doing the last seven years is working on documenting, producing and creating some of the personal and individual stories that exist in the Arab world today that are at risk.”
The launch was an opportunity to demonstrate the research value of oral history, and Beit Beirut hosted brief exhibitions of photos, visual and performing art, as well as an assortment of research papers all inspired by oral history. A photo series by George Azar captured intimate depictions of daily life in Lebanon during the Civil War and in Palestine during the first Intifada.
“To understand something, we have to be specific,” Azar remarked during the launch’s panel discussion, “and what could be more specific than analyzing individual stories and narratives?”
There was also a promotional “trailer” for an upcoming theater performance titled “I am not a vase.”
Written by Lina Abyad and Madonna Abid, the play draws its inspiration from Sharq’s oral history collection, consisting of over 120 interviews with Syrians, discussing life at home before 2011.
The research papers Sharq exhibited during the launch all draw upon the NGO’s archive of oral histories from Syria, addressing such topics as education, livelihood and the role of women.
Also staged for the launch was “Stories Echo,” an art exhibition comprised of pieces by Ghenwa Abou Fayed, Madonna Adib and Mirella Salame.
This celebration of individual narratives testified to the significance of archiving and documenting personal experiences of those living without freedom of expression.
