A VISUAL DIARY OF THE HISTORY WORKSHOP ASWAN, 22-31 JANUARY 2015

General reflection

Few are the culturing experiences in life, that not only contribute to our level knowl-edge and our personal consciousness; but warrant a long 'pause' in order to fully process the experience and its effect on our person. Such is an experience that threads the personal through the larger moments in history, dissolving any capital truths and absolute assertions. We find ourselves in a constant state of deconstruction and re-ar-ticulation of events. Suddenly, nothing is certain...and every narrative can be coun-tered.

Qismet KatoulWriter and feminist activistAswan

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Day 1Manifesto

We, the non-historians, have decided to delve deeply into alternative

histories;To excavate with precision.To resist unimaginative

interpretations.To read what cannot be read and what

has not been written.To listen intently to the voices of history and the testimonies of its

sites.To believe in the innate power of

popular memory. To strive towards the peopling of

history.To credit the original sources of all

narratives.We work to vindicate those whom

history has silenced.We narrate, we do not judge.

Participants of the History Workshop.

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Day 2 Let’s talk about History...

We spent today talking about the different kids of history (Classical and modern), their sources, approaches and examples of such works. Dr Zainab Abul-Magd spoke of and highlighted the importance of sources of classical history such as AL Maqrizi and Al Jabarti’s and Ali Mubarak’s plans and Ibn Khaldun’s Introduction.

She indicated that most Arab Historians were partial to the histories of kings and rulers and important historical events rather than the histories of their peoples’. This took us unto a discussion of her book “Imagined Empires. A History of Revolt in Egypt” , which talks about the popular uprisings she coined as ‘communist revolutions’ in Qena (Upper Egypt) in the 1820s and 1860s. At the end of the session we divided into groups to attempt to decipher various archives including court records and exchanges between Mohammed Ali and his ministers and family in the 19th century.

Amin Osama, Journalist - QenaBoosh Adel, Activist - AswanMariam Dahab, Artist - Alexandria

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Day 3 On Popular Histories

Today Alia talked to us about songs that tell of histories. We asked ourselves who wrote these songs? And who continued to sing them? Are the songs that people remember today the same songs they sang for the very first time to capture and re-tell an event? Or did they shift with time?We then moved on to Gramsci’s theory of ‘common sense’ and how narratives of power, dictated by the state could be adapted and taken up by people, penetrating their own narratives, so that there are no clear lines between the subaltern narratives and narratives of power. For, despite the hardships suffered by Nubians who were displaced by the building of the Aswan High Dam, their songs still sing of its importance.In the afternoon we head to the village of Eneiba (a Nubian village migrated to the deserts of Komombo in 1964). We divided into groups and met with members of the community who had experienced the migration themselves. Everyone was very welcoming and eager to tell us their tales. We found in their stories, in their eyes, and in the lines on their faces what we would never learn from any book.

Ahmed El Gezy, Medical studentPort Said.

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Day 4Newspapers

We picked the Cairo Fire of the 26th of January 1952, as the central topic in our workshop on newspapers. We divided into groups and sifted through the Ahram newspapers between 1952 and 1982 asking ourselves how each paper described the event, what the language used was, and where the event was situated in the newspaper. We then shared our findings and produced a time-line of events that strung the three decades together and helped highlight the (non)/strategic role of commemorating the fire in each of those periods.Towards the end of the day we regrouped for the workshop on “Literary imaginaries”. Mahmoud and I started by asking each participant to indicate a novel that informed them of a particular historical moment and post them on a collective time-line. We then discussed the different forms of historical novels and the relationship between history and fiction in general. We ended the workshop with the question of the difference between “history” and the “past”, which we discussed and continued to discuss till the end of the workshop!

Nayera Abdelrahman, Researcher (and facilitator during the workshop) Cairo.

Day 5 History in Layers

After 7 years of studying architecture, a ‘sacred site’ to me, becomes that site where one experiences layers of architecture from different eras. Once i set foot on such a site, and sense the layers of architectural invention, especially if they are unfamiliar, the experience becomes spiritual rather than scientific.

Once on the boat, the Nile’s clear flowing waters tickled memories out of each of our hearts. We realised the extent to which we needed the break. We all disembarked at the port of the Philae temple. That place that tells many a story, and triggers lights in various chambers of your soul so that your research journey begins. For when you experience the layering of cities upon cities, streets upon streets, and temples upon temples, you realise how sites alone can tell stories, from perspectives that no written document can tell. You walk in the footsteps of many others before you and sail in worlds of another era as you pray their prayers, sanctify their sacred stones and murmur in a language that is unfamiliar to you. The stories of this world seep into your heart as you start to read between the inscriptions on the walls. The temple also included various sites of excavation and restoration which we explored. It has persisted through pharaonic times, and was built upon again in Ptolemic times, persisting to Arab and Nubian civilisations Each stone in this temple carries the names of builders of whom no historian has ever written.

Yasmine Bayoumi, Architect - Mansoura

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Day 6 Wiki Histories

Even though the lack of internet on the Island deterred us, the session on Wikipedia for me, was the last stage in understanding how i can alter, amend, oppose or contribute to written histories on the internet. It brought together what i had learned from Dr Zainab Abulmagd on the different historical approaches and their sources and what i learned from the way journalism and newspapers built narratives. Wikipedia was a way that I, as a citizen, could contribute to how histories are written and right wrongs, at least amongst the internet community.

Mohammed Dassa, Film-maker, Aswan.

I loved today’s session by Nermine on ‘mapping out’ our ideas. It will be very useful for my own work and will save a lot of energy and ideas. The idea of drawing up a map to situate ideas in a temporal context, and compare how they have been applied or developed with time, is a very useful brainstorming tool.

Amr Ahmed, Researcher and feminist activist, Aswan.

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Days 7 - 10 The telling of histories. Writing, Film and Story-telling workshops.

“We narrate; we do not explain it away...”

excerpts from excerpts from the story written and narrated by Mustafa Mohie.

Everyone got on board, and we started the journey.

The Bosta moved quietly after a few shrieks of its whistle signalling our move. A high ranking military officer scanned the shore to check we hadn’t left anyone behind. He turned to me “The Nubian people are making a great sacrifice today. It proves that we are all one people, united behind the Dam”. I wanted to tell him that soon we’d all be infront of the dam, and there’d be nothing left behind it, but the lake. But I kept quiet. He continued “Today the people prove that they are the leaders and the teachers…”I walked away from the officer and back to the families.

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The circles of song that tried to pave a way for hope were diminishing, shrinking smaller and smaller…only two people were left singing alone, until they too fell silent. A few hours passed before another circle of song started onboard the ship. This time, of women and young girls. The circles grew again. Throughout the trip that spanned a day and a night, these circles ebbed and flowed, and between every spur of song and the other stretched hours of silence...until we reached Komombo

The families got off the ship and got into their buses. The boxes and animals were piled on the back of the pick-up trucks. A long drive into the desert until the the new adendan was upon us. The families filed out, looked around them. Sun. As far as the eyes could see, and as far as the deserts spanned, there was Sun. The sun reflected off the sands rather than the Nile. The houses were concrete protrusions scattered throughout a vast emptiness, unplanned and uninhabited. Silence. A silence undisrupted save for the sound of the social services employees as they called one family at a time, to show them to their houses. The families lingered around the closed houses. It was a long time before the first person opened the door to the first house and walked in….his family close behind…and closed the door behind him.”

Mostafa Mohie, Journalist from Cairo “

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Closing“History” to me was a box under lock and key, stacked and sacred, drenched in ancient spells written in a foreign academic language, only penetrable to its formal gatekeepers. The passionate must learn to settle for the interpretations of its gatekeepers, should they choose to serve her. Any attempt to research and satiate herself can only fail, leaving her with the distant echoes of her own questions in the dark emptiness of ambiguity…for all content is monopolised by the writers of the formal narratives.

My experience in this workshop, however, greatly altered my belief in the nature of “History”. As if the experience with all its sessions and activities could be summarized in an attempt to get ‘it’ to speak for ‘itself’…to learn that there were ways to listen this creature that has long been the victim of silences, alter-ations and accusations of being stern and unimaginative. Finally, it would speak to me.

Carol Nabil, blogger and writer from Menya.

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The Aswan workshop team

Mohammed Dassa - NubiaIslam Farah - NubiaZizo Tag - NubiaBosh Adel - AswanYousra Adel - AswanQismet Katoul - Aswan

Mahmoud Ahmed (Amro) - AswanAhmed Amir - Edfu

Safaa Youssef - LuxorZainab Abulmagd - Qena

Amin Osama - QenaGehad Abd al-Wahed - Suhaj

Carol Nabil - MenyaShaimaa Hijazi (Shams) - MenyaMina Abd Al-Malak - Bani Soueif

Ahmed Gharbeia - CairoAlia Mossallam - Cairo

Hassan El-Geretly - CairoMostafa Mohie - Cairo

Nayera AbdalRahman - CairoNermin El-Sherif - CairoYahia Shawkat - Cairo

Youmna al-Khattam - CairoMahmoud Atef - Cairo/GharbiyyaYasmine Bayoumi - Al-MansuraAhmed El Gezy - Port Said

Tamer Eissa - Suez Mariam Dahab - Alexandria

Remembering the days of the History Workshop in Aswan, strangles my wide array of vocabulary and renders words futile. I could never give justice to the immensly inspirational effect of the experience. There was intensity, passion, goodwill and a growing curiosity that governed our ten days together. My documentation task got harder but richer by the day; unlike it would at any other workshop. I had the mission to try to capture and convey this energy through videos and photos reflecting the real learning process occurring; a process we all missed and yearned for in our ten(plus) years of educational experiences.

Youmna El KhattamDocumentation/Photography

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In this visual diary I tried to represent what couldn’t be said but rather felt, what couldn’t be written but seen. The History Workshop was one of the richest happenings I have ever witnessed. Bait Suhail was our commune, where we talked, sang, researched and raised questions. I was overwhelmed with presence of all of these energetic, critical “non-historians” each with his/her own legacy of stories from a different part of the country. I feel grateful to those ten days between the 22nd and 31st of January, and to everyone and everything I encountered within them.

Nermin El SherifDesign/Editing

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*Images used in this visual diary were captured by the lense of Youmna El Khattam and edited/visually narrated by Nermin El Sherif.