sábado, 2 de outubro de 2010

Honoring poster for Hassan Bey

In 1995, The Friends of Hassan Fathy created a poster, honoring Hassan Bey on his birthday, that it would have been is 95 th.

At the time, with the help of Dr. Said Zulficar of UNESCO and Jack Kennedy of Aga Khan Awards, The Friends of Hassan Fathy contacted students and associates of Hassan Bey so that one hand they may list them as Friends and on the other hand, that they may help distribute at academic and professional centers throught the world to mark the occasion and honour his memory.

His Royal Higness, Prince of Wales was invited to serve as Patron of the Friends of Hassan Fathy for his comments about Hassan Bey in Vision of Britain.

terça-feira, 11 de maio de 2010

Birthday Poster for Hassan Fathy


The Egyptian Gazette - Night & Day - Sunday, March 31, 1996

Hassan Fathy’s annual poster was unveiled at a luncheon hosted by Professor S. Abdallah Scheleifer, Director of the Sony Gallery and the Adham Centre for Television Journalism at the American University in Cairo AUC for the late Hassan Fathy’s Birthday.

Since the great Egyptian architecht’s death, a group of his friends, disciples and admirers known as The Friends of Hassan Fathy has met on his birthday.

Every year for this reunion a poster has been published, courtesy of Dr. Maged Farag. This year’s poster was born with a watercolour painting by Fathy’s student and long time friend Mohammed Moheeb. Professor Shems Friedlander, the internationally known graphic designer has blended his artwork with Fathy’s last architectural drawning and superb watercolour portrait of Fathy. They appear together on the poster.

It is being sold worldwide to benefit a UNESCO project in Siwa. According to the chairpersons of The Friends of Hassan Fathy, Dr. Said Zulficar, UNESCO Paris and Bettina Leopoldo, Siwa project Director, the project in Siwa will be named The Hassan Fathy Women and Children’s Centre and will be supervised by the Ministry of Social Affairs.

Attending the luncheon were Sherifa Dina Abel Hamid, the former Queen of Jordan, Marianne von Gruenigen, Swiss Ambassador to Cairo, William D. Cavness Jr., Counselor for Press and Cultural Affairs at the US Embassy, Dr. Mohammed A.K. Hassuna, attorney for The Friends of Hassan Fathy, Omar el Farouk, Rami Dahan and Soheir Farid, students of Hassan Fathy, Professor Abel Halim, Aga Khan Award winning architect and Barry Iverson, Time magazine photographer.

As a tribute to Fathy’s memory, his favourite Bach and Schubert music was performed by the “solitaire Duo”, Salah Eldin Abdallah (piano) and Mourad Heshmat (flute). The poster is being sold in Egypt at American University Bokstores for 35 L.E. each.

segunda-feira, 3 de maio de 2010

Towards a History of Siwi Things. Work in Progress by Alfred Janata - 1991

In collaboration with Thomas Haunschmid, Monika Humer, Mafred Kaunfmann (ethnography) and Franz Fuchs, Barbara Kofler (computer software).

Siwa, the westernmost oasis of Egypt, is, at the same time, the easternmost of a Berber-speaking group: The Siwi. They speak the Siwi language, they live in Siwi things, wich are being replaced at an incredible speed by non-Siwi imported goods. The acquisition of television-sets by all the households in the oasis in 1988, together with the availability of round-the-clock electric current (since the spring of 1990) has become the major Siwa attracted visitors such as Alexander the Great, who in 331 B.C., consulted the oracle of Jupiter Amun, situated in the oasis. During the first millennium of Islamic rule, Siwa´s high quality dates were a much desired commodity in the Nile valley. Otherwise, however, there was little interest in this remote spot, far away in Egypt´s Western Desert.

Let us start with a chronological report of our approach. Curiosity – no more than that – was aroused in 1975 by a collection of Siwi jewellery, acquired for the Museum für Völkerkunde in Vienna by Peter W. Schienerl. First out of a collector´s fascination, and later, between 1982 and 1987, within the framework of a research project Schienerl systematically studied and bought jewellery in Cairo and Alexandria. He published extensively on the subject (Schienerl 1973, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1980a, 1980b) without having ever visited the oasis. Nevertheless his analyses provide interesting data on this singular aspect of Siwi culture that attracted the special attention of observers before and after him.

In 1986, Janata by chance came across Siwi things on view in Zurich gallery. As it turned out, they were duplicates of Bettina Leopoldos´s collection exhibited at the same time in Musée d’Ethnographie de Genève (Leopoldo 1986). Contact was established and Bettina, together with her husband Leonardo, agreed to continue their collecting activities for the museum in Vienna.

It was the special charm of the oasis, it´s people and it´s culture that, after a short visit to Siwa in 1981, brought the Leopoldos back for extended stays every winter since 1984. In December 1985, when torrential downpour had washed away more than 200 houses, it was Bettina who managed considerable emergency aid from Swiss government and from Caritas. These successful efforts were honoured by people, and the Leopoldos were admitted to Siwan spheres hitherto closed to foreigners. After five winters in Siwa (from late September or early October to March/April) Bettina has become fluent in the Siwi vernacular, probably as the first non-Siwi. Leonardo, after nearly twenty years of travelling in the Arab countries of North Africa and Levante, well versed in Arabic right from the start, has no problems in communicating with the men.

Bettina devotes most of her days in Siwa to the welfare of the women, being constantly on the move as a “barefoot doctor”. This as not only made her a welcome visitor to all households, it has also given her acess to specific, sometimes intimate, details of Siwi life and culture.

Siwa city has a government hospital with mainly male staff that, accordingly, is not visited by women. Thus the Leopoldos come up with the idea of establishing a clinic for women (Leopoldo 1989). With the help of Agha Khan Award for Architecture they were able to secure the cooperation of Hassan Fathy, the internationally renowned Egyptian architect, to draw the plans for the clinic. Hassan Fathy finished his detailed plans on the eve of his death at Solomonic age. Negotiations with sponsors are still going on but we are assured of positive results.

Bettina, whenever in Siwa, “goes native” insofar as she wears Siwi dress and hairstyle. Both the Leopoldos live an austere and frugal life in their van. This also accounts for the sympathy of the local population. It is argued that Bettina has no academic training as an ethnographer or anthropologist. We can only state that the Leopoldo’s cooperation with the museum für Völkerkunde, now in it´s fifth year, has clearly shown their outstanding capabilities with all the professional problems involved, not to mention their sensivity. They devote a great deal of their time not only towards understanding the Siwi but also towards their welfare. Bettina, in the meantime, is doing a better job in Siwa than many trained ethnographer elsewere. Leonardo keeps insisting that she is the only person who deals with the problems professionally.

As indicated above, in 1987 we acquired in Viena a first set of Siwi artifacts, more or less duplicates of Geneva-collection. Since then every year, the Leopoldo’s have enriched it, not only with objects but with increasing information and documentation. Unlike most collectors of ethnographic specimens, museum curators included, they could be convinced to document culture change by sometimes buying, as mutually agreed upon, less appealing pieces as well. Hopefully they can continue their activities in Siwa and for the Siwi and for the promotion of Knowledge about their unique culture.

Currently, the museum´s Siwa collection comprises 327 single catalogue numbers. Clothing and personal ornaments, together with amulets and cosmetics make up two thirds of it, 212 items. Household utensils in the broadest sense are documented fairly well whereas we still specially lack means of production and transport. The collection, including items of folk religion and folk medicine, musical instruments, toys, etc., as been described and catalogued according to professional standards. In addition, in her list, Bettina gives a special “documentation of items” tracing most of the pieces to the specific person who produced or used it, thus including essential data on Siwi personalities, especially women, and their personal histories. Each single item of the successive collections was discussed with Bettina and Leonardo, based on the professional experience of the curator as well as on the data in the more recent publications. At an early stage, a “checklist of items desired” was written in order to systematize the respective activities in the field. Special attention was likewise directed towards rather “ephemeral” items, such as the simple palmrib sticks used to carry baskets on the back or to turn over the hot loaf of bread in the oven. This resulted, for instance, in collecting the date stones, which are used as projectiles for slingshots.

During a ne-year course with 17 students (Oct. 1989 – June 1990), the documentation was put into overall context, using literature readily available. During the summer months, three of the participating students introduced a computer into this stage of our work (see below).

At the beginning our goals were very vague. What we expected in the first place was to supply the fieldworkers with relevant data, e.g. by elaborating the list of “items desired”. In view of the acute process of culture change in Siwa we tried, as a first step, to file quotations on items of material culture in the literature, starting with the earliest reports by western (and very few Egyptian) visitors up to the Second World War.

Unfortunately these sources (table 1 & bibliography) are quite poor. The mais interest of the early visitors was entirely concentrated on the archeological remains in Siwa. In 1792, W.G. Browne was the first western to visit the oasis in search of remnants of Jupiter Amun. At least another 18 visitors left records during the course of the 19th century. Most of them were kept away from the settlements of the local population. The duration of their stay in the oasis ranged from a few hours to a maximum couple of days – a span of time too short to satisfy even main interest in the ruin Pharaonic, Hellenic and Hellenistic periods.

Roughly the same number of visitors from outside published notes on their travels to Siwa between 1900 and outbreak of the Second World War. Only three of them, the Egyptian archeologist Fakhry, were privileged by their professional status to stay in the oasis over extended periods.

A major difficulty in data processing is the lack of a dictionary of the Siwi language. Every single author used and uses to this day his very personal system of transcription, confusing us thus with up to half a dozen different spellings of one and the same Siwi term.

Especially with respect to the female aspect of Siwi culture, we were very careful in analyzing the sources. We know by now that unmarried girls were dressed up for photographers in order to represent married women. Hands of European ladies have been decorated with the full set of Siwi finger-rings in incorrect order. So much for the undeceiving photographic documents we are using as sources along with the written records. With the help of Bettina we can hopefully escape most of the traps of this kind.

Gradually we have also learned to deal critically with hitherto firmly established patterns, for instance such as the division of labour between the sexes in weaving basketry, the men producing the diagonal weaves (mats, large, baskets for transport and storage), the women coiled ones. Bettina acquired a dry mesure made by Tjatjah who specializes in this type of basket and sells it to other women. On the other hand we already have a number of coiled baskets, woven by Mohamed Furgalla, a male immigrant from the neighbouring Gara oasis.

The Siwi men are spiritually guided by the rules of the Sufi-order of Al-Sanusiya which include a very strict moral code. Most visitors were stunned, to say at least, to learn about the existence of a class unmarried, predominantly young men, the Zagalla, clearly distinguished at a first glance by their special dress, are varyingly interpreted as an “age class”, a “working class” or a warrior cast” or a combination of two of them or of three of them. Further interpretations are - at least at this stage of our work – beyond our scope. We just wonder how, in 1936, a doctoral thesis based on field work about Siwi music could be written without even mentioning the Zagalla, who were by then and who still are Siwa’s musicians (Schiffer 1936).

Alexander’s pilgrimage to Siwa, Field Marshal Rommel’s visit to the oasis during an already critical phase of Nazi Germany´s North African campaign (Sept. 1st, 1942), and the fact that Siwa has been “off limits” to foreigners since the Second World War until the late Sixties, have added a mystical component to the semantics of “Siwa” has become a magic term, a destination of desires if not dreams, a legendary place of gins and ghouls and non-Egyptian wonders, virtues and vices.

The Siwi have always lived on the wealth of their date groves. Well-to-do people in the oasis oriented their life style towards the standards of the Nile Valley and its capital Cairo. Even the poorer people used textiles, imported since immemorial from the workshops of Kirdasa, close to the pyramids of Giza. Other consumer goods, such as personnal ornaments, shoes, tarbushes, household utensils of cooper, but also tea and rice were brought from the Nile Valley or from the Cyrenaica in the west. The intermediaries were Arab traders, most of them Bedouins. Thus the Siwi have long established contact with wandering Arabs, some of whom have settled permanently in their oasis. Close economic contacts with Bedouin Aulad Ali especially are already well documented in the museum’s collection.

Experiences of the Siwi with the central government and it’s representatives in the province and on the spot were not always as smooth as those with the caravan traders. This may be one of the reasons why the Siwi’s ethnic identity is most strongly defined as opposed to Maser (Egypt).

The Berber language of Siwa has never developed instruments to write down and thus to transmit the essentials of Siwi history and culture to forth-coming generations. But the Siwi women have a system of their to communicate from one generation to the next. A rich canon of symbols, embroidered with silk thread on the imported textiles (cf. Bliss 1982:40 fig.18), woven with coloured stripes into coiled baskets or painted with red ochre on ceramics or with henna on the hands and the feet of the bride, passed on the essentials of Siwi life and Weltanschauung. The items mentioned were an integral part of a dowry and, as a mother, the Siwi woman taught her daughters this language of intricate symbols and their meanings.

Nowadays mothers and daughters are busy watching television. Little time as left for creative crafts besides the toilsome duties of the housewife. Television stars are beaustifull and Siwi women want to look at them. Quite a while ago they already started to use plastic containers and aluminium vessels instead of baskets and ceramic pots. Now they are also sewing dresses and buying shoes that comply with their idea of beauty, expressed by very recent Siwi term moda.

Material culture is only one aspect of rapidly changing liveng conditions, perhaps one of inferior importance to the people of Siwa themselves. Throught the efforts of Bettina and Leonardo Leopoldo we are attempting to document the changing situation with wich we are confronted at the beginning of the last decade of our second millennium. The computer is an additional help in approaching this goal, in view of the limited time of our disposal. Work with the computer started last August as an ad hoc affair. There was no specifically structured software at hand in order to proceed towards our goal, e.g. to connect the single items of the collection with the corresponding quotations in the literature. With the advice of a professional computer programmer and a colleague similarly experienced in ethnographic and data processing matters, we could proceed.

(…)

Our next targets are a close 100% analysis of the sources on Siwa, including museum collections and their documentation and – in the field – the continuation of the collecting activities aiming at a collection cum documentation as “complete” as possible.

We expect a final exhibition of high standards, accompanied by a catalogue raisonné. Knowledgeable field experts, above all Bettina Leopoldo, will be invited to contribute towards another volume on as many aspects of Siwi culture as possible.

FOLK VOL. 33 1991; The history of Things Essays, presented to KLAUS FERDINAND on his 65th Birthday, April 19th, 1991.

terça-feira, 9 de março de 2010

Marsa Matruh Governorate Siwa Oasis, Egypt

Siwans have always been isolated from the rest of the world and this probably accounts for some of their very different customs. In Siwa customs and traditions are completely different from the nine Islamic countries I have lived and researched in. The daily life of Siwan women even differs greatly from those of other oasis in Egypt.

It is strictly forbidden for a man to speak to or even see a Siwan female after she is married, unless it is his wife, his mother, his daughter, or in some cases sister-in.law should they be living in the same house. The women to this day are not doing any shopping nor do they help in the gardens. All their work is in their homes.

The Siwans are very close society. The 11’000 inhabitants originate from seven families. I know men and women living in Siwa who are from other parts of Egypt. They are married to natives for more than 25 years and they and their children are still referred to as strangers.

After the tragic disaster in 1985, I was able to organize aid to the 237 families (approximately 1’500 inhabitants) that lost their homes. A Swiss federal grant of Frs. 50 000 and 40 000 Egyptian Pounds from Caritas, Cairo was distributed to the 237 families. After this monetary assistance the Siwans Sheiks, local council and inhabitants realized, I am living among them, in order to help find solutions for their difficulties.

These successful efforts were honored by the Siwan inhabitants by admitting me to all their homes hitherto closed to Egyptians and foreigners.

In early 1986 I brought to the attention of then Governor Yousry el Shamy that even though the Marsa Matruh Governorate has an excellent hospital in Siwa for it´s residents, the women of Siwa are reluctant to visit this hospital, because of their customs and traditions. I suggested to him that a Community Participation Medical Center especially designed and for the exclusive use of women and children should be constructed. This center should also include training facilities for the women in order to teach them child-delivery, nutritional and dietary education, hygiene etc.

The former Governor accepted this project in his letter mentioning he will cooperate in any respect in this project for women and children of Siwa.

From the Swiss donors for Architecture in Geneva, Switzerland I was able to obtain funding for the architectural design of Hassan Fathy.

© November 1986 Bettina Leopoldo

The Oasis of Amun-Siwa and its Berber Brides

The Siwan inhabitants are of Berber origin and have always been isolated from the rest of the world and this probably accounts for some of their very strange customs. The Siwan woman are living a very secluded life in the oasis. It ibis strictly forbidden for a man to speak or even see a Siwan woman, after she is married, unless it is his mother, wife, daughter or daughter in law. The custom allows the women to leave their homes only for few occasions, like a childbirth, marriage ceremony or mourning.

The midwife arrives at the new home of the bride before noon on the third day of the week long marriage celebration. The Siwan bride receives a ritual washing of her hands, face and feet (Arak n’ Teshca) by the midwife, which signifies the marriage has now been consummated. A large meal is shared for the first time by both parents and all the relatives of the groom. Sweet tea, cake and peanuts are served, while young girls and women dance for the bride to the special folk music.

On the seventh day (Shemata) of the marriage celebration, the bride will receive all her female relatives and friends for the first time. Only the bride of a wealthy family will wear the traditional black silk marriage dress for this special occasion in the evening. It is celebrated with never ending joyful talk, folk-music, soft drinks, hot chocolate, sweet tea, cake, peanuts and the heart of the palm tree. For every Siwan farmer the date palm is most important, because of it´s multiple use. By cutting out the heart from the centre of the trunk, the tree is being sacrificed, which only is done to honor one at important events. The groom sends it to his mother-in-law showing all the jewellery and clothes stored in beautiful decorated wooden chests and the household presents, which the bride received on the first day of her marriage.

With the purchase of his bridal doll you support a small income project of low income single parent women and their children. It gives them a chance to have some independence. This project has been initiated by Bettina Leopoldo, a Swiss social-ethnologist. She is now finishing work on a manuscript about the inhabitants of Siwa, documenting their culture, traditions, it´s changes and her unique experiences of living with women for twelve years.

May this Siwan bride bring you much happiness and extend you knowledge to another precious culture of this world we should try to preserve.

First published: 1986 Ethnographic Museum, Geneva, Switzerland, Egypt the Oasis of Amun Siwa”, author by Bettina Leopoldo

Further reading about Embroidered Textiles:

Embroidered Textiles” 1990 S. Paine, Thames and Hudson Ltd, London, United Kingdom
Dreaming of Paradise” 1993 Museum of Ethnology, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
North African Textiles” 1995 British Press, London, United Kingdom

© 1998 Bettina Leopoldo

segunda-feira, 1 de março de 2010

SIWA TRAVELS AROUND THE WORLD

To encourage cultural exchange and stimulate tourism to Egypt. Swis social-ethnologist Battina Leopoldo has a major exhibition. "Egypt THE OASIS OF AMUN SIWA" travelling to musuems around the world until the year 2000. It opened on the 30th of November fr six months at the National Museum of Finland in Helsinki.

This is probably the most important collection of the finest contemporany ethnographic artifacts from any area in Egypt. The exhibition features almost 400 Siwan objects, an audio slide presentation, 60 photos and folklore music. Also shown at the exhibition for the first time is the award-winning documentary film about Siwa by the well-know filmmaker NIna Fischer.

This exhibition was first shown in 1986 at the Etnographic Museum in Geneva, Switzerland, to mark the 50th anniversary of the Egyptian-Swiss Friendship Treaty. This collection and exhibition were put together by Swiss Socail -ethnologist Bettina Leopoldo and her husband, Leonardo, an internationally known photographer, with the asistance of the Egyptian Ministry of Culture.

In 1981, when The Leopoldos first reached Siwa, they realizaed that many of the fie ethnographic artifacts had already disappeared. Determined to trace these objects, The Leopoldos went to the birth and marriage records of Europeans who lived in Alexandria
before the Second world war, hoping that some of these Greek and Italian families had been collectors of Siwan objects. They sent out almost 400 form letters, most of which returned unopened. But those who were answered led to Siwan artifacts in Cyprus, Greece, Italy and other countries of Europe.

If the reaction of those who have previously visited "EGYPT THE OASIS OF AMUN SIWA" is anything to judge by the continued sucess of the exhibition's world to seems assured.

For the past twelve years, bettina has been in the field living and researching in nine islamic countries (Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Libya, MOrocco, Syria, Tunisia and Turkey) with an emphasis women. especially the female inhabitants of the isolated oasis of Siwa. Egypt. During this time she was able to learn the "siwa" language, an unwritten Berber dialect. Siwans speak Arabic as a second language.

In Siwa, most young are married before they reach the age of fourteen. Only the immediate male members of the family are allowed to speak to them after marriage. For this reason, Bettina made a great effort to learn as much as possible about the marital life of women in siwa.

In a soon to be published book, Bettina notes that customs and traditionos in Siwa are completly different from the nine islamic countries she has lived and researched in. SShe observes that the daily life of Siwan women even differs greatly from those of other oasis in Egypt.

Nowadays most of Bettina´s time and energy is devoted to a most important project THE PRIMARY AND PREVENTIVE HEALTH CARE CENTRE FOR WOMEN AND CHILDREN IN SIWA. Bettina is the Project Director and Co-ordinatgor of this proposed centre, partly funded by the Aga Khan Foundation and designed by late great Egyptian architect Hassan Fathy and as such represented the last design completed in a career filled with successful innovations.

The architectual design of Hassan Fathy is based on the use of appropriate building materials and techniques which respect the cultural heritage and the social, as well as the ecological needs of Siwa. The funding also monitors the construction stage, so as to ensure strict conformity to Hassan Bey's intentions, and will train 120 masons to build in the Hassan Fathy method . Dr. hassan Fathy lectured, that "proper architecture is the first step in prevntive health care", his favourite environment was the desert. Therefore it is fitting, that this building and the entire program, which it houses will become more of a lasting tribute to architect Hassan Fathy. Bettina is hopeful that construction will begin this year.