|
THE KIRKUK GROUP
|
|
|
| The Rose And Its Fragrance The Kirkuk Group
Fifty Years of Presence in Iraqi Culture Anwar Al-Ghassani
December 2003 ……..……………..………………...................……….………….
Content PrologueA. History And Context - Kirkuk in The Fifties And Early Sixties ofThe 20th Century 1. The City B. Three Periods1. The Kirkuk Period (1953-1963) a. The Rose And Its Fragrance 2. The Baghdad Period (1964-1970) C. Impact on Iraqi Literature And Culture E. Center for Kirkuk Group StudiesF. The Kirkuk Group at Present – Renovating Iraqi Culture Bibliography AuthorAppendix 1. Members of The Kirkuk Group -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Prologue This is an account of fifty years the history of the Kirkuk Group (KG), a literary group which emerged half a century ago in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk to become a major force in Iraqi culture and literature. Throughout its history, KG has not issued a manifesto or an official document outlining its philosophy or program. It has never declared itself a group formally. Individual members did issue manifestos and published declarations about certain literary and cultural issues, yet never in the name of the group. Although group members and others have made few attempts in the past to write about the group, this essay is the first systematic attempt dedicated exclusively to outline the history of the group and its literary and artistic vision. The essay avoids, as far as possible, judgments and evaluation of the literary achievement and biographical details of individual members and is mainly concerned with the group as a whole. The study of the life and work of individual members is a vast area the essay leaves for future research. This essay is written by one of the core members of the group. Geographical distance, lack of references, the impossibility to access sources in Iraq and to conduct queries and interviews have limited the scope of the work. A. History And Context - Kirkuk in The Fifties And Early Sixties of The 20th Century 1. The City The city and the province are rich in oil. During decades, Kirkuk was the most important oil producing province since 1927 when Well No.1 was drilled on the outskirts of the city and marked the start of oil production in Iraq. It was surpassed in production volume by the province of Basrah in the seventies. During decades and until the full nationalization of the oil industry in the seventies oil was exploited by three foreign multi-national consortiums: Iraq Petroleum Company (IPC) in Kirkuk, Mosul Petroleum Company (MPC) in Musoul and Basrah Petroleum Company (BPC) in Basrah. Kirkuk has always been a garrison city, at least since the Ottoman domination of Iraq some five centuries ago. It continued to be a garrison city after the British occupation in 1917. After the foundation of the Iraqi army in 1936, the 2nd Army Division and other units had their permanent headquarters and camps in Kirkuk. Also the air force had a base in Kirkuk. Another interesting feature is the Khasa Su river that flows through the center of the city dividing it into two parts; a river of violent torrents in Winter and Spring. The torrents are orange in color, smell of earth and sweep southwards carrying trees and dead animals. During the night people would hear the roaring of wild torrents. One of the famous sites in Kirkuk is the Al-Qal’ah (citadel, castle). It is believed it was formed by remains of old cities piled one upon another. Al-QaI’ah is a huge hill with some of the oldest neighbourhoods. Christian Turcomans called Qal’ah Gaueri (Qal’ah Christians) are among the oldest inhabitants of Al-Qal’ah . Kirkuk is surrounded by flat landscape except in the northeast where the landscape is hilly. The landscape is mostly arid and spiritually evocative. Although this spirituality can be traced back to the city, this, the city, is essentially sensual: its posture and message, the pregnant presence of its people, their features and dresses, their cultures and ways of life, languages, multiplicity of daily activities, voices, noises, and the combination of all these with other physical mysteries of the city: the language of its traditional architecture, of its markets, cafés, mosques, shrines, cemeteries, streets and alleys, the little parks and squares, the houses with their small gardens, singing birds in cages, doves on the roofs, storks on minarets. Before bricks, cement, iron bars were introduced to Kirkuk, the main building materials were bluish light-gray rocks of irregular forms and Juss (local white lime obtained by burning and crushing rocks from the eastern hills.) A special lime for the foundations was obtained by heating large pebbles in furnaces. At building sites, workers would pour water on them to trigger a chemical process that would lead within few minutes to full disintegration amidst vapor and fumes. They would then mix the resulting powder with water to produce the lime. The so-called modern architecture contaminated Kirkuk with its superficial and simplistic straight lines and angles. Traditional Kirkukian architecture is based on curves, arches, irregular forms and domes with rich internal decorations, mainly foliage in blue color. 2. The Culture Kirkuk looks back at thousands of years of cultural evolution. It is a very old place and rich in resources. In contemporary history, oil played a major role in the material and cultural development of the province and the city. At Arafa, on the north-western outskirts of Kirkuk, there is a spot known as Baba Gurgur where since thousands of years oil and gas sicker from the earth and burn. This is the place where the first oil well was drilled. The flames of Baba Gurgur, known as “Eternal Fire”, are symbols of Kirkuk, and indeed of Iraq: its wealth, energy and unbounded and eternally rebellious soul. At Arafa, where oil processing and exporting structures were built, a whole administrative, industrial and housing suburb was built. It was named New Kirkuk and K1 (Kirkuk One, named after the first pumping station of the oil exporting pipeline). Since the British were dominant in the IPC, these suburbs were British in design and atmosphere, a piece of Europe combined with local features. Most impressive were the Second and Third Class housing projects in New Kirkuk where IPC employees, workers and their families lived. The British had their First Class villa neighbourhood at some distance. These projects, and the whole IPC, were self-contained and had all services.. Few years later, the IPC expanded its housing activities and started to grant credits to workers and employees to build homes in the city itself. Kirkuk was and is the fourth largest Iraqi city. In the period between the general census of 1947 and 1957 Kirkuk had the highest population growth of all Iraqi cities. It almost doubled its population from around 68.000 to more than 120.000 in a country whose population at that time was a little more than six millions. Two decades later, the population would grow to about half a million. During the fifties, Kirkuk had the air of a growing and changing city. In public transport carriages pulled by horses were still in use, but soon a bus line was established between Kirkuk and Arafa and was followed, few years later, by a public bus network for the whole city. As a garrison city, the army was part of its landscape. The Military Hospital, the headquarters of the cavalary regiment, the Officers Club and the Ottoman Qishlah (castle) housing the headquarters of the 2nd Army Division, were all in downtown Kirkuk. The headquarters still carried its Turkish name, also the building of the province governorate was still being called Sarai). More military camps, barracks and installations, including the air force base, were situated near Arafa. Soldiers and officers were a common phenomenon in the streets, restaurants, cafés and markets. The army organized an annual sports festival alongside other sportive events such as the annual all schools sports, arts and handicrafts shows and of the IPC annual sportive games). In those prosperity and growth years, many streets were asphalted, Two new bridges on Khasa Su were built, the railway connecting Kirkuk to Baghdad was extended northwards to Arbil and a new highway from Kirkuk to Baghdad was under construction. * The government was pouring large sums into the system of free public education. Each year new schools were built, score of teachers graduated from crush and intensive training courses and a steadily increasing number of children were going to school, particularly in rural areas. In the beginning of the sixties the population of Kirkuk had access to multiple news and information media. It could access Iraqi radio (founded in 1936) in three language: Arabic, Kurkish and Turcomenish. All important international programs in the languages of the world could be received in Kirkuk via short and medium waves. The Iraqi TV which started broadcasting from Baghdad in 1957 could also be received in Kirkuk. All national newspapers and magazines published in Baghdad reached Kirkuk with the night train on the same day of publication. Kirkuk’s bookshops imported and offered a variety of foreign publications, particularly after the Revolution of July 14, 1958: books, magazines and newspapers from Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, West Europe, the Soviet Union, East Europe and the United States. The publication of “Sada A-Shabab” (Echo of the Youth) was perhaps one of the earliest attempts to publish independent media in Kirkuk. This was a school magazine published by the late Sinan Saied (arts teacher, writer, journalist and painter, later dean of the College of Information at the University of Baghdad) while teaching arts at Al-Gharbia Intermediary School. Saied could publish only few editions. Several KG members, who were Saied’s students, published some of their earliest writings in that magazine. Kirkuk had only few local newspapers, among them “Kirkuk”, the municipality newspaper. After the July 14, 1958 Revolution other papers and magazines were licensed; all were, more or less, short-lived projects. At that same period of rising leftist influence, group members “invaded” another paper, “Afaq”, a small and conservative weekly Turco-Arabic paper owned by Shakir Al-Hurmuzi. They started publishing articles, stories and poems in the paper. The experiment lasted only for a short period, namely during the months of growing leftist influence after July 14, 1958, when conservatives opened their papers to young leftists in an attempt to appease the left and protect their interests. All that ended after the riots and deaths of July 1959 in Kirkuk. The government of General Abdulkarim Qassim used the riots to justify its crackdown on the left in all provinces. The ensuing arrests, harassment and assassination of leftist by police, reactionary and Arab nationalist forces continued for more than three years and culminated in the massacres and mass detentions after the February 8, 1963 coup. In the early sixties, lawyer Abdulsamad Khanakah, a close friend of many KG members, started a magazine, “A-Shafaq” in Kurdish and Arabic. KG members participated in writing for the magazine which closed down after publishing few issues. The progress of printing and publishing in Kirkuk was slow. In the fifties and early sixties printing in Kirkuk was still underdeveloped. There were few printing shops, most of them used letter-setting technology. The printing shop of Kirkuk’s municipality produced the municipality newspaper on a manual press dating perhaps to the beginning of the century or earlier. The newspaper was printed manually, page by page. As to theater, if we exclude school theater, low quality semi-theatrical entertainment at weddings and private celebrations, and shows at the only night Kabaret (closed before the July 14, 1958 revolution after a killing incedent), Kirkuk has no theater in the proper sense of the medium. Roughly around that time, Ali Hussein As-Saiedi made the first attempt at presenting serious theater works. Thanks to the support of Abdulwahid Fahmi, officer of Social, Cultural and Recreation Affairs Department at the IPC, he was given the opportunity to present few works at the third class IPC Workers Club in Kirkuk. One of the pieces, “The Bent Branch” (Ud u A’awaj) was written by himself. Movies were an important source of information, education and entertainment. The Iraqi film industry was underdeveloped and produced very few films. The bulk of films projected in Kirkuk’s twelve Winter and Summer (close and open-air) movie houses were imported, mainly from Egypt, the US, western Europe (featuring Italian and French New Wave films), India, Turkey and the Soviet Union (socialist realism films). Mahmoud Al-Ubaidi and Sinan Saied, both teachers, and Colonel Siddiq Ahmad were pioneers in painting and sculpture. Al-Ubaidi worte and published the first manuals on painting and sculpture. They exhibited their works once or twice annually. Nevertheless, schools were still the main venue for arts and handicrafts. Al-Ubaidi coordinated the Arts and Handicraft Commission at the Education Directorate. Among Commission members were teachers Cathrin Shamoun, an Armenian female teacher from the School for Houshold Arts and Anwar Al-Ghassani. The Commission organized and supervised the annual arts and handicraft exhibitions at schools and the Central Public Library. Of the many rich and diverse features of culture and lifestyle in Kirkuk was the old tradition of Sairan during the intensive but short Spring. Families, friends and schools used to organize excursions and picnics to the outskirts of the city or traveled to nearby places where they could find green spots, rivers and shade. They would take with them cooked meals to enjoy few hours in nature. Another feature where the Khouryats, a Turcomenish tradition of popular songs. People sang them during wedding and circumcision celebrations or while returning home in the night drunken from bars and inns. There were also professional Khouryat singers. Half a century ago, Kirkuk was a place full of paradoxes and contrasts. It was the first and most important center for oil industry but also a museum or an open air show of a rich variety of handicrafts and production methods of the pre-industrial era. There were carpenters, blacksmiths, weavers, and a whole lot of other craftsmen. Almost each handicraft had its concentration place, a street or a market. Blacksmiths and metal craftsmen were among the most remarkable. They produced a variety of tools, implements and work instruments, especially for the agriculture, from hoofs for horses (still widely used in transport), to sickles and other wheat processing tools. The sight of these craftsmen and artisans In the semi-rural, semi-industrial multinational Kirkuk of the fifties politics were an important defining factor. During roughly ten years before the July 14, 1958 Revolution which led to the abolition of the monarchy and the proclamation of the republic, Iraq was passing through a permanent low intensity crisis. The constitutional system of the monarchy was incapable of effective response to the demands of the people for a better life. In addition, the Egyptian Revolution of July 23, 1952 was impacting Iraq and the Middle East as a possible model for change. This and the widespread dissatisfaction of the majority of Iraqis were a strong impetus for political parties who, as a result of multiple failures of the monarchic political system, were all prohibited and worked clandestinely to overthrow the monarchy. There was also widespread dissatisfaction in the armed forces. The monarchy was considered repressive, unpatriotic and submissive to western powers. These factors finally led to the explosion of July 14, 1958 and the demise of the monarchy. Despite all critic leveled against the monarchy, monarchic Iraq enjoyed relative stability and slow but steady progress. July 14, 1958 was considered by the majority of Iraqis as a watershed in history, as the start of the march towards a bright future. On July 14, only few suspected that Iraq will never again experience the relative stability of almost four decades of monarchic rule. Since the demise of the monarchy, Iraq has been caught in an endless cycle of repression, dictatorships, wars and destruction. The hope and expectation the revolution brought to Iraqis were soon dashed away. They were followed by the bloody trauma of the nine months rule of the Baath Party in 1963, which would be succeeded five years later by the second usurpation of power by the Baath party on July 17, 1968. This led to the nightmare of Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship and his wars, and finally to the invasion and occupation of Iraq in 2003. This is the historical, economic, political and cultural environment in which KG members were born, grew up, educated and started their creative work. B. Three Periods1. The Kirkuk Period (1953-1963) a. The Rose And Its Fragrance They came to know each other when they were high school students in Kirkuk. They were all interested in literature and arts, met by coincidence and became friends. b. The Kirkuk Group – Core and Outer Circle There is no complete biographical information covering all KG members. This has yet to be done. When the group emerged, core group members where in ages between thirteen and sixteen. Later, an outer circle of members was formed. This included persons who were much older, many of them were professionals and government employees, IPC employees or freelancers. (See the lists in the annex.) In real life there was no such a thing like core and outer circle members. Yet this classification is necessary to understand the dynamics of relations and roles within the group. - Is a founding member of the group. c. Rebels, Lovers, Long-Distance Walkers, Café And Park AddictsDuring the early formative years in Kirkuk most KG members were still high school students, the majority of them were not diligent. They met at homes, streets, cafés and parks to read and discuss their writings, inform about their recent readings and exchange views about a whole variety of issues. They were also great walkers and wanderers. They took long-distance walks in and around Kirkuk. Those walks were mobile discussion forums. They had a passion for discussion.Those were their real school, research and learning spaces, their university. Those were their learning habits, style and passions that would stay with them for all times. KG members are, above all, rebels. They rejected, sometime gratuitously, wholesale and even indiscriminately, the content and norms of the culture they grew within. This rejection was almost always an emotional manifestation of their rejection of the state of affairs and the status quo around them, which they considered backward and influenced by reactionary and imperialistic tendencies of the ruling monarchy. However, since they belonged to diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds, this emotional rejection should not be considered a logical and final rejection of all their indigenous cultures, i.e. the specific ethnic cultures within which group member grew up. Generally, these cultures stayed on the margin, yet they were formative elements and nothing could eliminate them from the lives and characters of group members. Although indigenous cultures and classical Arabic literature did have their role and importance, they were considered backgrounds and were somehow on the sidelines. Contemporary Iraqi, Arab and world literature, arts and politics, particularly their most recent, radical, extreme and promising schools and trends, where the actual field of interest for KG members. Did the group work its way towards an alternative culture? The group never represented its vision and ideas in terms of alternatives or advocated a model for an alternative culture. Certainly, there were elements of an alternative culture in different stages of definition in the minds of group members. However, the unwillingness to define directions for culture is still alive in the group. Arab culture from countries whose cultures traditionally had certain presence and impact in Iraq (Egypt, Syria, Lebanon) were not considered a model despite the admiration for some literary figures in those countries and for the political popularity of the Egyptian July 23, 1952 Revolution and its leaders. Although most group members were leftists - some even actively participated in leftists parties during certain periods - the dominant cultural credo of those parties, socialist realism, was considered by most KG members restrictive to creative freedom. As to western cultures and literatures, their impact was undeniably strong. These were precisely the cultures that generated heated discussions and a process of critical assimilation. KG members were not only rebels in literature and culture, but also in their way of life. Ordered, disciplined life, attention to material aspects, family building, planning for life, all these were looked upon with suspicion and were rejected. Naturally, not all members adhered to these rebel principles in the same way, but being rebellious, bold, generous and carefree were essential for acceptance by the majority of group members. Kindness and appreciation for one another was to come in decades ahead, but during the first period, KG members were either unconscious of their mutual bonds or rejected them as chains and limitations. They were a bunch of wild, at time arrogant people who set the highest standards for themselves and others and wouldn’t hesitate to be rough and tough with each other on issues of principle.. This capacity to laugh and their appreciation of humour, typical of most Iraqis, was a manifestation of internal tenacity and toughness, product of thousands of years of struggle against invasions, calamities and disasters, characteristic of the history of Iraq. In this sense, KG member are not much different than average Iraqis. They are above all genuine Iraqis. Contrary to the common belief that turbulent history would produce embittered persons, KG members are tender and kind people precisely because they are the product of complex historical processes and because of their historical sophistication. In this sense, they are persons who have acute, indeed obsessive interest in literature and culture, yet the ultimate object of their glowing passion is the human being and the human condition, and, consequently, the destiny of Iraq and the world. * Despite hardships, distances, Diaspora and exile, group members, particularly core members, have maintained and conserved their friendship, optimism and above all their great positive and creative sense of humor. Whenever they meet they create their typical atmosphere of optimism, humour and energy. 2. The Baghdad Period (1964-1970) The first travel and migration attempts by KG members date back to the early fifties. Jalil Khalil Al-Qaissi (playwright and novelist) and Christo Hagobian (trumpet player) went separately to the US to become actors in Hollywood. They reached New York but couldn’t make it further. After few months they returned to Kirkuk. Muhammad Ahmad Rustam (short story writer, critic) followed the steps of his brother, film critic Mahmoud Ahmad Rustam who was the first to immigrate to the US. Muhammad, a promising literary critic, left already before the Revolution of July 14, 1958. No one heard of him or knows his whereabouts since then. Roughly at that period Issmat Najati Al-Hurmuzi (actor), a great fan of Burt Lancaster and Western movies, traveled to Turkey to study acting and theater. Ali Hussein As-Saiedi (actor, theater director) migrated to Austria where he worked for years in construction and other jobs to finance his theater studies. He came back in the early seventies and took residence in Baghdad. After few failed attempts in theater he somehow vanished from the scene and was never heard of again. As early as 1959, Fadhil Al-Azzawi (poet, novelist, journalist) enrolled for English literature at the University of Baghdad. He came to Kirkuk during vacations. At that time, Youssif Al-Haydari (short story writer), who was a teacher, applied for transfer to Baghdad. Also Christo Hagobian moved to Baghdad and started to work with a construction bureau of a well-known Baghdadi architect. In 1962, Anwar Al-Ghassani (poet, short story writer, painter, journalist) resigned his job as teacher in Kirkuk and enrolled in the painting department at the Academy of Fine Arts of the University of Baghdad. The year 1964 was the year in which all KG core members and few others migrated to Baghdad, except Jalil Khalil Al-Qaissi who would permanently stay in Kirkuk. The number of group members present at one time in Baghdad fluctuated. Ad-Daoudi was only occasionally in Baghdad. He later went to study in the German Democratic Republic. Sargon Boulus and Jan Dammou were already living in Baghdad but had to take much care to avoid being caught by military police and driven to compulsory military service. Jan was caught later and obliged to do military service with Iraqi troops in Jordan (stationed there for a short period after the 1967 Arab-Israeli war). Al-Ghassani, Al-Azzawi and Ar-Rawi, Christo Hagobian and Yousuf Al-Haydari lived and worked in Baghdad. Al-Ghassani spent the whole year 1967 in the German Democratic Republic participating in journalistic courses, he came back and left to Germany for good on September 28, 1968. Jalil Al-Qaissi came occasionally on short visits to Baghdad, so did Muhayyedin Zangana (writer), who was now teaching at a high school in Baquba and Salah Faiq (poet) who was still in Kirkuk. After the turbulent year of 1963, Baghdad enjoyed few years of relative stability during the presidencies of the brothers Arif until July 17, 1968 when the Baath party staged a new coup and came again to power. Thus the years 1964-1968 were a remarkably productive period in Iraqi culture. KG members came to Baghdad from a province. They had some expectations since Baghdad was the capital and a much larger city than Kirkuk. It offered them a world to discover, vibrating life, diversity and a gate to the outside world. Most literary names of Baghdadi writers of the fifties whom they read were retreating to the background of the new realities after 1963. Instead of them, KG members discovered a younger generation of writers, some Baghdadis, others have recently arrived from the provinces. After the events of 1963, all these young writers, intellectuals, journalists and artists were disenchanted with the political parties they previously belonged to (Communist, Baathist, Arab nationalist parties and others). Like KG members, they were all disillusioned and truly rebellious. The disillusion with politics was the platform where they met and understood each other. From there the way to the common interest in literature and arts was very short. These young people, meeting in a relatively calm and stable Iraq, would start their university in cafés, editorial offices and the streets of Baghdad. The favorite daily diurnal meeting spot were Al-Baladiya and Al-Parlaman cafés at Bab Al-Mouadham, a western district of Baghdad. The favorite afternoon and nocturnal café was Ibrahim’s Café at the eastern Bab Ash-Sharqi on the busy road that led from At-Tahrir Square to Al-Ghassani and Ar-Rawi’s apartment, some one hundred meters from the café. That was the environment in which group members produced, lived, worked and interacted, the start of the so-called literary movement of the sixties. In their interaction with writers and artists in Baghdad, group members soon discovered that they have brought in from Kirkuk something others, with some exceptions, lacked: they were widely read and had good knowledge of the main trends in western cultures. The other important discovery they made was their boldness and fearless spirit, the driving energy behind their learning and exploring. Life and material conditions had almost no significance for them. Learning, daily, everywhere, day and night, by all means, that was their main concern, indeed obsession. Fiercely radical, innovative, unorthodox, anti-establishment, rebellious, sincere, opposed to all kinds of falsities and lies, even somewhat anarchistic, they would go exploring miles ahead and beyond what others would dare and venture to explore. All these were the factors that helped establish their literary and cultural “authority” within the literary movement of the sixties. Achievement, results, performance, knowledge and moral principles were important for KG members, also the message, particularly the what and how aspects of literary production. All these were the driving forces of their spirit. They gained them credit and authority, and made them a magnet that attracted many young writers and artists and the attention of the media. During their years in Baghdad, group members will become the focus and convergence point for incalculable discussion sessions, particularly nocturnal, that would extend until sunrise in rooms and apartments that barely had furniture and always little food and drinks to offer. It was a new and modern Spartan learning style in creation; no masters, no disciples, but indeed friends and equals engaged in learning and producing some of the best works of modern Iraqi literature. In Baghdad, group members published their first books while continuing publication in magazines and newspapers. The Literary Supplement of Al-Jumhuriya, edited by Anwar Al-Ghassani, the weekly newspapers Al-Liwa´ and the weekly An-Nassr, edited by Mouayyad Ar-Rawi, were among of the media that published avantgardist literature by group members and others. The Literary Supplement gained popularity among young writers and was open to all experiments. It was supported by two distinguished journalists and editor-in-chiefs of Al-Jumhuriya: Faisal Hassoun and Sadik Al-Uzdi and enjoyed the moral support of the distinguished Al-Jumhuriya journalist, tanslator and Baghdadi intellectual Abdulwahab Al-Amin. Baghdad was for group members a place wider than Kirkuk, diverse but somehow unfamiliar. Intimately, they felt insecure. Kirkuk had its dangers but there they were at home, Baghdad was different. It was a place for growing up and independence. Baghdad gave them space, opportunity to discover and learn and, unconsciously, to compare themselves with others. 3. Exile And Diaspora Period (1971 - present) Traveling abroad for educational purposes and studying at foreign universities in Arab countries, Turkey, Europe, United States was not new to Kirkuk. Iraq had a generous policy of grants. Score of students were sent each year to study abroad. Others enrolled in foreign universities and financed their studies privately. Also the Iraq Petroleum Company sent employees for training, mainly to Britain. There was also a migration trend among the Assyrian and Armenian population of Kirkuk. The desire to travel abroad has always been strong among KG members. After the revolution of July 14, 1958, Nurudin As-Salihi (ud player, singer, composer and music scientist) gave up his studies at the Engineering College of the University of Baghdad and went to the German Democratic Republic (GDR) for six months intensive specialized workers training within the framework of a program sponsored by the Ministry of Industry. After concluding the course, he returned to Kirkuk. In mid sixties he went to Leipzig, this time with a full four years grant to study music at the Universität Leipzig in the GDR. He later got a PhD in music but never returned to Iraq. Zuhdi Ad-Dawoodi came down from his hideout in the mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan and went with a full four years grant to study ancient history of Iraq at the Universität Leipzig. He returned to Iraq after earning his PhD in the late seventies but was forced to leave Iraq after 1979. He returned to Leipzig where he lives now. Approximately in 1966 or 1967 Sargon Boulus was smuggled by friends over the border to Syria to escape compulsory military service, later he moved to Beirut and from there made his way to San Francisco in the US. On January 1967, Anwar Al-Ghassani went to the GDR with a grant from the journalists trade unions in Iraq and GDR to participate in a journalism course in Berlin and press photography training in Berlin and Dresden. He returned in December 1967 and on September 28, 1968 he left again to the GDR, this time to study journalism at the Universität Leipzig. From 1973 to 1975 he taught journalism at the International Institute of Journalism in Berlin. He went back to Leipzig in 1975 where he earned his PHD in journalism in 1979. Mouayyad Ar-Rawi left Iraq in 1971, first to Beirut from where he further immigrated to Berlin, GDR in 1979. Since then he lives in Berlin. Fadhil Al-Azzawi immigrated to Leipzig, GDR, in 1977. Later, he and his wife Salima Salih earned their PhDs at the Universität Leipzig. Currently, both live in Berlin. Jan Dammou went to Beirut for a short period then returned. In the nineties he immigrated to Australia. He died in Sydney on May 8, 2003. Salah Faiq, left Iraq to Syria in the seventies. From there he moved to London and then to the Philippines were he currently lives. Father Youssuf Saied (writer) left Iraq to Sweden in the seventies where he currently lives. Except Jan Dammou who left Iraq and then cam back several times before finally leaving to Australia, none of the other members ever returned to Iraq after leaving. Life and activities outside Iraq presented new difficulties and challenges. Some members studied, others didn’t. Some worked, while others didn’t find jobs or only worked sporadically. Contacts between core members outside Iraq and other fellow members who stayed in Iraq, namely Jalil Al-Qaissi and Jan Dammou were maintained through correspondence during the first years after leaving Iraq, but time and the worsening of the situation inside Iraq (wars and repression) broke down these contacts. Contacts among those outside Iraq varied in continuity and intensity according to their geographical proximity and affinities. Germany has always been an important meeting place. At a certain period, Al-Azzawi, Ar-Rawi and Al-Ghassani were in Germany at the same time. During the seventies and a good part of the eighties Sargon Boulus was almost without contact with others while living in his remote San Francisco. This changed in the nineties when Boulus started to come frequently to Europe where he would stay for longer periods, particularly in Germany. In April-May 2001 a pleasant and historic encounter took place in Berlin. After fifteen years of absence, Anwar Al-Ghassani arrived in Berlin where he met with Ar-Rawi, Al-Azzawi and Boulus who was coincidentally there on a literary grant. It was the first meeting with Boulus since he left Iraq almost forty years ago. Despite all the long years the four KG core members communicated with each other as if they had left Baghdad only few days ago. The years outside Iraq have been a mixture of migrations, immigrations, sufferings and endless problem solving, wandering between continents and severe exile. They were years of hardships, perseverance, struggle and patience. Iraq was always present in each hour and minute as the source of energy and hope. Despite all this, KG members never forgot their mission of creation. They were always productive, studying, writing, and publishing. C. Impact on Iraqi Literature And CultureThe KG set new radical high quality standards for the renovation of literature and the arts, for literary and artistic products, and for self-improvement, ethical conduct and lifestyle of writers and artists. In fact, KG never adopted or even consciously used the renovation concept or considered it as its credo. The thrust was towards a literature completely new whose characteristics were unknown even to group members. Growing up in a developing country with almost 70% of illiteracy, creating a national culture was not yet a main concern. The period of emergence and growth of the group was also the period of slow march towards what will be known in the seventies as the information revolution, environmental awareness, communication revolution and the introduction of personal computers as mass consumption products. These will then be followed during the eighties and nineties by the end of cold war, the destruction of the Soviet Union and East-European socialist countries, the breakdown of international order and the ensuing globalization and its current chaotic phase. KG was not bent on lineal action that follows classical development concepts in building national culture. It goes without saying that, at some juncture, KG did recognize the importance of national culture for identity building and that, given the inevitable globalization, national culture must be preserved and consolidated, and at the same time interact globally with other cultures on the basis of sovereignty of national cultures. D. Writings About The Kirkuk GroupThis essay is perhaps the first systematic account written about the group. There are few works, mostly articles in magazine that partially deal with the group. Due to the absence of a complete bibliographical list of sources about KG, there is currently no way to determine if there are more articles written about the group. E. Center for Kirkuk Group Studies KG members have never ceased to write, produce and publish throughout the past half a century. Their work has been published in Arabic and other languages in books, magazines, newspapers and anthologies. They have produced a score of books of poetry, fiction and non-fiction. The productivity and publishing rate varies from one member to another. F. The Kirkuk Group at Present – Renovating Iraqi CultureKG members are as active as always. The sudden death of poet Jan Dammou (May 8, 2003 in Sydney) was a painful blow. Members are doing their best to contribute both literarily and journalistically to the discussion of current cultural issues. In January 2004, Anwar Al-Ghassani starts a research project about the opportunities, problems and risks facing current Iraqi culture. The occupation of Iraq by Coalition forces and the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime on April 9, 2003 created a complex and complicated situation. It is still unclear what will be the outcome, what political, economic and social regime will emerge from the current process and when foreign forces will leave Iraq. As to culture, the situation so far points to opportunities, problems and risks that lay on the way ahead. Thus Iraqi culture and Iraqi intellectual, writers and artists are confronted with a difficult tasks: to define a position and work towards furthering and protecting Iraqi culture. As an important force in shaping Iraqi culture during the past half century, the KG is called upon to take a leading role in tracing the path ahead for Iraqi culture under the new and complex circumstances. Core KG members are working on an orientation document for Iraqi culture, a set of ideas and suggestions, not a manifesto or a programmatic document but rather a document that can help orientate the movement of Iraqi culture and defines the tasks, problems and solutions for its future. Group members are also discussing the merit of combing this document with a programmatic declaration about the situation in Iraq since April 9, the future of Iraq and the future of Iraqi culture.
Within the framework of the afore mentioned principles, the KG will suggest a number of cultural and literary projects essential for furthering Iraqi culture in the current new phase of Iraqi history. It will call upon the future parliament and government, Iraqi intellectual and the people of Iraq to work towards realizing those projects. The group will express its intention to continue monitoring events in Iraq and periodically issue reports on the progress of materializing its demands and suggestions. When issued, the above-mentioned document will be the first of its kind in the history of the group. Albeit the importance of voicing its position about vital issues concerning the future of Iraq and its culture, the group will continue to consider creative production as its priority, especially in the new phase of Iraqi history full of exiting themes and perspectives for literary and artistic production. KG theory about the significance of its work for Iraqi literature can be called Zero-Sum Theory of Creativity. Creative products should start, always and each time, at a theoretical zero point. Each creative attempt is the manifestation of an endless struggle towards truth and freedom. The accumulative value of each attempt is relative. Therefore, KG does not want its work to be considered heritage and legacy if this should lead to converting its work into a dogma, authoritative example and sacred text that would compromise creativity of current and next generations of Iraqi poets, writers and artists. In this sense, it does not want its work to be considered an example to be followed. However, literary and artistic production has its own logic. It inevitably forms a heritage and history and is converted to a sample, if not an example. To reconcile this with the KG theory its is necessary to apply a two-step process to the works. First, a critical reception based on serious study and analysis for the purpose of familiarizing oneself with it. The second step is to try to overcome, surpass and transcend it creatively, i.e. to produce work that go beyond the work of KG. Only so, the work of the group will further the freedom of creation and cease to be an impediment to full creative freedom and cultural progress.
Bibliography Al-Azzawi, Fadhil (1992): The Story of The Generation of The Sixties. In: Faradis (Köln), 4/5, 1992, Al-Kamel Verlag, 25-34. (Arabic) Al-Azzawi, Fadhil (1997): The Living Spirit – The generation of the Sixties in Iraq. Damascus/Beirut: Dar Al-Mada. (Arabic) Al-Ghassani, Anwar (2003): My life (autobiographic interview with students of the School of Mass Communication Sciences, University of Costa Rica. Three recording sessions, 6 tapes/60 min. each). (Spanish) Al-Ghassani, Anwar (1996): Cities: The Kirkuk Guide (poem/essay, text and photos) En: Al-Mada (Damascus - Nicosia), no.13, 1996, 63-69. (Arabic) Al-Ghassani, Anwar (1994): A book about Kirkuk Group. (Circular letter sent to Kirkuk Group members suggesting writing and publishing a book about the group. The letter contains full detailed outline of the book.), (Arabic) Al-Ghassani, Anwar (1992): The Sixties, There, Here, Over There: Love, Freedom, Knowledge. In: Faradis (Köln), 4/5, 1992, Al-Kamel Verlag, 55-62. (Arabic) http://al-ghassani.net (Official website of poet Anwar Al-Ghassani) Al-Janabi, Abdulqadir (1992): A Tape With Interruptions. In: Faradis (Köln), 4/5, 1992, Al-Kamel Verlag, 71-78. (Arabic) Ar-Rubaie, Abdulrahman Majid (1992): Attempt at browsing The Papers of Those Days. In: Faradis (Köln), 4/5, 1992, Al-Kamel Verlag, 48-55. (Arabic) Ar-Rubaie, Sharif (1992): From The Experiences of The Sixties: Details About retreating Times. In: Faradis (Köln), 4/5, 1992, Al-Kamel Verlag, 62-71. (Arabic) Boulus, Sargon (1992): The Stronger Hagis – Reflections About The Sixties. In: Faradis (Köln), 4/5, 1992, Al-Kamel Verlag, 37-43. (Arabic) Darwish, Mahmood F., Jawad, Mustafa, Sousa, Ahmed (editors), (1960): Directory of the Republic of Iraq 1960. Baghdad: Dar At-Tamadun (under the auspices of the Ministry og Guidance.) Arabic. http://literature-arts.al-ghassani.net (Includes information about a number of Kirkuk Group members and samples of their work – under construction)
AuthorAnwar Al-Ghassani, PhD., Iraqi poet. alghassa@racsa.co.cr Appendix The following lists are based on information currently at the disposal of the author. They have to be updated as more information becomes available. The only complete list is that of core members. Core Members 1. Jalil Khalil Al-Qaissi (playwright and novelist. Died in Kirkuk, Iraq, 2006) The Outer Circle1. Issmat Najati Al-Hurmuzi (actor. Current whereabouts: unknown) Friends of Kirkuk Group Members (A Selection) (Friends of KG members, some had literary and artistic interests) Asaad Al-Hashimi (IPC trainee, wrestler (feather weight). Friend of several Kirkuk Group core members. Current whereabouts: unknown) Shakir Al-Hashimi (IPC employee, later teacher, friend of several KG core members. Died in a terrorist attack in Baghdad, 2006) Hussein Ali Al-Hawramani (writer, executed 1963. Friend of Anwar Al-Ghassani. He helped in publishing the first short stories of Al-Ghassani in “Fatal Iraq” (Mosoul) in 1953) Suad Al-Hurmuzi (writer, journalist and broadcaster. Relative and friend of Kahtan Najati Al-Hurmuzi. Friend of Anwar Al-Ghassani. Current whereabouts: unknown) Baqir Ali (high school friend of Anwar Al-Ghassani. Current whereabouts: unknown) Muhammad Ali (political activist, friend of Mouayad Ar-Rawi. Current whereabouts: unknown ) Ihsan As-Salihi (political activist, executed 1963 in Kirkuk. Brother of Nurudin As-Salihi and friend of several KG members) Ahmad Ghafour (teacher, political activist. Friend of Anwar Al-Ghassani. Current whereabouts: unknown) Gubran ? (teacher, friend of Kirkuk Group core members. Current whereabouts: unknown, probably in Baghdad) Natiq Ibrahim (IPC employee and body builder. Friend of Anwar Al-Ghassani and several other KG Core members. Current whereabouts: unknown) Latif Jamal (high school friend of Anwar Al-Ghassani. Current whereabouts: unknown) Abdusamad Khanakah (short story writer, publisher, lawyer, friend of many KG members. Died in Kirkuk, date: unknown) Othman Khoshnau (political prisoner, later editor of Kirkuk’s Municipality newspaper. Friend of many Kirkuk Group members. Current whereabouts: unknown) Mahdi (from Al-Mussalah, Kirkuk. Iraqi Air Force technician, later trainee in the Soviet Union. Friend of Anwar Al-Ghassani. Current whereabouts: unknown) Faiq Ma'ssum (writer. Government employee in Kirkuk and Sangau during the fifties. In 1954, he led the attempt to form the first theater group in Kirkuk. The attempt failed when he and group members were arrested by the monarchic secret police. Friend of several KG members. Current whereabouts: unknown) Suhail Najim (teacher. Studied English literature at the University of Baghdad. Relative and friend of Anwar Al-Ghassani. Died in the nineties. Exact date: unknown) Ylimaz Omar Jaweed (economist, ud player, friend of Kirkuk Group core members. Currently in Canada) Salah Shamil (IPC employee, later employee of an insurance company in Baghdad. Relative and friend of Anwar Al-Ghassani. Current whereabouts: unknown) (The list includes names of Kirkuk intellectual who were contemporaries to Kirkuk Group members or form part of the cultural context within which the group emerged and evolved. Some had contacts or friendships with KG members, others were their teachers or persons who influenced their literary and artistic evolution in some way or another. The list lacks details about relations and friendships between KG members and these Kirkuk intellectuals, as well as data about the whereabouts of the persons. It is by no means complete or does justice to everyone. It needs to be updated and completed. Future versions of this list will certainly be more extensive and comprehensive.) 1. Sinan Saied (arts teacher, writer, journalist and painter, later dean of the College of Information at the University of Baghdad. Died: place and date unknown) |
|
|