Seconded By: Fatma Fahmy,
Over a span of 10 years, I collaborated with the Bedouin community of South Sinai, Egypt to explore the notion of belonging. The Bedouin community defines this notion through their intertwined attachment to land – they are its eternal keepers. The community are participants in the creative process, contributing with their traditional mediums such as embroidery and poetry. The result is a dance, a visual conversation on the continuous human process of searching for home and a celebration of the indigenous experience that has long been seen through a romanticized gaze. The final outcome is a complementary collection of photographs, written content, embroidered photographs on fabric and photographic paper, artifacts, sound and video.
I believe it’s a common human emotion to seek a definition of one’s identity, yet its complexity is often ignored, creating flattened labels and othering. The project challenges past colonial, orientalist and exotic narratives told of the Bedouins specifically and of the indigenous communities at large. It advocates for reshaping the representation of native and non-western communities in future narratives.
In its universal form, the project questions what it means to belong, what is this indescribable connection to the land that we all long for and the indigenous experience that is filled with both sorrow and celebration. It invites the audience to examine their own idea of belonging while acknowledging the community’s voice, consent and collaboration in the process.
In 2021, the Egyptian government launched a “new nation” project. Natural valleys have been paved, historical monuments demolished and native communities have been displaced including the Bedouin community of South Sinai. Since the government’s intrusion, concrete has been creeping over the mountainous land and many families have become homeless. The natural and cultural state of the land and its keepers – indigenous community – is under threat. This is when I decided to publish my book, for its urgency to document life before the big change and as a form of protest amid an oppressive regime.
The project is a contemporary Bedouin archive woven by the people themselves and my opportunity to reconnect to my indigenous Bedouin ancestry by collaborating with and learning from the existing community.
Embraced by the mountains
The city centre of St. Catherine protectorate in South Sinai, Egypt. Naturally isolated from other regions in Egypt and uniquely defined by the interconnectedness of people and land. January 2021
Nadia
Nadia
Embroidered photograph of Nadia by her cousin Mariam. St. Catherine, Egypt, 2019
Up until the 1990s, women were prohibited from being seen by men from other tribes without their consent. As technology evolved, the awareness that an image might be circulated on the internet and accessed by people beyond one’s control escalated this concern. This led some women to refuse to ever be photographed for fear of losing control of how and to whom they’re represented. In this collaborative process, every woman photographed added embroidery to her portrait or to a photograph she chose printed on fabric. In the process, she freely reveals or conceals the contents of the photograph using the traditional medium of embroidery, taking full control over her own representation in the project.
Seliman
Seliman holds the Khodary plant in his family garden in Gharba Valley, St. Catherine, South Sinai, Egypt. October 2020.
Seliman manages an ecolodge with his cousins in Gharba valley but as the pandemic spreads throughout Egypt, less and less guests come to stay at the ecolodge and now the family redirects their focus on the family gardens. “We don’t have Corona here, but we are affected by it. Look, these plants are our face masks.” says Seliman.
Yasmine
Yasmine (32) picks wild herbs as she walks through the valley near her home at Sheikh Awad village. February 2021. Yasmine was six months pregnant, walking the village herd around the mountains of Gharba, when we first met nearly seven years ago.
Embroidered tattoo
Expensive in material – less traditional garments and jewellery are made as the local economy declines leading women to wear generic clothing items imported by vendors from other cities in Egypt. Nevertheless, traditions evolve and stay alive: women, specifically brides-to-be, make fashion statements by wearing garments gifted to them by their husbands to be; a sort of subtle flirtation as she walks everyday into the mountains. As told by Hajja Rabia’a.
Embroidered photograph by Fatma Om Gawaher from AlTarfa village.
Hoda
Hoda (23) from St. Catherine city stands on the edge of a hill looking over Gharba Valley. April 2019.
Walks over the mountains
Zeinab (27) walks back to AlTarfa village with Salema (42), Aysha (41) and Amal (45) after a day’s walk across the mountains to feed the village herd and collect medicinal herbs for the community. Medicinal herbs have become more important this year to increase the immune system against Covid due to the lack of medicine and medical aid for the Bedouin community. AlTarfa, St. Catherine, South Sinai, Egypt. April 2021.
Moussa on an Almond tree
Moussa’s pet dog Spongy leaps to save him while Moussa (25) picks up almonds from the top of a tree. February 2021.
Mohammed
Mohamed stands in Gharba Valley as he adjusts his Kuffieya. I’ve known Mohamed since he was 8 years old. His drawings are in the end leaf of the book. Mohamed died in a car crash in November 2023, he was 16 years old.
Poetry translation:
We are the Arabs the genuine Bedou’
We carry loyalty and kindness at heart
We walk with all kinds with no hate
We protect our guests and welcome them
No color but all color equally
Equals without calculations We shake hands to form bonds
Our hearts have no doubt but agony
Poetry created and written by Seliman Abu Anas
Sisterhood
Every day, the women of AlTarfa village walk in a group of four from sunrise to sunset leading the herd of sheep and goats as they feed on the wild plants of the surrounding mountains. As the herd feeds, the women talk, share concerns, ask for advice and learn from one another. A sisterhood that is formed through mutual support and unity. From left to right: Nora, Nadia and Mariam stand on the edge of a mountain looking over their village AlTarfa, St. Catherine, South Sinai, Egypt. February 2021.