The deeply personal, yet public projects you see on here are the outcome of the workshop facilitated by Farah Wael Hallaba "Collaborative Anthropology Workshop; Family & Life History, class identity and Liminality" in which participants got introduced to the world of social anthropology and learnt how they can use its methodologies to look into their own family and life histories and write auto-ethnographies with the help of the inspiring, experienced and extremely helpful guest speakers who took part in some of the sessions; Lucie Ryzova, Joao Pina Cabral, Shahd Al Rawi, Samar Dwidar, and Noha Fikry.
The main theme throughout the 2-months duration of the workshop was the Egyptian middle class culture in family context but with such a rich and insightful topic, the discussions, naturally, branched out into a multitude of other topics that touched on both the contrasting and common aspects of our shared life in Egypt.
This website is meant to be live and ongoing, this collaborative workshop probing into the Egyptian middle class families will continuously be organised and its outcomes will be added to the site.
But we also welcome and invite you to be part of this project that attempts to contribute to decolonizing knowledge in Egypt, where we can provide bottom up anthropological/socio-historical knowledge about our experiences. You can be part of the workshops, or you can send us family pictures to keep it archived and alive, or send us blogs to "Sofra, Yummy" and share with us stories about dishes or meals that are part of your middle class family experience. This blog could be visual or written.
The deeply personal, yet public projects you see on here are the outcome of the workshop facilitated by Farah Wael Hallaba "Collaborative Anthropology Workshop; Family & Life History, class identity and Liminality" in which participants got introduced to the world of social anthropology and learnt how they can use its methodologies to look into their own family and life histories and write auto-ethnographies with the help of the inspiring, experienced and extremely helpful guest speakers who took part in some of the sessions; Lucie Ryzova, Joao Pina Cabral, Shahd Al Rawi, Samar Dwidar, and Noha Fikry.
The main theme throughout the 2-months duration of the workshop was the Egyptian middle class culture in family context but with such a rich and insightful topic, the discussions, naturally, branched out into a multitude of other topics that touched on both the contrasting and common aspects of our shared life in Egypt.
This website is meant to be live and ongoing, this collaborative workshop probing into the Egyptian middle class families will continuously be organised and its outcomes will be added to the site.
But we also welcome and invite you to be part of this project that attempts to contribute to decolonizing knowledge in Egypt, where we can provide bottom up anthropological/socio-historical knowledge about our experiences. You can be part of the workshops, or you can send us family pictures to keep it archived and alive, or send us blogs to "Sofra, Yummy" and share with us stories about dishes or meals that are part of your middle class family experience. This blog could be visual or written.
The deeply personal, yet public projects you see on here are the outcome of the workshop facilitated by Farah Wael Hallaba "Collaborative Anthropology Workshop; Family & Life History, class identity and Liminality" in which participants got introduced to the world of social anthropology and learnt how they can use its methodologies to look into their own family and life histories and write auto-ethnographies with the help of the inspiring, experienced and extremely helpful guest speakers who took part in some of the sessions; Lucie Ryzova, Joao Pina Cabral, Shahd Al Rawi, Samar Dwidar, and Noha Fikry.
The main theme throughout the 2-months duration of the workshop was the Egyptian middle class culture in family context but with such a rich and insightful topic, the discussions, naturally, branched out into a multitude of other topics that touched on both the contrasting and common aspects of our shared life in Egypt.
This website is meant to be live and ongoing, this collaborative workshop probing into the Egyptian middle class families will continuously be organised and its outcomes will be added to the site.
But we also welcome and invite you to be part of this project that attempts to contribute to decolonizing knowledge in Egypt, where we can provide bottom up anthropological/socio-historical knowledge about our experiences. You can be part of the workshops, or you can send us family pictures to keep it archived and alive, or send us blogs to "Sofra, Yummy" and share with us stories about dishes or meals that are part of your middle class family experience. This blog could be visual or written.
مش ممكن تخيل الموظف القاهري من غير بدلة صيفي وبطيخة، هي الأكلة المليئة بالذكريات العائلية. وزي ما الجبنة والبطيخ هي الأكلة المناسبة بعد يوم حر. بقدم لكم (جبنة وبطيخ) العائلي والمنعش. فرصة اننا نشارك ذكرياتنا وأحلامنا وأسئلتنا، جايز حد يتسائل مين الدارس ومين المدروس. في اي تجمع الحكاوي دي دايمًا بتتحكي، لدرجة ان إخواتي كانوا بيكلموا الكلام. مبسوط إني جمعتها وبشاركها. نن
ممكن تقروا ب اي ترتيب. ت
is My own Visual Documentation for Being raised in Different Social Classes. Through this project, I’m trying to narrate different Memories of spaces, Identities, and Thoughts that shaped me. I tried to used Visuals to Fictionalize the Memories that I was never part of, but somehow, they’re still part of me. Even if I don’t care about Identifying my self Now as part of any social Classes, I’d still Love to Question the system that we’re all part of.
Between Now and then
To the World, or maybe to my false-self,
Isn’t it Beautiful, to experience life from more than one point of View? Not just in one Structured Body/Mind? I had a long time asking myself, why couldn’t we just normalize passing through different phases of shaping our Identity? Why isn’t it easy for me to be the person I want today, and just being another person the next day? Why isn’t it easy to accept Liminality as a transitional phase of Knowing the self? So, through this project I tried to take break from asking myself (Why/How/am …. I belong?) and Just Try to Story-tell Memories….
I’m a cactus Flower
Between the Nile and the desert, Father will pick the Nile, but when it came to me, I’d always see myself Walking into the Desert, it’s part of my Identity. It’s where I’ve grown up and shaped, and it’s where I saw how men are empowered, and how my father was soft, the same way the Nile was.
My Father Born In 1953, Nasr El-Noba, Aswan. He’s born in the old Nubian Village (Kalabsha), at the age of 10, he experienced the Nubian Displacement that happened after the construction of the High Dam.
After the Military Service, he moved to Aswan (The Governate) to start his Career in the meteorology field.
In his 67th Birthday, we went through a conversation about Childhood Memories, the Place where he raised and wished to live…
I still remember the picture that my father described when he left his old Nubian Village. He said "The Ship was waiting us, and it was filled with many people so you could barely find a space to move your shoulder. The time we’re leaving I found my dog was looking at us from the Island, he was sad that we couldn’t take him with us. But How could we take him! There was no enough space for people to tolerate each other, he would have never been welcomed to share the space"
I Left the house when I was 17, and since then I’ve been moving between countries and cities. I’ve never crystalized the memory of leaving home , but I did when it came to the one my father shared with me. I still thinking about the reason behind it, but maybe because it was important for me to leave and see the world, but it wasn’t important for him.
Abdulnaser’s speech about the Nubian Displacement, and how that will reduce the isolation of my people, but it never happened.
It just reminded us of how we lived in a place that never meant to be ours.
Is This Me?
Mama’s Voice is always inside my head. Not taking her words as a belief, and still holding her words as a reminder of where I came from, is a double whammy..
الإغتراب
عن التنشأة فى مكان لا يسعنا سوا التسليم بوحدانيته. كنت أرفض هذة الفكرة, فكرة التسليم المطلق, بأننا أشجار, مربوطين ومرسّخين بشئ واحد ورابطة واحدة.
لماذا نسلّم؟ّ!!
كنت أرى بأن ما يحمله والدى هو ذكرة لشئ أكبر من كونه مجرد تسليم بقدسيّة الأماكن. كنت أهرب من كونى جزء من سياق مكان لا أنتمى له, رغم أنى أحمل كل ذكرة ساهمت فى وجود هذا الترسيخ.
يشغلنى كثيرا فهم ما انا عليه, فهم هذه الرابطة القوية التى تجمعنا كأفراد, والتى بدورها ساهمت فى بناء وحدة مألفة من الذكريات. ولكنّى أصبحت تائهة وسط جميع التعريفات, لأنى أرفضها وأمقتها.
وأصبحت أخيرا أسلّم, بأننى لست جزء من هذا كله, ربما أنا شئ عابر, شئ يغمره الإغتراب
