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One
often hears these days about
the clash of civilizations
and the culture gap between
east and west. What
often goes unappreciated is
the vast distance certain
countries have had to
traverse in order to adapt
to modern times and the
emotional ties which have
been ignored in the frantic
pace which they have had to
maintain to keep up with the
rest of the world. One
also fails to recognize the
great loss which accompanies
this leap into cyberspace
and how many traditions,
human values, and close ties
to community and family are
lost in the process.
Ahmed
Abodehman in his remarkable
mini book The Belt
has woven a poetic elegy to
the ancient traditions and
legends of a small village
in Saudi Arabia.
Through the adventures of
his early years he describes
his village’s struggle to
maintain ties to the past
against the inevitable
forces of
modernization—forces of
modernization as elemental
as wearing shoes and
underwear or going to
school.
In
recounting his own
childhood, the author
brilliantly portrays the
sanctity of village customs
where the village elder
believes illness is a
lie—a mere excuse for
shirking work, and proclaims
proudly that he has never
put a piece of leather
between his feet and the
ground; where a man without
a beard was by definition a
liar; where the village
women forage for dry wood at
night, returning home at
dawn only to tend the
fields, the children and the
animals; and where every
village activity had its
special song.
Abodehman
brings the reader in as a
live witness to traditional
ceremonies such as the rite
of circumcision—the
transition into manhood of
15-year-old village boys, an
event that involves the
whole village. The
reader watches as the crowd
parts with the arrival of
the renowned circumcision
master and feels the pride
and bravery of the
15-year-old boys who never
flinch as the surgery is
performed. He also
describes a village where
marriage is a duty, not a
personal gratification as
“some rich people do”
and subtly portrays a father
who wants his son to have a
better life. He
describes the three lessons
of the cat taught to him by
his mother: “eat all
your food, know you enemies
and hide you excrement”
and the three lessons of the
donkey: always drink your
fill but never guzzle, carry
your load, and know the way.
One
watches as the villagers
broaden their identity from
belonging only to the
village to slowly being part
of the country as shown with
the advent of a school where
the country’s flag is now
flown instead of the tribal
one. And one sees the
dropping of some of the
tribal traditions and many
other changes with the
coming of the school.
The
interplay of ancient legends
determining village behavior
combined with modern day
incursions makes for
fascinating reading when one
realizes how fast the
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has
been brought into the 21st
century as seen through the
eyes of a simple village boy
who came of age as his
country was metamorphosing
into modern times. It
is clear, however, that the
legends of the past, and the
love for his village remain
a vivid part of the author,
although he is now married
to a French wife and resides
in Paris. The poetic
simplicity of his words
conveys the depth of his
feelings.
The
Belt is a simple book
that tells a simple story.
Yet its message is
touchingly profound as we
see the dilemma of the
struggle of one small
village to maintain its
identity through traditions
which have little place in a
modern world. The
reader can only be amazed at
the rapidity with which this
change has taken place, as
it was only 54 years ago
that Abodehman was born.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Isabel
Cutler is an
internationally renowned
photographer who has lived
and traveled extensively
throughout the Middle East
and lived as part of the
U.S. diplomatic community of
Saudi Arabia. Her work has
appeared in Architectural
Digest, Vanity Fair, Newsweek,
The New
York Times, The
Washington Post, and The
London Times. Her work
has also been featured in
exhibitions in the Middle
East, Northern Africa, and
the United States. Cutler's
photographs are displayed in
embassies around the world,
and in many private
collections.
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