Culture

Moroccan Gnawa festival

A Sufi tradition on the world stage

A festival in Morocco is bringing Gnawa music to the mainstream. Shaped by migration, slavery and a long struggle for recognition, the once marginalised Sufi tradition is now internationally renowned.
By Vanessa Barisch
"Carmen" on the Egyptian stage

Rewritten to fit the patriarchal script

A stage production of "Carmen", adapted from Prosper Mérimée's French novella, has captured the attention of audiences and critics in Cairo. While the French novella portrayed Carmen as a free-spirited rebel, the Egyptian adaptation tells a different story.
By Rehab Eliawa
"Dis-orienting the Maghreb" by Sadik Rddad

Plural identities in colonial Morocco

In his new book, Moroccan scholar Sadik Rddad revisits colonial-era British and American travel writing, challenging Edward Said's view of Orientalism and its flattening of Maghrebi identities.
By Amany Alsiefy
Al-Hafiz Tarjok's "Friday of Death"

A survivor's account of the Melilla massacre

In "Friday of Death", Sudanese activist al-Hafiz Tarjok recounts his survival of the deadly 2022 events at the Melilla border between Morocco and Spain. His book sheds light on the tragedy faced by thousands of Sudanese risking their lives to cross the desert in search of safety in Europe.
By Imad Stitou
Egyptian cinema

Three films on memory, loss and state violence

At this year's ALFILM Festival in Berlin, a unique trio of Egyptian films explored the impacts of trauma and authoritarian rule on everyday lives. A review of "Seeking Haven for Mr. Rambo", "Perfumed with Mint" and "Abo Zaabal 89".
By Schayan Riaz
Egyptian author Youssef Rakha

"The Cairo I've known is being eroded"

Youssef Rakha revisits Egypt's 2011 uprising and its aftermath in "The Dissenters", the author's first novel written in English. The Arab Spring failed, he argues in this interview, because it was a neoliberal movement with no compelling vision for the future.
By Tugrul Mende
"Live in the Khaleej!" by Boom.Diwan

A love letter to an ancient tradition

Boom.Diwan's album with Arturo O'Farrill fuses Kuwaiti pearl diving music with jazz, shedding light on the Gulf region's complex musical and social history.
By Richard Marcus
Cairo's Jewish Quarter

The neighbourhood that shaped a nation

In his new book, Egyptian author Ahmed Zakaria Zaki explores the 19th-century history of Cairo's Jewish Quarter, tracing the social transformations within the city's Jewish community and its reaction to the emergent Zionist movement.
By Mohamed Gamal
New anthology "Imprisoning a Revolution"

Egypt's political prisoners speak

A new anthology gathers the words, drawings and memories of Egyptian prisoners—some well-known, many anonymous—who document life inside the carceral state.
By Marcia Lynx Qualey
"Khartoum" filmmakers

"We have a responsibility to preserve Sudanese history"

"Khartoum" blends the work of four emerging Sudanese filmmakers. Its production was derailed by the outbreak of war in April 2023. Now displaced in Nairobi, directors Brahim Snoopy and Rawia Alhag explain why they were determined to finish the film.
By Schayan Riaz
Jan Dost on writing in Arabic and Kurdish

"Like being caught between two magnets"

"Safe Corridor" is Jan Dost's first novel translated into English. The prolific Syrian writer explores the hardening impact of war on children and discusses the key differences between writing in Kurdish and Arabic.
By Marcia Lynx Qualey
"Fighting the Flow" by Algerian author Saïd Khatibi

The weight of colonial memory

Saïd Khatibi's "Fighting the Flow" explores French colonialism's violent legacy in Algerian society after the War of Liberation. The novel poses the question: can individuals liberate themselves from their past?
By Amany Alsiefy