The meeting started with the song “I heard you’re living this city/You’re heading for another city”, from the celebrated artist, Mr. Zahir Hoveyda, which the young singer and performer Homayoon Honar sang with his accompanying accordion.
The moderator then opened the meeting wit the following introductory remarks: Under the present circumstances of life in Afghanistan, showing interest in culture and literature may seem superfluous, but the truth is different.
We are living in a country with origins as grand as the great Rumi, the great Hafiz, the great Sanai and others. It is evident to all that the history of Persian literature is a history of friendship, love, affection and hatred of war. The medicine for our pain today, and that of the kid in Helmand with packets of chewing gum in his hand, who may be killed in a suicide attack, or may be hit by bullets, mortars and rockets, is to grab at that rich culture. It has everything in it that some people are now trying to export to Afghanistan in the name of human rights and democracy and the like. These are things we had in our past. This is not just a claim. With a glance at the Mathnawi of Rumi, we will see that the same thing that is heading into our country in the name of human rights did exist in our land before. It is only due to our idleness and lack of dedication and attention that our country has reached where it is today.
In short, the answer of Armanshahr and all the like-minded to the present problems of Afghanistan is culture. If we were to focus on our culture, we would never engage in war, we would never engage in killing, massacre, looting. Indeed, we have to concentrate on culture to save us from the present conditions.
The meeting was due to be addressed by the masgter of Afghanistan’s music, Ostad Mahvash, but due to her ailment, her speech was read out by Mr. Javid Farhad.
Ms. Mahvash expressed concern with the present state of music in Afghanistan and described music a branch of art, which takes shape in bond with the emotions of humans and their internal feelings, leaving a remarkable impact on the mind.
She stated: “Failure to pay attention to basics of music, recording and broadcasting low quality songs and scores of other problems have forced many lovers of music away from it. Vulgar choice of lyrics and voices and failure to note the value of oral or folklore music are other problems. Although I value the efforts of young musicians, absence of musical training facilities and centres for their activities are causes of concern. Arts can only be promoted through support and education.
“There are several factors behind vulgarity in Afghanistan’s music. One of them is lack of supervisory bodies to evaluate and put in order music and the related artistic activities. Broadcasting and distribution of vulgar songs and clips by the media and lack of attention to their technical evaluation have given a visual aspect to songs. These days music is seen rather than heard.
“Although there are a large number of people interested in engaging in the fied of music, most of those activities are not systematic. Lack of coherence between lyrics and the song’s structure, wrong recitation of the lyrics etc are problems our national music is facing. I must emphasise that our classical music has been forgotten and marginalised. There is hardly any motive to learn the classical music. Most of our newly emerging artists deem it necessary. However, the great masters of music believe learning classical music is the first milestone for beginning activities on the musical scene.”
Master Mahvash offered the following suggestions to rectify the situation:
1. Paying attention to technical methods and complying with basics of music;
2. Organising trend-setting activities to help with development and growtgh of music;
3. Giving high priority to participation of women and arranging for their education in a music school;
4. Recovering the capacities of oral music and paying attention to the basics of traditional music.
In conclusion, Master Mahvash asked government officials and in particular officials of the Ministry of Information and Culture to undertake comprehensive efforts to promote music in Afghanistan.
The next speaker, Eng. Sadid, head of the Music Section of the Ministry of Information and Culture, called for a return to the traditional music as a necessity for the state of music in Afghanistan today. He said: “I feel pain to see private television channels broadcast songs with no sign of art in them; they try to distract the people by concentrating on the appearances. They register their clips in other countries such as Tajikistan, Uzbekistan etc and they even use obscene scenes and call their works art… There are other numerous problems facing music.”
In the second part of the meeting a documentary film “The Storm Bird” by Mr. Tariq Marzban was shown on the life of Mr. Zahir Howaida, known as the golden-throat singer, who is living abroad.
Tariq Marzban, born in 1959 in Kabul, is a graduate of German Languiage Department of Literature Faculty of Kabul University. As a youth, he worked in the printed press as a graphic artist, designer, caricaturist and later became a filmmaker by cooperating in documentary and feature films. Having cooperated with the Deustche Welle for four years, he has written film scripts and made the feature films The Crossing and La Fine del Mare.
It was the first public screening The Storm Bird in Afghanistan, but it had been screened previously at festivals in Belgrade, Serbia (2007), Sheffield, UK (2008) and Wroclaw, Poland (2009).
Zahid Howaida, the celebrated singer of Afghanistan, is a middle-aged desolate man who could well represent our cultured generation in the diaspora in the West. The despair noted in the voice and face of Mr. Howaida has impregnated his words and sentences. A man who devoted many years of his life to music is now singing bitterly in loneliness. He passes over a strange sadness to the audience in the following lyric:
Sky, your colour blue
Sky, the sea full of blue
or
Sky, I am in love with your moon
I’m one of your stars
On the other hand, his voice has grown much more gloomy in:
What did you see,
What did you hear,
That made you run away from me?
As if I wasn’t your darling
As if I wasn’t in love with you.
Why did you leave and put on airs,
Why did you set on separation?
It sounds as though the pain of lonely life in migration has mixed with this love song.
The Storm Bird is one of the few documentaries made in Afghanistan about its cultural activists, in particular the ones who are still working. It is a worthy work that can keep our celebrities alive for the posterity.
Invitation
