Armanshahr Foundation in collaboration with the French Institute of Afghanistan is pleased to invite you to its 72nd (year V) public debate GOFTEGU
Re-reading 60 years of contemporary history: from the decade of democracy till today
Speakers: SakhiMonir(Director of national archives), Dr. SahebnazarMoradi (Researcher in history), AbdolsaberJunbesh (Director of the department of history of the Academy of sciences), Ali Amiri (academic). Moderator: AzizallahSherzad, Discussant: AbdulshahidSagheb
Date etHoraire/Date & Time:jeudi-Thursday 14 /04/ 2011, 14:00 H
Lieu/Venue:Institut français d’Afghanistan (Lycée)/French Institute of Afghanistan
Tel: 0779217755 & 0775321697
E-mail:armanshahrfoundation.openasia@gmail.com
Revisiting contemporary history
The 72nd Goftegu public debate – a bridge between the elite and the citizens – of Armanshahr Foundation with the title of “Re-reading 60 years of contemporary history: from the decade of democracy till today” was held on 14th of April 2011 in cooperation with the French Institute Afghanistan at the Institute’s premises.
The topic of discussion was chosen to mark the conclusion of a working term of the workshop on revisiting the contemporary history of Afghanistan. The speakers included Mr. Sakhi Monir, director of the National Archives, Dr. Sahebnazar Moradi, researcher of history, and Mr. Ali Amiri, professor at Ibn Sina University. Mr. Seyyed Jawad Darwazian was the principal questioner of the meeting. More than 90 people, most of them students, members of the civil society of Afghanistan, women’s rights activists, MPs and journalists, participated at the meeting.
The moderator was Mr. Azizollah Shirzad who opened the meeting with the following words: We are living in a land in many districts of which, it is a crime to speak, teach, have a pen and engage in criticism. Armanshahr Foundation has so far organised 72 Goftegu public meetings intended to establish a healthy humane environment. Besides it has published more than 49,000 copies of books and booklets to promote reading and has supplied them to enthusiasts and the students in particular for free.
We have been holding a workshop on “revisiting the contemporary history Afghanistan” for the past 10 months with students and other young people every week. The second part of our programme was concerned with the chronology of events in Afghanistan since the decade of democracy to this date, i.e. since the decade of the reign of Zahir Shah to the end of the first decade of the 21st century. Unfortunately, the number of books and booklets that have been written on chronology of events in Afghanistan are fewer than the fingers of a hand. Most of them are full of mistakes. We have been facing many challenges and problems, for example:
• Most government departments, e. g. The History Department of the Academy of sciences has not helped us, despite our frequent contacts. They still believe an event can be considered historical event if it is 50 years old.
• There is no coordination among the historians. That is the reason why most books written on the history of Afghanistan lack credibility and are devoid of new approaches to historiography.
• We have hardly come across any writer who has examined historical events impartially. History is significant when it provides lessons to the future generations. Unfortunately, our historians have sufficed to narrating events and stating their own personal views without offering strong reasoning for their claims.
• It is very difficult for enthusiastic young people to gain access to governmental archives which have original documents.
To sum up, historiography has not reached the stage of maturity in Afghanistan. There are however good opportunities available to our scholars and we hope they will not repeat the mistakes of our predecessors.
Mr. Sakhi Monir said: it is to be noted that the National Archives, in particular the National archive of Afghanistan, are the home of the whole nation. There are 180,000 documents and 8000 historical records in the National Archives.
We have noted during the past 60 years of historiography that modernism and modernity have been in conflict with tranditional culture. Our educated intellectuals were unable to combine the culture of modernity with the traditional culture. In the past 60 years, colonialism came to an end in Latin America and Africa, but in Afghanistan censorship ruled and pages of history books were torn off. The constitutional monarchy, the Constitution, the assuming of power by a leftist government, the arrival of the former USSR in Afghanistan and the emergence of their resistance and Jihad movement were topics of discussion.
Mr. Sahebnazar Moradi said: it is very important for our young generation and intellectuals to have knowledge of at least the past 100 years of history of their land. The contemporary history of Afghanistan, as written in the past six decades, is a history of atrocities, secrecy, fraud etc. Throughout this history, one finds out about the mistreatment of this nation by kings and rulers and the same problems and inequalities are still in place today. Generally speaking, the history of the past 60 years has been a history of destruction in our country. There are very few people in Afghanistan who recognise the methodology of history and follow it.
Mr. Amiri said: I want to ask Armanshahr Foundation why 60 years? Historiography in Afghanistan is linked to Afghanistan dating back to 1747.
I shall concentrate mainly on the writing of history in Afghanistan. The first history of Afghanistan, known as the Ahmad Shah’s history, was written by Mahmoud Hosseini. This means that writing history began from the outset of the establishment of government in Afghanistan. There are lies, falsification, distortion and other deficiencies in our history. However, we can notice those issues in history of all other lands. We may however say that this story has never hidden the truth. There were many people who tried to refute history, but they did not succeed. It is also incorrect to say that history has always been written by the powerful. To examine historiography in Afghanistan, we may classify the Afghan historiography into three categories.
First, the nationalist historiography came to become dominant in the middle of the 20th century. This category of historiography fills the gaps in history. The history book written by Ghobar starts at 5000 years ago, but Afghanistan is not older than a century. There are lots of gaps in his history book: ‘Afghanistan in the course of history.’ In this category of historiography, the important thing is ideology on the basis of which history is written. Proponents of this type of historiography are: Mir Gholam Mohammad Ghobar, Ahmad Ali Kahzad and Hassan Kakker.
The second category is the realist historiography. The first historian of this type was Beyhaqi. Feyz Mohammad Kateb, the renowned historian, closely followed Beyhaqi’s method of work. The realist historiography does not cover the gaps. Nothing remains hidden from the historian’s eyes.
The third category stands somewhere in the middle of the two. It takes its cue from the past and the traditions. Abdulhay Habibi and Sadiq Farhang were proponents of this category of historiography.
Mr. Seyyed Jawad Darwaziyan asked the following questions:
• Why have we not been able to write the contemporary of history of Afghanistan in the past 60 years based on a rational foundation?
• Why have we not been able to contemplate our history and the basis of the social, political and cultural foundations of our land?
• Why has a collective memory not been created for us and we are still on the same route as before. Why is there no discussion of revisiting history in Afghanistan, re-examining it?
• Mr. Moradi, why did the history circles fail to do their work jointly?
• Mr. Monir, what do you mean by national history? Is it the history written by the government and governmental researchers? Or is it history based on the realities of society?
• Why are the governmental archives still in disarray?
The speakers took turns to answer the questions.
Mr. Amiri: The crisis of historiography is not confined to Afghanistan; it is a problem of all the peripheral societies. As I said before, historiography in Afghanistan stands somewhere between the modernity and tradition. Therefore, historiography is in crisis not only in Afghanistan, but everywhere and even the entire Islamic world. We have not been able to write history from a fully secular point. This is a crisis and it arises from the confrontation of two civilisations and cultures. One civilisation and culture is trying to impose its criteria on the second civilisation. Why did we not develop and historical memory? This is a very important question.
After World War II, a very famous German philosopher, Karl Jaspers, wrote a very interesting article with the title of “Die Schuldfrage.” At the time, the Germans began to consider why Nazism managed to emerge from their history and culture. Unfortunately, in peripheral societies including Afghanistan, we do not have a trandition of self-criticism. Nationalist historiography has made the emergence of historical reason impossible. It is evident that we shall lack historical memory so long as we have not practiced self-criticism.
Mr. Moradi: Up to now, we have always argued that it was the task of governments to manage culture, to manage proper economic planning, and display that the government is not only a ruling oppressive institution, but an institution to provide services. Our governments in the past were nothing of the sort. They only ruled the nation oppressively.
Mr. Monir: The official history is the history that the governments or its agents write. A national history of Afghanistan must contain various elements. The first is documentation. I ask all historians to come to the National Archives where I shall provide them with the documents to use. The second is methodology of history. If the two come together, we shall have a national history.
The National archives have a short life span. That is why there is some kind of disorganisation. We are trying to have The National Archives Law reviewed, collect documents, films and other papers from all ministries and to set up the nationwide National Archives.
Invitation to 72nd Goftegu public debate: Re-reading 60 years of contemporary history: from the decade of democracy until today
