Music and the Play of Power in the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia

Laudan Nooshin, Laudan Nooshin

• Editorial: Routledge
• Año: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781317092285
• Edición: 1
• Categoría: Mezzi di comunicazione e arti performative
• Categoría: Musica

What is it about the history, geographical position and cultures of the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia that has made music such a potent and powerful agent? This volume presents the first direct look at the complex relationship between music and power across a range of musical genres and countries. Discourses of power in the region centre on some of the most contested social issues, most notably in relation to nationhood, gender and religion. Individual chapters examine the ways in which music serves as a forum for playing out issues of power, ideology, resistance and subversion. How does music become a space for promoting - or conversely, resisting or subverting - particular ideologies or positions of authority? How does it accrue symbolic power in ways that are very particular, perhaps unique? And how does music become a site of social control or, alternatively, a vehicle for agency and empowerment, at times overt and at others highly subtle? What is it about music that facilitates, and sometimes disrupts, the exercise and flows of power? Who controls such flows, how and for what purposes? In asking such questions in the context of countries such as Afghanistan, Egypt, Iran, Tunisia and Tajikistan, the book draws on a wide range of relevant theoretical and critical ideas, and many disciplines including ethnomusicology, anthropology, sociology, politics, Middle Eastern studies, globalization studies, gender studies and cultural and media studies. The countries and areas explored share a great deal in historical and cultural terms, including a legacy of colonial and neo-colonial encounters and predominantly Judeo-Muslim religious traditions. It is hoped that the volume will contribute ultimately to a richer understanding of the role that music plays in these societies.

Chapter 1
‘The Artist of the People in the Battle’: Umm Kulthūm’s Concerts for Egypt in Political Context

Laura Lohman

Introduction

Following Egypt’s rapid defeat by Israel in the war of June 1967, the veteran Egyptian singer Umm Kulthūm launched an unprecedented fundraising campaign that contributed the equivalent of $2 million to the rebuilding of the armed forces and countered the psychological damage inflicted by the war.1 Starting with fundraising activities and concerts in Egypt, Umm Kulthūm quickly took her concert campaign abroad. Because of Egypt’s earlier attainment of a dominant regional position in the recording, radio and film industries and the wide distribution of Egyptian cultural products throughout the Middle East and North Africa, she had acquired a huge following outside Egypt and was, as a result, able to offer a series of highly successful international concerts that generated additional funds for the war effort.

Umm Kulthūm had long supported the Egyptian government following the 1952 revolution. She had recorded a series of patriotic anthems commemorating political and military events, one of which was adopted as the national anthem. Her concerts on the anniversaries of the revolution were attended by leading figures in the government. Nevertheless, her post-war campaign was unprecedented in both substance and scope. After her first fundraising concerts in Egypt, many organisations and prominent individuals outside Egypt invited her to sing abroad. In turn, the Egyptian government recognised and aided her efforts by conferring upon her a state award and giving her a diplomatic passport. ‘The Artist of the People in the Battle’, as she was soon dubbed, was forced to make fundamental decisions about how to present herself as she sought to engage in and unite artistic and political endeavours after the war. By tracing changes in Umm Kulthūm’s public presentation of self and the Egyptian mass media’s portrayal of her campaign through its domestic and international phases, this chapter explains why her campaign was so effective as a response to the war. It demonstrates precisely how Umm Kulthūm and the Egyptian media offered an empowering mechanism for individual Egyptians to respond to the psychological impact of the defeat both by creating opportunities for active involvement and by presenting a vital picture of broad, unified Arab support for Egypt. It explains why her campaign was so sustainable emotionally and financially, both as an international undertaking and in relation to the agendas of the Egyptian regime.

Initial Responses

Umm Kulthūm’s public responses to the outcome of the war during June and July 1967 and their portrayal by the Egyptian media provided a rich context that shaped the efficacy and meaning of the fundraising concerts that began in August. Her initial public responses quickly distinguished her from other artists. One of her most lauded acts was the donation of £20,000 obtained from Kuwait in exchange for her performances and recordings.2 In the midst of widespread discussion of the need to obtain hard foreign currency to replace lost canal and tourism revenues, this large and prompt donation, made just over a week after the shocking revelations of the war, distinguished Umm Kulthūm from other celebrities and prompted journalists to place her at the top of the ‘honour roll’ of stars who had made and collected donations for the war effort.3 The ‘impressive and unrivalled example’ set by Umm Kulthūm left other artists open to chastisement by the press for their meagre donations of £E20 (equivalent to $46)4 and the intensity and diversity of her continued activities further distinguished her from other celebrity artists. Journalists described the severe disruption of her notoriously regular schedule, calling her a ‘dynamo’ and likening her to ‘a train running on more than one track’.5 In July, she not only worked on new patriotic repertoire but also devoted herself to numerous non-musical projects.

Two of Umm Kulthūm’s non-musical efforts during this month were particularly important for contextualising her subsequent fundraising concerts. Firstly, she broadcast public appeals using propagandist slogans. By early August, listeners accustomed to hearing one of her songs on the daily radio programme With Umm Kulthūm would instead hear her say, ‘In America they say “Pay a dollar and we kill an Arab for you.” We say, “Pay a piaster and we defend an Arab for you. For we are not bloodshedders, but we protect freedom and peace”.’6 Her messages reached an even wider audience as newspapers and magazines reproduced these slogans.7 These messages distinguished Umm Kulthūm from her colleagues and, like her earlier donation of £20,000, were historically unprecedented. Whilst singers had long produced nationalistic songs as a means of rousing and channelling patriotic sentiment, none had ever stepped so far beyond the bounds of art to make verbal appeals in order to accomplish these goals. Particularly as described in the press, her decisions and initiative in broadcasting these appeals conveyed a sense of sincere personal commitment to the war effort.

Second, Umm Kulthūm utilised the existing infrastructure of women’s organisations to mobilise public activism, focused on a small number of key issues. In early July, she convened a National Assembly of Egyptian Women (NAEW) comprised of representatives from numerous women’s organisations and which, at its first meeting, identified four crucial agendas for responding to the war: thrift, hospital work, communication and the collection of donations.8 During the remainder of July, she contributed conspicuously to the latter two by presenting donations collected by the NAEW and participating in its international mailing campaign.9 Her efforts on both fronts appeared to culminate less than one week before she was scheduled to give her first fundraising concert.10 Under a headline announcing her collection of a second 16kg in donations of gold, the most widely circulated Egyptian newspaper detailed the NAEW’s current propaganda project and her participation in it. Reproducing English and Arabic versions of a letter espousing the Arab perspective on Palestine, the article encouraged readers to request copies to distribute internationally in a massive mailing campaign and specifically cited the example set through Umm Kulthūm’s production of 2,000 copies.11 Previously criticised for distracting people from active involvement in current issues, Umm Kulthūm’s convening of the NAEW created a means by which citizens could co-ordinate their efforts and address pressing economic, social and political needs (Danielson 1997:185).

Concerts in the Governorates

Two months after the conclusion of the war, Umm Kulthūm’s fundraising concerts were set to begin in Egypt. In August 1967, she performed in the marākiz (administrative centres) of two governorates: Damanhūr and Alexandria. After beginning the international phase of her concert campaign in November, she continued the series of governorate concerts in al-Mansūrah in early February 1968. In each case, ticket proceeds were designated for the war effort. As Umm Kulthūm also constructed the concerts as occasions for the contribution of additional donations, both adults and children donated money, jewellery and gold, ranging from small trinkets to gold ingots. At the same time that these concerts raised funds for the war effort, they also constituted an empowering mechanism for popular responses to the war. The rapid defeat that followed misleading public assurances of military strength and readiness had precipitated a deep and widespread psychological crisis.12 The concerts provided a cathartic outlet for public express...

Índice

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• List of Music Examples
• Notes on Contributors
• Acknowledgements
• Prelude: Power and the Play of Music
• 1 ‘The Artist of the People in the Battle’: Umm Kulthūm’s Concerts for Egypt in Political Context
• 2 ‘Abd al-Halim’s Microphone
• 3 Mediated Qur’anic Recitation and the Contestation of Islam in Contemporary Egypt
• 4 Music, Politics and Nation Building in Post-Soviet Tajikistan
• 5 Music and Censorship in Afghanistan, 1973–2003
• 6 National Traditions and Illegal Religious Activities amongst the Uyghurs
• 7 Jews, Women and the Power to be Heard: Charting the Early Tunisian Ughniyya to the Present Day
• 8 Music and Politics in North Africa
• 9 Singing against Silence: Celebrating Women and Music at the Fourth Jasmine Festival
• 10 ‘Tomorrow is Ours’: Re-imagining Nation, Performing Youth in the New Iranian Pop Music
• 11 The Power of Silent Voices: Women in the Syrian Jewish Musical Tradition
• Bibliography
• Discography
• Index