Dr Laila Abdel Aal Alghalban
Imagine Egypt without the Nile! On the banks of the mighty Nile, humanity has made its most phenomenal and miraculous achievements. Since the dawn of history, the eternal waters of the river have fuelled the wild imagination of successive generations, lit a massive and glorious torch in the darkness of the world, and unleashed creativity beyond boundaries. One would wonder about ancient Egyptians; were they genies or aliens?! There, humanity learned writing, engineering, medicine, astronomy, military sciences, agriculture, animal domestication, arts, clothing, cooking as well as connecting to the skies to realise the oneness of the Creator. Carrying silt and sediments, the flooding of the Nile was the first stage of a new life cycle every year in ancient Egypt. The growing season started soon after water recession, utilising a highly sophisticated irrigation system. Then came the harvesting season; crops gave the highest yield and the sweetest taste.
Fading memories
The Egyptians annually celebrate the Nile Flooding Days from mid-August till the end of the month. Unfortunately, celebrations nowadays are confined to some articles and a bunch of shows on TV, where guests give brief historical account of the event, shedding light on how celebrations were in the past and the myths surrounding them. With the Nile no longer flooding the Valley and the Delta after the construction of the High Dam, images of the event and the accompanied precautions taken at the time remain only in the memories of the old generations. Personally, I knew about them from my father. Unfortunately, I browsed the internet to see images of the flooding, but I found only few. Nowadays, there are few sporadic celebrations that remind us of the occasion.
Through people’s eyes
I think that this is not enough as long as citizens, who are supposedly the frontline defenders of the river, are not involved in the celebrations. The role of the people would become so focal to gear a genuine change in attitudes and policies of conserving the glorious Nile. A few years ago, I read about the call of The UK Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) to people nationwide for entries to a “national nature diary” describing (in no more than 150 words) the advent of spring and what that means to them. The project aimed at raising awareness among common people of the importance of connecting to nature and documenting seasonal changes. It was also a massive shift in nature writing history and a call for increasing bottom-up awareness of the necessity for nurturing folk science, literature and culture of nature respect. I think that replicating the project and asking people living near the river, its branches or major canals to write about the Nile on that day, describing what they see and how they feel, would make them more connected to the Nile. Prominent contributions would be complied in an electronic archive documenting people’s annual celebrations of the Nile Flooding Days nationwide. A national Nile diary would boost new nature writing and breathe new life in how the Egyptians celebrate the occasion.
The Nile is seen as text that calls for readers and writers. Observing the Nile could be at parks, small gardens, even looking from balconies and windows or while commuting to work. The most important thing is to connect to the Nile. Just get out of our houses, where we are voluntarily imprisoned. Reading nature would grant our senses a restart. Folk writing on the Nile would unleash people’s creativity and challenge the deep-rooted assumptions about our relationship with the Nile. Through deep listening to the inner voice of the Nile, writing can teach mindfulness and instill the habit of exercising outdoors by the Nile.
Changing attitudes matters
Studies show that humans are more inclined to ignore the future threats. Rather, they respond to the imminent ones. Amid the unprecedented threats to the Nile, including the unscrupulous urbanisation, inefficient drainage systems and dam-construction mania, guarding the river by having all eyes set on it becomes mandatory. Thus, citizen Nile writing (a crowd-sourced Nile diary) can help put the problem of Nile protection at the centre of the collective attention. The fact that anyone can contribute to the entry would show diversity of lived experience and a broad spectrum of picturesque documentation of how the Nile is in so many locations, some of which no one has ever written about.
Definitely, our personal experiences, knowledge and values shape our relationship with the Nile and how we talk about it. When we change our attitudes towards our surroundings, we change our practices, and ultimately our lives. We are more inclined to link to other people’s personal anecdotes than to scientific facts. This is why nature literature is booming, though people would experience connection to nature second hand.
Nurturing Nile writing
Teaching Nile writing would be so pivotal. Students would go outdoors to describe the Nile and its vicinity in such forms as storytelling, field journaling, poetry, and campaigns. They can also be asked to imagine being trees, grass, flowers, animals living near the Nile and talk about how these creatures would see the world. The growing awareness the Nile diary can create would put pressures on housing planners and developers, and factories to find ways to protect the Nile. Consequently, a gradual change in peoples’ perspective would trigger a similar change of their practices towards the Nile.
Finally, let everyone document the scene on The Nile Flooding Days. Let’s see how every place looks like through the lens of its inhabitants. Even the practices that abuse the Nile and tarnish its beauty should be documented too. This can be the first step in combating the mess of our practices. Let us embrace a culture enhancing the beauty of nature and help our glorious Nile heal and joyfully flow in our blessed land.
By Dr Laila Abdel Aal Alghalban
Professor of Linguistics
Faculty of Arts
Kafr el-Sheikh University
Email: [email protected]
