Egypt 4th Aragouz festival: Heritage, economy, and resistance - Heritage special

Al-Ahram Weekly

a day ago

Egypt recently came alive with the fourth Aragouz Festival, which took place from July 1 to 8. The festival commenced at Cairo's Al-Sennari House and concluded in Alexandria.
The event explored themes such as Heritage Economy and Heritage is Resistance, featuring shadow puppets and Aragouz – an ancient form of Egyptian hand puppetry that was added to UNESCO's List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding in 2018.
The festival's second day featured many inspiring events. Nabil Bahgat, a theatre professor and the founder director of Wamda Shadow Puppets and Aragouz troupe, opened the day with a dedication to all children in Gaza, including the six-year-old Palestinian girl Hend Ragab, who was shot 355 bullets by the Israeli occupation while talking to the Red Crescent.
Bahgat lamented the tragic loss of Hend.
Bahgat also presented a summary of a paper by Mohamed Shabana, a Professor of Folk Music at the High Institute for Folk Arts, which focused on heritage music and resistance.
The day's discussions concluded with remarks from Mohamed Shahata, a heritage literature researcher, who highlighted Aragouz's historical role as a tool for social criticism and a means to narrate any catastrophe that people are subjected to.
He spotlighted the connection between heritage and resistance, citing popular Syra (Local Epics). He referred to the series Ali el Zeibaq, where the protagonist Ali resists injustice through "tricks, not swords," illustrating that "not all resistance was in the use of swords."
He also mentioned other folks' heroes like Seif ibn Zi Yazan, who expelled the Habasha (Ethiopia) invaders from Yemen, and Al Zaher Beibars, known for his great role in resisting the French troops in Mansoura.
He also recalled the Syra of Zat el Hemma, a Palestinian woman from the Abbasid era who played a significant role in resisting the Roman invasion of Arab lands.
Shahata noted that proverbs, songs, popular poems, and popular heritage were the solution when facing lots of wrong and injustice.
He added that when people found no one to defend them, they would "make up an imaginary hero that defies injustice."
'What is written in Syra books is not totally true, for the storyteller would add to the Syra from his imagination," he concluded.
The talks were followed by two performances by the WAMDA theatre troupe, one that is dedicated to promoting the heritage of Aragouz and Shadow puppets. The troupe, which has held a weekly show for over 15 years at Beit El Sehemi House.
The Shadow Puppet play, The Treacherous, Roaring Rooster, was written by Palestinian author Ghanam Ghanam and directed by Professor Nabil Bahgat.
It follows a despicable rooster who tricks the villagers and steals their belongings. Eventually, the villagers teamed with the king, who defeats the rooster and restores peace to the village.
As for the Aragouz performance, it was one of the classics that was played during the Egyptian-Israeli era and in it, Felfel, the son of the Aragouz, was martyred and avenged by the Aragouz.
Bahgat also addressed the challenges facing traditional puppetry. "Our problem is organising the market and marketing, and we are working on that, for the products are ready, be it the puppets,' he said.
He added that he attended a meeting with the culture minister to discuss plans for expanding performance opportunities and establishing a permanent exhibition space dedicated to folk puppet heritage.
'We can produce art, but the problem of art in Egypt is management and marketing, so we are trying to compensate for this by having a plan and working on it," Bahgat concluded.
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