In partnership with our Libyan colleagues, and with support from the U.S. Department of State’s Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation (AFCP), the Cultural Antiquities Task Force (CATF), and the U.S. Embassy Libya External Office (LEO), ASOR is bringing a message of hope through Cultural Heritage Volunteer Weekends (“pop-up” events) and through one-day heritage workshops. This article reports on the final days of a Volunteer Weekend held in Ghadames in March 2020. 

Click here for the Arabic version of this article (إحياء فنون مسرح الظل الليبي المفقود)

In the Old City of Tripoli, Libya, just in front of the clock tower of Midan as Sa’ah, an old carpenter once hosted shadow puppet shows in his shop every night during the month of Ramadan. Group after group of children would excitedly arrive in the shop, quickly finding a seat on the floor surrounded by the wooden doors that the carpenter had made that day.  The only light came from behind a central screen, which the carpenter brought to life through his qaraqoz puppets.

“I stored this experience away in my head, knowing that one day I would use it,” explained Yousef al Kurdi, who had been one of those children sitting on the floor in the audience back in the 1950s. After a long career as a well-known actor for screen and stage, al Kurdi has spent part of his retirement reviving the lost art of Libyan shadow theater, hosting free performances in Tripoli’s Algeria Square during Ramadan. Such shows have been entertaining and imparting moral messages to Libyan audiences since their arrival with the Ottomans in 1551. Al Kurdi, for his part, generally focuses his shows on romantic stories which highlight the vital role of women in sustaining society.

To prepare for a show, he draws the profiles of his characters on heavy paper stock and then cuts them out, writing the scripts and performing all of the voices himself. “I try to keep my shows short, maybe only 15 minutes, but fill them with dark comedy that will entertain children as well as their parents. I know my messages are connecting when I see the smiles beaming back from members of the audience.”

During the recent cultural heritage volunteer weekend that ASOR hosted in Ghadames, Yousef’s shadow theater was the culmination of our multi-day workshop that had placed a strong emphasis on Libya’s intangible cultural heritage. Art forms such as shadow theater had been repressed or forgotten during the Gaddafi regime and the rise of local and eventually satellite television channels. According to al Kurdi, “We’re losing our culture. Particularly in these times, when everyone is focused on just surviving, it is easy to be overwhelmed by day-to-day worries. I provide free shadow puppet performances, not only because I enjoy them, but as a way to kill two birds with one stone. These shows both sustain Libyan art and represent an investment in the young generation, the most important investment we can make right now.” Years from now, one of the children in the audience might make their own puppets and perform, keeping the art alive.

Following Al Kurdi’s show, we wandered along the darkened alleys of the old city of Ghadames to a restaurant at its heart. There, over our meal and the green tea which followed, the performance continued. We recited folklore and poetry, including contributions sent by those who had been unable to attend in person due to the ongoing conflict in Libya.

As we had been reminded throughout this workshop, culture is a living thing. Buildings, archives and traditions all decay if they are not nourished by people and given new life with each passing generation.

Fawzia Saeed Ammar, a professor of ancient history at the University of Sirte, had traveled halfway across the country along treacherous roads to join our group and attend the workshop. She was particularly struck by the power of the place: “Ghadames is a city that has no parallel, and as soon as we arrived, I felt something drawing me in deeper.  The pink color of its buildings is full of magic and imagination, whether you enter the city through the historic gates of Jarsan, Alba’ar, or Dahra. The inscriptions and decorations that distinguish one house from another allow a visitor to understand the city as a collection of individual families. At the same time, the sophisticated water infrastructure connected to the well at Ain Al-Faras demonstrates that the city would not have been able to thrive in the middle of the desert without an enduring commitment to community.”

Her words had a particular resonance as we left Ghadames, returning to a Libya filled with uncertainty due to ongoing conflict and the (then early, now growing) threat of the global pandemic. The only way to protect and sustain Libya as well as its culture and heritage is through communal action spanning both geography and generations.

Sunset in the Ghadames Dunes.