Last Page - Issue 20 - Yemen Times

20 - May 14th thru May 20th 2001, Vol XI

African Color, Light & Thought in Al-Taib's Works at Dia

An African Color, an African light and an African thought, commented on by Dr. Sulaiman Ibrahim, teacher of Art Education at the High Institute, on the new collection of Al-Taib Al-Hajj Mohammed Ahmad, a Sudanese artist, at the exhibition organized by Dia organization at its office on 7-21 May.
Artists are the people most attached to their countries and homeland. This is really the first impression one gets as he looks at the drawings of Al-Taib. "I admire his respect for his environment, said Samirah Abdu Ali, a Yemeni artists and film director. The black characters and land dominating his works reflect how much he has been influenced by the African environment, the simple why of life, as well as the Africans' love for nature. "Each work of mine deals with an issue of humanity," he said.
Al-Taib Al-Hajj Mohammed Ahmad, a graduate of the College of Fine Arts- Al-Khartoum, has been working in Yemen as a painter and designer at the Center of Educational Aids at the Ministry of Education since 1986. The academic phase brought along with it more awareness and worries about the quality and morals of the work in contrast with the pre-college phase when he usually used to let his imagination to go as far as he wanted. Each artistic work of his must have a moral and esthetic value which is controlled by emotional as well as mental norms. "Artists should be aware of the high value and mission they want to convey," he said adding that the good artist is the one who makes use of his/her expressive tools to highlight man's issues so that works are not only a decoration that loses its values in the course of time. "Every single work he does tells a story of the African man," said Abdul Wase'e Mohammed Al-Olofi .
He does not agree with artists who confuse the spectaculars with a lot of ambiguous lines and colors. However, he also blames the audiences for being not educated enough to understand what is beyond the colors of the artist's work. "Sometimes the artist works reflect his/her psychological, social, status, the surroundings and his/her ambitions.," he said. So it is easy to go deeper into the inside of the artists through his/her works, he added.
During his long stay in Yemen, he has captured many typical Yemeni issues such as Jinbias, ancient wooden doors and windows of Sana'a Al-Qadimah, etc. Unlike many artists who have drawn the Jinbia, Al-Taib has given it a special touch by making it a living thing in the shape of a mermaid, and so on. This is true for of the sole and group exhibitions he has held in and outside Yemen. Speaking highly about the collection Mr. Girard Marcinak, Secretary General of the French Cultural Institute, remarked: "In each exhibition he has a different style."
Presently he has volunteered to train a group of young artists at the Dia office, along with his college Yassin Ghalib, a Yemeni artist and engineer. The course aims at training the students on how to deal with color technology. Most of the trainees are engineering and media students. The course also includes lectures on esthetics, colors and other tools used by the artist. In his lectures, Al-Taib urges his trainees to depict the Yemeni patrimony out of fear that someday such pictures would disappear. It was wonderful seeing a number of works by the trainees which included drawings of ancient wooden doors, Mashrabias, etc. One of the future projects of his is to organize an exhibition for such drawings.
Dia has recently launched a web site dedicated to the presentation of Yemeni arts and artists to the world. "The project includes presenting the Yemeni artists and their works to the whole world," said Rami S. Al-Ghazali, IT Manager at Dia. Works and details of Yemeni artists will be available beforehand through the search facility the site offers. Furthermore the site introduces important information about, and, a collection of pictures of the Yemeni cities for all tourists or people interested in the Yemen.
Mr. Rami expressed hopes that the project would be complete in the near future once it gets the necessary financing. He also hopes that the finance will come from Yemeni companies which understand the importance and significance of such a project. The site was kicked off last month and can be reached at www.yemenarts.org.ye
Hisham Al-Qubati,
Nada Al-Shamiri
Yemen Times

Diana Muqalad to Yemen Times:
"The topics we covered in our program were Tribes and the government, Qat, and Jews in Yemen."

Diana Muqalad is a Lebanese journalist of the Future TV. She comes from a family originally from south Lebanon, Jabal Amer. It is said that Muqalad is the descendant of a Yemeni family, which migrated long ago from Yemen. Diana is the producer of "Al ayn Al mujarada" program, which has been a successful documentary series. Nadia Alsaqqaf met with her in Amman and had the following interview.

YT: Tell us about your career and project?
Diana: I have been working with the Future TV for the past 9 years. I graduated from the Information and Documentation College in Lebanon, and I have been with the Future TV since then. I started with the news section and thorough the 9 years I carried a variety of work types such as news, reporting, coverages, and analysis. I specialized in certain social issues. While I was working with foreign media instruments, the idea of fieldwork, as in documentary, was put forward. I studied how they worked and became a producer with them. I also followed foreign media and I had a course at the BBC. All that accumulated and the resulted in the "Al ayn Almugarada" program. I put the suggestion forward to my boss and he accepted. We started in the end of 98, and since then we have covered many issues and countries.
The first topic I took up was Iraq and the "hisar"; we talked about the Kurds in north of Iraq also.
We had stories about Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Jordan, Armenia; going on TV now is Russia and next to be on the air is Yemen. Starting this Friday for three consecutive Fridays at 9:30 pm.

YT: How did the topic about Yemen come up? And what are the issues you discussed?
Diana:Yemen is a part of the world, it is natural that it is on our agenda, and especially that it has been in the news quite often lately. Also we have to acknowledge the rich history and culture of the country. The topics we covered in our program were three main issues of Yemen, Tribes and the government, Qat, and Jews in Yemen.

YT: Why did you choose those topics? And how did you present them?
Diana: I am a journalist before being a TV producer. It is natural that our interest in Yemen lies in the general interest of the people in the world. We tried to study what is the issue that the people want to know about and we tried to give more information about them. We tried to define what the tribe is, and what the influence of it on the government is; we talked to tribal people and governmental people as well. Regarding Qat, well the story is beyond definition, as it is an obvious phenomenon here. And the Jews of Yemen have always been a topic of interest, especially since Yemen is one of the very few countries in which that issue is present. In the presentation we took the case of arms and weapons in Yemen. And the issues of kidnapping also. Professionally I can say that we were neutral in our presentation and we took the words from the original people themselves.
Something I would like to say is that we do not criticize or praise, we put the facts as they are, and we try to be as objective as possible. Also I do not claim that I have given the complete picture. There might be things, which we did not cover, and if we had more time maybe we would have given a more detailed coverage.

YT:What are your coming activities?
Diana: We are going next to Morocco, where I intend to take up the topic of migration. To go to Europe, Moroccans risk their lives. There is a huge number of immigrants; also the route they take to reach Europe through the Mediterranean Sea, the percentage of the risk reaches 70%. Some drown on the way or lose their lives just for a new hope of life in Italy or Spain.

YT: Being a global journalist, what do you think of globalization ?
Diana: Unfortunately we Arabs are good at talking but doing nothing. We create many stories criticizing that this program destroys our ethics and the program subjects our children to Jewish influence, etc. without giving the alternatives to our viewers.
It is easy to criticize and make up stories. We should not waste our time talking and debating. We should learn from these instruments. They have a lot of good things to offer, why do we constrain ourselves to the negative effects. If only we figure out a way to make use of them instead of fighting. Globalization is no longer an option, it's happening with or without our permission. What we can do is channel the input and provide the local alternatives which are interesting enough to attract the Arab viewers to our own channels.

YT: So you think our TV channels should be improved?
Diana : Producers should study the programs they plan to present before starting to do anything. They should ask themselves what exactly do they plan to present thorough the program. What are the basic ideas behind the program, and what budget is there for it? Also there should be thorough planning. Our channels are full of fillers, lots of empty talk with nothing serious to give. I agree that there should be an amount of entertainment but it should be studied and there should be respect to the viewers' mind. They should be given information also. There should be a message to be presented through TV. And they should always make use of foreign experience professionally.

YT: Last comment?
Diana: I loved Yemen! I hope I can visit it again. I think that the country has a lot of responsibilities to tackle before it can layback and relax. I heard it among the people. The good thing is that the people are talking about it and that is a step forward. Other countries, even wealthier, do not even dare to talk about their problems and issues. The Yemeni people are asking themselves what exactly they want. With planning and getting rid of Qat and other obstacles they will improve. It's only a matter of time.