HERAT:
Wooden shavings littered the ground of Sakhi’s cramped workshop within the Afghan metropolis of Herat as one other rubab, the nationwide musical instrument of his homeland, took form beneath his deft palms.
Sakhi has crafted two rubabs a month for many years, and he refuses to set down his instruments at the same time as a Taliban crackdown strangles music in Afghanistan. “I do know solely this work and I must generate profits someway,” mentioned Sakhi, surrounded by rubabs in numerous levels of completion.
However way more essential to him than cash is the “cultural worth”, mentioned the craftsman in his fifties, whose identify has been modified for his security together with these of others interviewed by AFP.
Heritage uprooted
“The worth of this work for me is the heritage it holds. The heritage should not be misplaced,” he mentioned.
The UN company UNESCO agrees, recognising in December the artwork of crafting and taking part in the rubab as intangible cultural heritage in Afghanistan, Iran, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
Made from dried mulberry wooden and sometimes inlaid with mother-of-pearl, the lute-like rubab is among the oldest devices within the area, its twanging sound stretching again 1000’s of years.
However that heritage is threatened in Afghanistan beneath the Taliban authorities’ near-total ban on music, thought-about corrupting of their strict interpretation of Islamic legislation.
Since coming to energy in 2021, Taliban authorities have banned music in public, from performances to taking part in tracks in eating places, in vehicles or on radio and TV broadcasts. They’ve shuttered music colleges and smashed or burned musical devices and sound techniques.
Many Afghan musicians fled out of worry or in want of labor after dropping their livelihoods in one of many world’s poorest nations the place jobs are scarce.
The Taliban authorities have inspired former musicians to show their skills to Islamic poetry and unaccompanied vocal chants – additionally the one types of music allowed beneath their earlier rule from 1996-2001.
Completely happy moments
Newbie rubab participant Gull Agha has an image of his trainer from that point, the items of his rubab damaged by Taliban authorities cradled in his lap.
Since their return, Taliban morality police have additionally destroyed considered one of Gull Agha’s rubabs and made him swear to cease taking part in.
However he nonetheless typically strums a rubab he made himself for vacationers visiting Herat, lengthy a cradle of artwork and tradition in Afghanistan, although he laments that it slips simply out of tune.
“The principle factor that motivates me to proceed taking part in the rubab is to make a contribution to Afghanistan – we should always not let the talents of our nation be forgotten,” he mentioned.
However as skilled musicians went into exile and his former college students noticed no future in practising, he fears the craft will atrophy.
“It is our obligation to go on our native music to the subsequent generations as our ancestors handed it right down to us,” mentioned the 40-year-old. “Rubab is an artwork artwork brings peace to the soul.”
He began taking part in greater than 20 years in the past throughout a music revival in Afghanistan after the tip of the earlier Taliban rule.
Mohsen, a long-standing artists’ union member, choked again tears as he recalled how their musicians had been all the time “a fixture of the completely happy moments in individuals’s lives”.
“Sadly, happiness has been taken from this nation in addition to from the artists,” he mentioned.
Mohsen continues to be optimistic about the way forward for the rubab in Afghanistan, saying musicians inside and out of doors the nation have been spurred to maintain its conventional music alive.
“Individuals do not play for cash now, they play to convey pleasure to others and so the music survives,” he mentioned. “No drive, no particular person, no system can silence its sound.”
Hope for the longer term
Rubab participant Majid was as soon as a fixture of the various musical performances within the capital Kabul.
However he had not performed the rubab for greater than three years out of worry of being overheard, till one December afternoon when he picked up a rubab in a home close to a avenue of now-shuttered music outlets.
Smiling, he struck the strings however stopped abruptly because the courtyard door banged open, fearing it was Taliban forces.
The neck of his 35-year-old rubab was beforehand damaged when morality police raided properties after the Taliban takeover. He repaired it the very best he might, and nonetheless frequently tends to his “pricey rubab”, he mentioned, gently operating his palms over the instrument.
“So long as I stay, I’ll maintain it with me, and I hope my kids will maintain it however it doesn’t matter what, rubab tradition is not going to be misplaced,” mentioned the 46-year-old. “Music isn’t misplaced. As they are saying, ‘There can by no means be a dying with out tears or a marriage with out music’.” afp