Bøger udgivet af Hamad Bin Khalifa University Press

Text in Arabic. Set in the early postwar years, The Setting Sun probes the destructive effects of war and the transition from a feudal Japan to an industrial society. The story is told through the eyes of Kazuko, the unmarried daughter of a widowed aristocrat. When Kazukos mother falls ill, and due to their financial circumstances, they are forced to move into a cottage in the countryside. Her search for self-meaning in a society devoid of use for her forms the crux of a sad story.

Josephine escapes poverty by coming to Kuwait from the Philippines to work as a maid, where she meets Rashid, an idealistic only son with literary aspirations. Josephine, with all the wide-eyed naivety of youth, believes she has found true love. But when she becomes pregnant, and with the rumble of war growing ever louder, Rashid bows to family and social pressure, and sends her back home with her baby son, Jose. Brought up struggling with his dual identity, Jose clings to the hope of returning to his father's country when he is eighteen. He is ill-prepared to plunge headfirst into a world where the fear of tyrants and dictators is nothing compared to the fear of 'what will people say'. And with a Filipino face, a Kuwaiti passport, an Arab surname and a Christian first name, will his father's country welcome him? The Bamboo Stalk takes an unflinching look at the lives of foreign workers in Arab countries and confronts the universal problems of identity, race and religion.

A riveting and powerful story of an unforgiving time, an unlikely friendship and an indestructible love

This project is the culmination of my six-month writing fellowship with the ARAK Collection. I worked on it from May to October 2023. With my experiences embedded in it, the project adopts an informal and subjective style of writing aimed at making it accessible to a broad audience.When the works in the ARAK Collection were unveiled to me, I opted to research on a quintet of artists from five different countries in the Southern African Development Community (SADC). They are Botswana's Thebe Phetogo (b. 1993), the Democratic Republic of Congo's Lutanda Zemba Luzamba (b. 1973), Namibia's Rudolf Seibeb (b. 1964), Mozambique's Nelly Guambe (b. 1987), and Zambia's Victor Kalinosi Mutale (b. 1971). I deliberately skirted over the many South African artists in the collection because most of the writings on art from the SADC region focus on the country. This is due to its high concentration of art institutions in the form of galleries, museums, and universities, art historians and critics, as well as publishing platforms. Thus, South Africa leads the charge when it comes to activity and writings on art history and the contemporary arts scene. Therefore, this project aims to expand the canon by directing the reader towards artists from nations neighbouring South Africa.On the 19th of July, I left Cape Town on a road trip that took me to Windhoek past the Noordoewer/Vioolsdrif border crossing, proceeding to Gaborone via Buitepos border post, then to Lusaka past the multinational Kazungula Bridge. From Zambia's capital city, I headed to Chimoio past the Forbes border post, after some brief stopovers in Livingstone, Victoria Falls, Bulawayo, and Mutare. From Chimoio, I then proceeded to Maputo before returning to South Africa past the Lebombo border on the 11th of August. This was my fieldwork research trip during which I met and engaged with the selected artists and cultural practitioners in the art sector.My interviews with them were semi-structured, allowing me to draw as much information as possible from them. The main motivation for the trip was to gain an in-depth understanding of parts of the Southern African region, or the selected artists' respective contexts which inform their practices. In the process, I also engaged strangers on the buses, the taxis, and on the streets. At times, I also diverted to outlying areas like Okahandja, where I met Seibeb, Matsieng, the heritage site referenced by Phetogo and Ndeke Village, where Mutale resides and works from.I realised that immigration officials were only allowing me a maximum of ten days, of which I required less. At the Mozambican border, I was asked to produce a COVID-19 vaccination certificate, which was quite unusual. I did not have to travel to the Democratic Republic of Congo as Luzamba is based in Cape Town. Where necessary, I did follow-up engagements with the artists via WhatsApp. In the process, one thing led to another and ideas and theories developed as the interactions ensued. I then travelled to Doha, Qatar in November to take a closer look at the artworks of the selected artists, and to have a cultural experience of the city and country where the collection is housed.The research employs a biographical approach. Oral historian Joanna Bornat indicates that "biographical methods is an umbrella term for an assembly of loosely related, variously titled activities [which include]: narrative, life history, oral history, autobiography, biographical interpretive methods, storytelling, auto/biography, reminiscence" (2008: 344). This project is quite experimental in that it brings together three artists who do figurative work and two who are into abstraction. It is an attempt to find common ground in their diverse practices through an exploration of their respective local contexts.

Text in Arabic. The West grew up under the shadow of Islam, and then after the Renaissance, in a dramatic reversal of roles, the West became world conquerors and subdued all other cultures and civilizations, including Islam. Humanity, despite the scientific progress, technological development, and economic growth, is experiencing multiple crises that are threatening our very existence. This advancement did not stop the financial, social, and political instability, neither the alarming growth of physical and mental illnesses, or reduced the threat of nuclear annihilation and the climate change. At the time the world is witnessing a dangerous escalation in the polarization between Islam and the West, this thought-provoking book, invites readers to view the crises they are facing and the tangled relationship between Islam and the West through a different lens. Keeler proposes that the true standard for measuring success should be the balance achieved between the spiritual, social, and material needs of humanity; a balance which makes it possible to live in harmony with nature. When the world is viewed from this perspective, a completely different picture of Islam and the West emerges.

Text in Arabic. The daughter of the rain a red velvet insect, that lives in the soil most of the year. She does not leave her house until after it rains. Let us get to know the rain's daughter, who gives joy to those who see her.