2011

Abstract

Peoples’ histories have been destroyed at the times of traumatic events in conflicts and wars. In the last decade, we have witnessed a radical transformation of cities in the Middle East and North Africa, as entire neighbourhoods have been razed to the ground, erasing communities’ memories and destroying their cultural heritage sites and architectural achievements. It is a decade of mass displacement of millions of people from their homelands. Many of them have left their homes with literally nothing and are unable to return to their homelands as their lives are at risk and as their homes have been wilfully destroyed. Émigré communities who find refuge across the world in refugee camps, in informal settlements or in urban areas in cities, witness the destruction of their homeland from afar. Their history is being constantly re-written by dominant political powers that whitewash peoples’ loss, pain and grief. In the face of this destruction, displaced communities reconstruct their own homelands in exiles that humanise and individualise their struggles. Through art, literature, poetry and other acts of creativity they renegotiate their past and reconstruct a destroyed memory through re-writing their own biographies of home. In this paper, a slice of these efforts is presented with a focus on Syria, where more than half of the population has been displaced from their home within and outside the country since 2011. Interviews are undertaken with a group of individuals who contributed towards telling an alternative narrative about Syria that contrasts with the narratives of the mass media, which turned the Syrian struggle into a database, with refugees, the lost and the death toll represented by numbers and figures. Their contributions play a significant role in protecting the past of diverse communities, in preserving our stories, our struggles and our pain, and in helping us never to forget. This new wave of culture in exile created by the living is a homage to the dead and to the generations yet to be.

Keywords:

• Syria
• culture in exile
• memory
• diaspora
• destruction

Acknowledgement

I would like to warmly thank CITY Editors for the invitation to contribute with this paper to the relaunch issue, in particular, Dr. Debbie Humphry for her constant encouragement and support reviewing this piece and providing rich insights and suggestions. Her support came at a time I was finding it painful and difficult to write. To her, I give my deepest gratitude. I also thank each of the interviewees who participated in this paper and shared their rich and inspiring work with me. Without them, this work would have not seen the light. I dedicate my work to my homeland of origin that I have not been able to visit since 2011, Syria.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ammar Azzouz

Ammar Azzouz is an architect for Ove Arup & Partners International and a member of the City Collective. He holds a PhD in architecture from the University of Bath. Email: [email protected]