Tower and Town, October 2021 (view the full edition)Editorial: Understanding AfghanistanTen years ago my wife and I and the then Chairman of Afghanaid, David Page, ran a two day seminar Understanding Afghanistan at Marlborough College by kind permission of the Master. There was considerable local interest and we were privileged to be supported by some very interesting and knowledgeable speakers, both English and Afghan.  How did I get interested in Afghanistan? Fortunately this first occurred when I met an Afghan family, living in London, when I was a teenager. They encouraged me to read a book by one Peter King: - AFGHANISTAN: COCKPIT IN HIGH ASIA (Geoffrey Bles 1966). This book opened my eyes to this extraordinary country, its beauty, its wide range of peoples - Hazaras, Tajiks, Pushtuns, Afridis, Turkomen and many others - and the remarkable skills that many of these people possessed. Numerous poets, storytellers and warriors, indeed, but an Afghan could be a farmer, a skilled horseman, a calligrapher, a breathtakingly detailed metal worker or carver in lapis lazuli, a painter of fine miniatures, or a designer and weaver of magnificent carpets. I was also alerted by King's book to the presence, in Nuristan, of the markaz or 'power house of the people': the centre for the hidden Sufis of Afghanistan which, later, became a somewhat debased coin. It is possible that I became over romantic with regard to the Afghans and it took me time to learn that there were 'goodies' and 'baddies'. Sadly, Afghanistan has also been subject to a turbulent history and although we have tried to paint a broad picture there are many references in this edition of Tower and Town to gut wrenching troubles in the past and now. Perhaps not surprising in this mountainous land with all those tribes vying with each other and invasions from foreign powers. I have never been beyond Landi Kotal at the top of the Khyber Pass but when in Peshawar in 1990 I had this conversation with my son, Tarquin, who was teaching English in the refugee camps. I was curious about buzkashi the fierce game played on horseback with a dead goat and asked whether there was any chance of seeing a game. (continued overleaf) 'Maybe. I'll try and find out, but that could prove difficult. You can never be sure with these people. They will tell you that there is a game on Saturday and you turn up at the ground, but there's not a soul in sight. They may have meant some future Saturday, because games are usually played on Saturdays, or Saturday if Allah wills, or Saturday if it's fine, or Saturday if the horses are fit.' 'Or Saturday if the tea hasn't run out or the apricots have ripened,' I chipped in. 'Exactly; they just don't think like we do and if they can't provide an answer they prefer not to have to say 'no'. They are the consummate diplomats. But let's see, maybe we'll get lucky.' Which we were! Neil G M Hall |