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 Re: مجلة الصبيان زمان .. ادخلوا لازيد مواجعكم (Re: خالد العبيد)
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Some History about al-Sibyan written by the Late R Hodgkin for Sudan Studies which is published by SSSUK (Issue No. 2 1987
THE SUDAN’S PUBLICATIONS BUREAU
The Publications Bureau was the brain child of V.L. Griffiths, stimulated, no doubt, by Abdel Rahman Ali Taha and Cuthbert Scott. It was natural that after working on a lively and imaginative language book for children ‘Kittab al Atfal’ they should envisage the vast need for and possibility of follow-up literature.
The idea took shape in 1946. Awad Satti was released from Wadi Seidna and I was encouraged to leave the Higher School (embryo university) and move in to join the new group at Bakht er Ruda, the principal teacher’s training institute near Ed Dueim. We worked happily as joint managers, although Beshir Mohammed Said, who already had some experience of journalism, joined us towards the end of the year. In England I appointed our first artist-illustrator - Alan Ashton.
By December we were all in Bakht er Ruda, making plans for the launch of El Sibyan which was to be an illustrated fortnightly magazine aimed at young, literate Sudanese. We received contributions from elsewhere, not least from my future wife, Elizabeth, and from Mekki Abbas and Tayib Idris, all of whom were based at nearby Umm Gerr.
Shortly after, a tragedy happened. Alan Ashton had a diving accident in the swimming pool and was drowned. The need for a steady flow of good illustrative material remained. Jean Pierre Greenlaw was, fortunately, still around and he designed our first cover for El Sibyan, based on the early ideas of ‘Punch’. We also had two splendid but inexperienced young Bakht er Ruda artists -Ismail Mohammed el Amin and Sirr el Khatim Abdel Karim. They developed rapidly and were vital to the Bureau for many years. After spending a month producing all the copy for our first number, we realised that our main base could not be at Bakht er Ruda, 225 kilometres from Khartoum. We recast our plans and looked for new premises in Khartoum with the idea that we would make frequent ‘contact’ visits to Bakht er Ruda and elsewhere. It was nearly a year later that our first experienced illustrator joined us when Heather Corlass came out from an English publishing house to become an important member of the team.
At the end of 1946 we were cheered by the arrival of Jamal Mohammed Ahmed, who had just spent a year at Exeter University and proved to be a powerful reinforcement. He was progressive in his outlook and had the reputation of being a good literary man. He had an enormous sense of fun and knew what it felt like to be a child. In this way he complimented Awad Satti’s serious, scholarly and, very necessary, respectable outlook. Whilst at Exeter, Jamal was accompanied by Sirr el Khatim el Khalifa, who returned to work on adult education programmes intended primarily for use in the Gezira. He was later to be joined by Mohammed Omar Beshir.
By the time we were preparing El Sibyan No 3 we were settled in an office-shop in the new Abu el ‘Ella building only a hundred yards from McCorquodales, our printers. The main work was to prepare the copy of El Sibyan, see it through the press and to organise a distribution network, mainly through primary schools. By issue No 4, at a price of only two piastres, the sales reached 15,000 - twice as high as any contemporary magazine or newspaper. It was, of course, heavily subsidised and carried no advertisements. There were often acute problems of paper supply and distribution was also erratic. Nevertheless, you only had to be in a village or school when a new issue arrived to sense the heart-warming welcome it received. ‘Children’ of all ages, from seven to seventy, would ‘gobble’ it up. By far the most popular feature was the back page strip - illustrated version of traditional grandmother’s tales - ahaaji.
It is of interest to recall some of the other tasks that we were engaged in during those first experimental years. El Sibyan must have taken up more than half our time. There was a series of adult education pamphlets edited by Sirr el Khatim el Khalifa, and which were of a very high quality. About five of these appeared. Out of them, however, arose our first big failure, an adult magazine entitled En Nur, of which only three numbers appeared. It was much too ambitious for our small team to tackle. Then there was a steadily increasing stream of Bakht er Ruda school books and pamphlets. We handled the costing and production of these and played an advisory part in preparing them. Late in 1947 we started preparing and testing mass literacy material. The two basic books, El Mustah and El Baab el Maarifa, were outstandingly good and successful. They were designed by Adam Eissa, and produced in colour by the Survey Department. However, and like everyone else who has tried this task, we underestimated the problem. Looking back after forty years, I doubt if mass literacy campaigns without either a very powerful ideological/religious motivation behind them and/or the organised use of students, the army and lowly paid ‘vo1unteers’ can succeed. That’s why the most successful campaigns have been run in the more totalitarian countries. The last decade of imperialism was certainly propitious for children’s literature of a very popular kind, but it was not so propitious for government-sponsored mass education.
The exciting thing about the early years was that we were experimenting and learning all the time. The government allowed us to take risks and accepted our failures along with our successes. The result was that we all worked fairly hard and enjoyed ourselves; it was in this respect that we most appreciated Jamal. If all went well – fine! - we could have a big party in celebration. If things went badly or if we ran into some minor disaster - fine! there was lots to be learnt from our mistakes and we could all have a small party!
How was it that Jamal was able to be both a superb chi1dren’s writer, a successful diplomat and a wise counsellor of both Sudanese and English statesmen? First of all, he was very good company and he had a great gift as a storyteller. His spoken anecdotes would often turn into gurgling imitations of the characters involved and he would pull comic faces as the absurdities of his characters unfolded. Secondly, Jamal had a strong sense of the enjoyment of childhood happiness. These qualities worm probably in him all along, but my impression is that they ripened during his time in England, especially under the influence of Professor and Mrs Tibble at Exeter University.
When added to Jamal’s penetrating intelligence and encyclopaedic reading, the qualities of humour and friendliness helped to explain his personality. He was liked and trusted by innumerable friends, both British and Sudanese. His friendliness was based on candour, not on superficial manners and he really enjoyed problems and problem-sharing, even to the extent of ‘agreeing to differ’ without getting cross. Above all, he was a good ambassador, both in his visits to the land of childhood and in more distant lands.
May God bless Jamal’s family and friends.
Robin Hodgkin is retired and lives in Cornwall.
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| العنوان |
الكاتب |
Date |
| مجلة الصبيان زمان .. ادخلوا لازيد مواجعكم | خالد العبيد | 01-14-04, 09:13 PM |
| Re: مجلة الصبيان زمان .. ادخلوا لازيد مواجعكم | Zaki | 01-14-04, 10:44 PM |
| Re: مجلة الصبيان زمان .. ادخلوا لازيد مواجعكم | Nasr | 01-15-04, 00:00 AM |
| Re: مجلة الصبيان زمان .. ادخلوا لازيد مواجعكم | خالد العبيد | 01-15-04, 10:32 AM |
| Re: مجلة الصبيان زمان .. ادخلوا لازيد مواجعكم | bunbun | 01-15-04, 11:00 AM |
| Re: مجلة الصبيان زمان .. ادخلوا لازيد مواجعكم | Elmamoun khider | 01-15-04, 11:13 AM |
| Re: مجلة الصبيان زمان .. ادخلوا لازيد مواجعكم | أبو رزان | 01-15-04, 12:37 PM |
| Re: مجلة الصبيان زمان .. ادخلوا لازيد مواجعكم | Elmosley | 01-15-04, 02:17 PM |
| Re: مجلة الصبيان زمان .. ادخلوا لازيد مواجعكم | shatat | 01-15-04, 09:40 PM |
| Re: مجلة الصبيان زمان .. ادخلوا لازيد مواجعكم | Husam Hilali | 01-15-04, 09:41 PM |
| Re: مجلة الصبيان زمان .. ادخلوا لازيد مواجعكم | معتصم ود الجمام | 01-16-04, 08:22 AM |
| Re: مجلة الصبيان زمان .. ادخلوا لازيد مواجعكم | Elwaleed Ibrahim | 01-16-04, 09:10 AM |
| Re: مجلة الصبيان زمان .. ادخلوا لازيد مواجعكم | Al-Shaygi | 01-16-04, 08:43 AM |
| الاعزاء | خالد العبيد | 01-16-04, 05:50 PM |
| Re: مجلة الصبيان زمان .. ادخلوا لازيد مواجعكم | Abd-Elrhman sorkati | 01-16-04, 05:58 PM |
| Re: مجلة الصبيان زمان .. ادخلوا لازيد مواجعكم | خالد العبيد | 01-16-04, 09:20 PM |
| Re: مجلة الصبيان زمان .. ادخلوا لازيد مواجعكم | MUNA OBIED | 01-16-04, 11:29 PM |
| Re: مجلة الصبيان زمان .. ادخلوا لازيد مواجعكم | ابو جهينة | 01-17-04, 09:22 AM |
| Re: مجلة الصبيان زمان .. ادخلوا لازيد مواجعكم | kh_abboud | 01-21-04, 11:28 PM |
| Re: مجلة الصبيان زمان .. ادخلوا لازيد مواجعكم | شتات | 01-22-04, 10:00 AM |
| Re: مجلة الصبيان زمان .. ادخلوا لازيد مواجعكم | خالد العبيد | 01-22-04, 11:58 AM |
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Zaki
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