Umm Kulthum in the Experience of Detainees – A Thorough Study by the Writer and Researcher Hassan Abdullah

Ramallah - Ma'an - A peer-reviewed study by Palestinian writer and researcher Hassan Abdullah was published by Al-Shamel Publishing and Distribution House, entitled "Umm Kulthum in the Experience of Palestinian Detainees: A Space of Freedom." This study sheds light on an artistic, creative, cultural, and social phenomenon that emerged and manifested itself in the 1970s and 1980s among Palestinian detainees and Umm Kulthum's songs, as listening to Umm Kulthum in detention centers was allowed for one hour a day, before the detainees achieved their demands in their strikes to purchase and acquire radios and televisions in the late 1980s. Umm Kulthum's voice penetrated the siege and infiltrated the detainees with a warm, affectionate ecstasy that healed wounds and soothed pain, as they waited impatiently for this voice and listened to it within very special rituals. This artistic phenomenon caught the attention of the researcher who lived the experience in the 1980s, and was enchanted by Umm Kulthum and intera cted with her exceptional voice like others. After many years of work in the field of research, during which he published a number of studies, he decided to subject this phenomenon to research, using historical and qualitative methods, based on fifty interviews with fifty detainees who had their own experiences with Kalthoumi's voice. Their periods of detention extended between 1967 and 1997, which is the time period in which the study focused. To give Umm Kulthum's experience its historical dimension with the Palestinians, it was necessary to introduce my research. The researcher devoted the first chapter to some of the life and artistic stations under the title "Umm Kulthum from the conservative village to the global space", and the second chapter of the study was entitled "The dialectic of politics and art / Abdel Nasser and Umm Kulthum / Umm Kulthum and the war effort", while the third chapter was devoted to presenting and analyzing the historical relationship between Umm Kulthum and the Palestinians, es pecially since she held concerts in Palestine during three visits in 1928, 1931 and 1933, then her songs to Palestine in the sixties, reaching the fourth chapter "Umm Kulthum in the experience of Palestinian detainees", as the chapters that preceded this chapter were necessary to clarify and explain the broad personal, national, nationalist and humanitarian dimensions. The researcher came out with a number of recommendations as a conclusion to his study, the most important of which are: 1- The definition of Umm Kulthum and her role and national and humanitarian experience should not be limited to one successful film or series, despite the importance of what was presented in this regard; Indeed, a gigantic experience requires constant presentation and analysis, especially since it has many aspects and fields. Therefore, the faculties of arts in Arab universities, ministries of culture, and unions of writers and artists must give this experience more attention by encouraging researchers to present new researc h works on the experience. It also requires graduate students in arts to present in-depth academic studies on an artistic experience that the Arab world has never witnessed in terms of importance and influence. 2- The experience of Umm Kulthum is a living example of the relationship between art and politics. What is meant here is that art should precede politics or work together equally, not that art should hold on to the tail of politics as is prevalent now in most Arab countries. The role of art and its leadership can be extracted from the experience of Umm Kulthum when she took the initiative and led the ranks, supporting the war effort. Accordingly, the researcher recommends that students of political science in universities take the experience of Umm Kulthum as a model for research and analysis on the relationship between art and politics, where they intersect and where they conflict, and how art can be a pioneer and not a follower. 3- The researcher recommended that the Ramallah Municipality, because the city has taken a remarkable cultural and artistic path in recent years, name a square or a theater after Umm Kulthum in appreciation of her role in supporting the Palestinian cause through song and position. 4- That the Palestinian media give special importance to Umm Kulthum's experience, and contribute to introducing new generations to her art and national and nationalist positions, by allocating programs about her most important artistic stations, and her relationship with the Palestinians since the twenties of the last century. 5- Honoring Umm Kulthum's experience in appreciation of her national songs that dedicated to the Palestinian cause through the Mahmoud Darwish Award or the Ministry of Culture. 6- Art worked in the fifties and sixties of the last century to build cultural and political bridges between Arab countries, and Umm Kulthum and Abdel Halim Hafez were at the forefront of influential artists. Today, in light of the targeting of the Arab state, and the dismantling of countries or plans to return them to the pre-state stage, the researcher recommends that cultural, artistic and creative unions in the Arab world restore the role of art nationally, and start from the inspiration of Umm Kulthum's experience in holding joint artistic activities and events, and exchanging experiences in this regard, and not limiting themselves to hosting singers who require hundreds of thousands of dollars in exchange for holding concerts. The researcher recommended that artistic unions not drown their activities in the country, but rather encourage Arab artistic cross-fertilization, and employ this to enhance common denominators in art, culture and politics, and finance the movement of artists between Arab countries, and call upon Arab artistic experiences to devise plans and directions that take into account the developments of the present. The severance between the experiences of great Arab artists and the experiences of new artists has made the new ones stand on feet of dollars instead of the national feet o n which the pioneering Arab artists stood on solid ground. Source: Maan News Agency