Sons of Haji Omar
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DO C UM E N T A R Y E DU C A T IONA L RE SOU RCE S study guide Sons of Haji Omar GEOGRAPHY & HISTORY with elevation and the higher mountains receive much snow- Afghanistan is a large moun- fall. This important accumula- tainous country located at the tion of snow is at the origin of western end of the Himalayas. numerous rivers flowing in all It is a landlocked country, bor- directions which in turn feed dered by the Soviet Union to the irrigation canals in the val- the north, Pakistan to the east leys. and Iran to the west. The to- CONTENTS pography is rugged and varied. Considering the dry climate The central area is occupied by with long, very hot summers 1-2 Georgraphy and His- the Kohi Baba range, and its and short, uncomfortably tory sloping fingers eastwards. The cold winters, the vegetation highest mountains, the Hindu is sparse, consisting mostly of 3-5 The Lakenkhel Tribe Kush, with peaks well over grasses and shrubs. Only in the 20,000 feet, are located in the eastern mountains of Nuristan 5-9 Pastoral Nomadism northeast; they are the exten- and Pakhtia which are reached sion in Afghan territory of the by the monsoon, can true for- 9-11 Market Life Karakoram range of north ests be found. The scenery is Pakistan. Flatlands also marked by extremely rugged 11-13 Rivalry abound, mostly at the country’s and tortuous mountains, snow- periphery along the Amu Daria capped peaks, and deep, irri- 14 Film Credits river (the Oxus of classical gated valleys. times) facing the Soviet border, 14 Contact Information in the regions of Harat and The long history of the Afghan Farah near Iran, and all along area is characterized by ex- the South. treme instability: A succession of conquest empires, petty The area is basically a semi- states, tribal confederacies desert. Precipitation, mostly in created a chaotic sequence of late winter, varies considerably political forms. Some inva- from 2 inches in the south- sions like that of Alexander the ern deserts to 13 inches in the Great infused new life in the eastern regions. It increases urban centers. Others like 1 GUIDE:Sons of Haji Omar DOCUMENTARY EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES study guide Genghis Khan brought devastation, while The Islamic community is divided into nu- still others transformed the local culture per- merous branches and sects. The vast majority manently. This was the case with the Arab of Afghans including the Pashtuns are Hanafi conquerors in the 7th century who brought Sunni and rely on a particular interpretation Islam. Historically the Afghan area has been of the Qur’an and Hadith, the sacred book the recipient of cultural influences emanating of Islam and the sayings of the Prophet Mu- from three directions: the Iranian plateau (ir- hammad respectively. Near the Iranian bor- rigation technology, some settlement patterns, der and in Hazarajat, in the central part of Persian language, etc.); Central Asia (the horse Afghanistan, are numerous followers of Shi’a complex, Turkic languages, elements of urban Islam, which is the state religion in Iran. The architecture, etc.); and the Indian subcontinent Shiites recognize twelve successive imams or (Mahayana Buddhism before the arrival of Is- religious leaders after the Prophet Moham- lam, Dravidian languages, etc.). It is essentially med. Further, in northeastern Afghanistan an area of cultural synthesis. there are numerous communities belonging to the Isma’illya sect with the Agha Khan as Over thirty different languages belonging to at religious leader. least three major language families are spoken in Afghanistan: Indo-European, Uralo-Altaic, Afghanistan is clearly a nation of many eth- and Dravidian. By far the most important are nic groups. Most numerous are the Pashtuns, the two official languages: Persian, locally about 7 million with approximately an equal called Dari meaning “language of the court’’, number living in Pakistan. They are of Cau- which is also the lingua franca in bazaar trans- casoid stock. Next in importance are the Tajik actions, and Pashto, the language of the po- who are settled mainly in the northern valleys. litically dominant group. Both are part of the They number nearly 4 million and their physi- Indo-European family. cal type is mostly Mediterranean. The Per- sian-speaking Hazara in the central mountains With the exception of a few Hindus, Siks, and the Turkic-speaking Uzbak and Turkoman and Jews, practically all Afghans are Muslim. in the northern plains are basically of Mon- Islam is essentially a legalistic and puritani- goloid physical type. Other ethnic groups are cal religion with important elements borrowed the Baluch caravaneers and nomads, the Dra- from Judaism and Christianity (Kroeber, 1948, vidian-speaking Brahui who are mostly tenant pp. 418 and 598). It exerts a strong and con- farmers, the recently converted Nuristani, etc. tinuous influence on individual behavior and (Dupree, 1972, P. 57 ff.) social life in many fields of activity. Of fun- damental importance are the Five Pillars of From an occupational point of view, Afghan Islam: 1) The profession of faith (‘’There is no society is divided into three socio-economic God but Allah, and Mohammed is the Mes- segments: the pastoral nomads following very senger of Allah”) 2) The prayer performed different migratory circuits and at various five times daily after ritual ablutions 3) Alm- stages of sedentarization; the city-bazaar isgiving considered as an act of purification 4) sector comprising the merchant class, govern- The ritual fasting during the month of Rama- ment officialdom and other urban elements; dan 5) The pilgrimage to the sacred city and the agriculturalists who practice mostly of Mecca in Saudi Arabia. mixed farming with plows and constitute the j GUIDE: Sons of Haji Omar 2 DOCUMENTARY EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES study guide bulk of the population. The film, The Sons of People continue, however, to assume a vague Haji Omar, is a descriptive statement on the kinship between various tribes with the result interrelatedness of these three socio-economic that all Ghilzal could theoretically be consid- sectors as perceived by a pastoral family in ered kinsmen. process of sedentarization and in a historic period of rapid change. The Lakenkhel have had a turbulent history. They are part of the larger Andar tribe with THE LAKENKHEL TRIBE traditional lands south of Ghazni. During the The family portrayed in Sons of Haji Omar latter part of the nineteenth century they belongs to a relatively small Pashtun “tribe” suffered greatly in the Ghilzai revolt against called Lakenkhel and are settled in the valley the rule of Amir Abdur Rahman. They were of Narin, Baglan province, northeastern Af- severely punished, their leader exited, and ghanistan. The Lakenkhel belong to the Ghil- their flocks destroyed. Without property they zai group of tribes whose original home is the were forced to settle on the southern slopes of hilly and arid region of southwestern Afghani- the Hindu Kush, an agricultural area where stan. Pashtun tribal organization implies the they became laborers on the estates of the lo- distinction of several levels of integration and cal landlords. It is within this context that the a parallel process of segmentation or subdivi- Lakenkhel learned the rudiments of farming. sion. Accordingly a given tribe will be subdi- In time the more enterprising among them vided into several branches, with each one of reconstituted their sheep flocks and camel these named branches fragmented into still herds and began caravaning between the city smaller groupings and so on down to small of Peshawar in British India and the northern localized lineages. Each of these tribal and bazaars along the Oxus valley. Here begins lineage units is named after its apical ancestor. the life of Haji Omar, the principal character In the case of recent lineages of little genea- in this film. logical depth it is possible to ascend the gene- alogical ladder directly to the founding geni- Haji Omar’s father was a wealthy flock owner tor. For the larger tribal units the villagers are and a respected leader in the community. unable to establish links to the apical ancestor. During the Ghilzai revolt he suffered greatly and lost his property. Thus Haji Omar was born into a distinguished but poor family and at an early age had to struggle in order to reconstruct the family flock and assemble a sufficient number of camels in order to be- gin caravaning. This became the determining experience in his life. “Look at the peasants’’, says Haji Omar, ‘’they stay in their villages and wait there. In the old times they didn’t know about money, about other people, about new goods and distant bazaars. In contrast with them were maldar (pastoral nomads) and ujjar (traders). We traveled extensively, got acquainted with many people and many places 3 GUIDE: Sons of Haji Omar a DOCUMENTARY EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES study guide and got experience. We had some sheep we their sheep and becoming full-time agricultur- could sell and get money. With this money alists in a new land, the Lakenkhel opted for a we could buy trading goods, and we also had dual form of domestic economy. Households camels to carry our goods, and with the help tried to keep and even increase their sheep of experience we had everything to succeed flocks while at the same time farming in the in this difficult most intensive world.” manner. This was done mainly with The caravan route the labor force from Peshawar to of the household the Oxus valley and a few hired climbed up Pan- hands. A typi- cher valley, across cal case may be the represented by Hindu Kush at a fraternal joint Khawak Pass and family with the then along Narin first brother the valley to the north- sedentary farmer ern plains.