Afghanistan Research Newsletter Number 19, October/November 2008 2 Georg Morgenstierne: Early Norwegian Research in Afghanistan 4 Feature: Doing Research in Afghanistan 7 Profile: National Center for Policy Research 8 Research News 10 Flowchart: Legislative Process in Afghanistan 11 New Publications and Resources 11 Cross-Cutting and General Agriculture 13 Development 15 Elections Employment Environment Finance 16 Health Human Rights Language 17 Media Migration and Refugees Natural Resource Management 18 Opium Politics and Government 19 Security 21 Women AFGHANISTAN RESEARCH AND EVALUATION UNIT Improving Afghan Lives Through Research Afghanistan Research Newsletter Georg Morgenstierne: Early Norwegian Research in Afghanistan by Michael Fergus him. I found that he was a charming, highly articulate and entertaining conversationalist. He was particularly interested in my experiences of Kamdesh village (situated at 2,020m in the Hindu Kush), which he knew well; he quizzed me on the fragments of the Pashai language I had picked up during my interviews with local people. Professor Morgenstierne (who was born in 1892) died the year after our meeting, in 1978. Now, 30 years later, Nils Johan Ringdal has written a comprehensive biography in Norwegian about Professor Morgenstierne. The title of the biography, in English, is The Strange Life and Travels of Georg Valentin von Munthe af Morgenstierne; it is uncertain whether or not the book will be translated into English. The book — nearly 800 pages Linguistic field work in Nijrau, north of Kabul (October long — tells of a young man with an aristocratic background 1962). From left: David Neil MacKenzie, Georg who was born into one of Norway´s best families. (His Morgenstierne, Françoise Redard and three informants grand-uncle was a prime minister, his father was a rector of Photo: Georges Redard / Oslo University and his brother was an ambassador to the The National Library of Norway, Picture Collection US). At an early age, Professor Morgenstierne resolved to devote his life to philology, particularly the study of Indian In February and March 1977, I spent six weeks in eastern and Iranian languages. Later in his life, he became known in Afghanistan, conducting a socio-economic survey in Norway as “the man who knows 100 languages”; Kunarha and Nuristan Provinces. The survey, connected Morgenstierne’s biography lists over 300 languages that he with a feasibility study for a Norwegian consulting had — in some respect – been in contact with. (This list company, focused on a hydropower project on the included more than 50 variants of Pashto and Dari.) Kunar River (that was ultimately never built). At that Professor Morgenstierne did field research on many of the time, I visited Kamdesh, Barikot, Assadabad, Dar-i-Nur, so-called “Kafir” languages of the more remote parts of the the Pech Valley and many other villages in the region. Hindu Kush, which related to eastern Afghanistan´s pre- I came from Norway, and it was not long before local people Islamic culture. Morgenstierne´s work is still the only in Kunarha started asking if I knew Georg Morgenstierne, the research in existence regarding many of these languages, great professor from Norway who had travelled widely in the which makes his publications invaluable. Morgenstierne area and who knew and spoke most of the local languages showed that the “Kafir” languages of Nuristan were quite and dialects. In fact, Professor Morgenstierne was still well distinct from the Indo-Iranian family of languages.1 remembered in Kamdesh village when I visited it 13 years From an early age, Morgenstierne showed a great after he had last been there. To my shame, I had to admit proficiency for languages, and it seemed natural that he that I had never heard of Morgenstierne. I corrected that, should attend the University of Oslo. He received his Ph.D. however, as soon as I travelled back to Norway. There I in comparative linguistics at the University of Berlin at age sought out Professor Georg Morgenstierne, who was 26 and began his travels to South Asia and Afghanistan in Professor Emeritus of Indo-Iranian Languages at the 1924. He also did himself no harm in marrying the University of Oslo. By this time, however, he was 85 years old and living in a retirement home in a suburb of Oslo. 1 Nonetheless, I tracked him down and had afternoon tea with “Kafir” was a derogatory term used to denote the pre-Islamic inhabitants of Nuristan prior to their conversion to Islam in 1895-1896. 2 October/November 2008 daughter of Sten Konow (a senior scholar of Indo-Iranian In 1929, Morgenstierne made his second visit to the area; this linguistics and friend of playwright Henrik Ibsen). time he travelled to Chitral, close to the Afghan border.2 He spent six months there researching the languages and Morgenstierne and his wife (who had grown up in India) customs of the so-called “Black Kafirs” and “Red Kafirs.” studied in India and Ceylon for three months in 1923. He These groups originally lived in Afghanistan´s Hindu Kush but then visited Afghanistan for the first time in April 1924, had fled into India (across what would become the Durand after spending a month studying Pashto in Peshawar. Line) during the forced Islamisation of 1896. Chitral was, Morgenstierne studied Pashto by recruiting members of therefore, the best place to encounter languages and different tribes in the bazaar so that he could learn their traditions from Afghan “Kafiristan.” In addition to being a local accents; he had a great facility with language, linguist, Morgenstierne could also be considered a cultural which he retained all his life. Together with a driver and anthropologist because he conscientiously recorded customs his servant named Yasin, Morgenstierne travelled from and rituals. He made 40 sound recordings, 160 film Peshawar to Kabul (in what may have been one of the sequences and took over 300 photographs of dances, blood first four-wheel drive vehicles to enter Afghanistan). sacrifices and fertility rites amongst the Kalash and Kati When Morgenstierne arrived in Kabul, he found a peoples. These represent a unique record of pre-Islamic sizeable colony of foreigners, including British, civilisations from Afghanistan. Russians, Germans, Italians, French, Turks and Persians. For the next 30 years, Professor Morgenstierne continued It is worth noting that this was only five years after the his research on Indo-Iranian languages and served as a conclusion of the Third Afghan War, in which King professor at the University of Oslo and the University of Amanullah had soundly defeated the British. After six Gothenburg (Sweden). He visited Iran and India during that weeks in Afghanistan, Morgenstierne was granted an period, and in 1949 he was able to return to Afghanistan. audience with King Amanullah, to whom he presented a During this trip, he made his first visit to Nuristan. letter from King Haakon of Norway. It was probably to The visit was short, but Morgenstierne managed to Morgenstierne’s advantage that he came from one of reach the Waigal valley. While there, he acquired Europe´s smallest kingdoms, which had no history of beautifully crafted wooden “Kafir” chairs that he being involved in the “Great Game.” donated to the Kabul Museum. Although his time in During his first visit to Afghanistan, Morgenstierne spent Waigal and Kunarha was brief, he was able to construct most of his time in Kabul, where he could meet an orthography of the Waigali language. informants who spoke most of Afghanistan´s languages. Morgenstierne visited Afghanistan four more times; in Morgenstierne´s main purpose, however, had been to 1964, at the age of 72, he joined an expedition to visit “Kafiristan” — the eastern provinces in the Hindu Bashgal, Kamdesh and Barg-i-Metal in Nuristan. In Kush, north of Jalalabad. There, Morgenstierne could these places, Morgenstierne was able to speak in study the archaic “Kafir” languages firsthand. He Pashai, the Afghan language he with which he had theorised that these were a distinct branch of the Indo- the greatest expertise. European family of languages, thereby sharing a foundation with Morgenstierne´s native Norwegian. Nils Johan Ringdal´s new book is not the only major source of information regarding Professor Morgenstierne´s life and The Government was strongly opposed to letting works. We have Morgenstierne´s own descriptions of his foreigners enter “Kafiristan” (now known as Nuristan), travels and his weighty technical treatises such as An and Morgenstierne had to abandon his plans on this Etymological Vocabulary of Pashto.3 From 1995 to 2000, visit, despite his acquaintance with the King. the National Library of Norway and the University of Oslo Morgenstierne assumed that this opposition was based on fear that he might witness (and perhaps report on) 2 At the time, Chitral was part of British India; it is now in the the remains of a pre-Islamic, “heathen” society that Northwest Frontier Province of Pakistan. Afghanistan´s rulers might not be proud of. He returned 3 Georg Morgenstierne, An Etymological Vocabulary of Pashto to India and Norway in November 1924. (Oslo, Norway: J. Dybwad, 1927). 3 Afghanistan Research Newsletter developed a multimedia database of Morgenstierne´s great service to Afghanistan and its people. One might even photographs, films and audio recordings, including say he helped to restore the Afghan identity after the commentaries on Morgenstierne´s writings by Wlodek clashes with the British Empire. He encouraged people to Witek, the creator of the database. Much of this has been acknowledge the significance of the Pashto language to the transferred to the internet and can be seen on the country and to nation-building. He further showed that the National Library of Norway´s website.4 languages of Afghanistan evidenced critical stages in the development of the languages spoken today in Europe.