Arabic culture in exile
Culture goes further than the question of origin. What happens when language, rituals and humour are renegotiated in a new place?
There are always things that bring people together, and every person interprets them according to their own culture. When we hear about other cultures, the first thing that comes to mind is the ethnicity a person belongs to.
In reality culture goes much further: we are all part of different cultural groups. What matters is knowing that our cultural identity develops and changes when the circumstances around us, or the place we live in, change.
Hamburg, with Syrian luggage
Today I live in Hamburg and carry my Syrian nationality and my Arabic culture with me, which I value greatly. That is why I tried to contribute to spreading Arabic culture in the diaspora by creating Arabic events.
To understand German culture, I volunteered at the Goldbekhaus cultural centre. Through that experience I found profound cultural differences between Arabic and German culture.
The thing with white hands
In Arabic there are many words with a good meaning that could mean something bad or racist in German culture. When we say in Arabic that someone is a “man with white hands”, it describes qualities: people who work honestly and without reward in the service of society. It expresses purity and sincerity.
In German society the same description could be understood as racist, because white is associated with skin colour. My colleague looked at me wide-eyed and asked why the colour of hands mattered. I explained that white means purity of heart and peace of the soul. She laughed with relief — and we laughed together about how different languages and the meanings behind them are.
Exactly these moments are the reason for the festival: spaces where you may ask without having to justify yourself.
