We shall not let history be the history of great events
Extracted from the writings of Mourid Barghouti.
We shall not let history be the history of great events, of kings and officers and books on dusty bookshelves. We shall recount what happened to us personally and the life stories of our bodies and our senses which to the naive will seem trivial, incoherent and meaningless.
The meaning is etched upon each (…) on every grave before which the national anthem will not be sung which the historian’s blind pen will not describe. We shall retell history as a history of our fears, our anxieties, our patience, our pillow lusts and impoverished courage. As a history of the making of an evening meal, of stories of love, innocent and otherwise, of emotions hidden from the grown-ups. As a history of the goat bombed by planes in its field and the heroism of the child who peed in his pants out of fear but suddenly felt brave and stood wide eyed before the long dark line of tanks.
A history of all the journeys we have made and all the distances we have crossed and have been forbidden to cross and of every straightforward ordinary trip between two cities or two situations. We shall make the electricity cuts to our houses important events because they are. I shall record the history of this fish meal too, and here I am, writing it.
I shall make of every feeling that ever shook my heart an historic event and I shall write it.
I was born there, I was born here
