Category: Marina Chamma

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“Between Amnesty and Amnesia”: Remembering the 50th Anniversary of Lebanon’s Civil War

How much more is there left for us, not the history books, to say about the Lebanese civil war? Quite a lot, apparently.

Earlier this year, Lebanon-based “Agenda Culturel” launched its “Between Amnesty and Amnesia, where is the Memory of the Civil War?” series, gathering testimonies through seven questions centered on personal experiences and how memories of the war are still reflected in our lives, identity, traumas and aspirations for this country’s future. I really did not think I had more to say about the war, any more than I already have, nor even wanted to. But these questions made me realize that there were still things I wanted to share. So long as we, as a country – as we are far from being a nation – fail to remember in order to ensure that it doesn’t happen again, we will all still have much to say about what erupted on April 13, 1975.

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“Hope is a Dangerous Thing”

There was a time when everything I ever wanted was to be in Beirut, the beloved home, the enchantress of the Mediterranean, the city that – as the Lebanese Ministry of Tourism would once have it – “will never surrender.” But that changed, and well before the socioeconomic crisis turned our lives upside down, and the blast ensured that our lives would never and could never be the same again. The moment had come for a serious recalibration of my relationship with the city. The invitation to be a contributor to German literary magazine Die Horen’s special issue on Beirut gave me the first chance to do so, at least on paper.

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