Petra, Jordan, is one of the Seven Wonders of the World, an ancient city carved into rock thousands of years ago. The engineering marvel is a treasured part of history and home to NYUAD’s Maruan Manaja, who grew up playing among the sandstone cliffs. Manaja’s father, a Bedouin, once lived in the caves that line those cliffs. Over centuries, the nomadic Bedouin people passed down their culture through song, poetry, and campfire tales.
“Growing up, it’s all an oral way of communicating and preserving culture, especially poetry and music. It’s not a written culture,” Manaja said.
Manaja, a filmmaker and lecturer in the Film and New Media program, is working to preserve his family’s story and the history of Bedouin culture using modern technology and the visual storytelling skills he teaches his students at NYU Abu Dhabi.
The Bedouins no longer live in Petra. In 1985, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) designated Petra a World Heritage site, describing it as “one of the most precious cultural properties of man’s cultural heritage.” To preserve it, all the residents, including Manaja’s family, were moved to a village nearby where the lecturer and filmmaker grew up.
“I remember my dad, when I was a kid, going back from work, and he would be on a donkey singing through the mountains. I would sing with him, but now I look back at it, it’s stuff I have forgotten. I don’t know how to sing it anymore.”
Manaja wants to ensure that those songs aren’t lost forever. With his camera, he plans to capture the music, the poems, and the tales to encapsulate his people’s way of life.
He started this project in the fall of 2019 by doing a few test recordings in Jordan. The pandemic forced him to stop all his on-site work, but Manaja is returning this summer.
While Manaja’s father passed away in 2002, he can still turn to his immediate and extended family for stories. His mother, Marguerite van Geldermalsen, wrote a book about being married to a Bedouin. His first interview will be with his uncle.
“He’s very interesting,” Manaja said, smiling, “he’s got all the stories.”
He’s excited to chronicle aspects of traditional Bedouin life, such as weddings that lasted for seven days. Manaja said people would come from all over, some on their camels, making packing up and returning home an ordeal. This is why families spent those weeks together, celebrating, sharing poetry, and creating lasting memories.
“That culture is shifting and changed so much that all that heritage is being lost to time,” Manaja said. “Now you just have loudspeakers and flashing lights. Change will happen eventually. But it’s good to keep that history alive.”
Since Manaja is just picking up where he left off before the pandemic, he’s unsure if this project will become a documentary, a book, or a series of video essays. However, Manaja is certain about one thing: whatever shape this project takes, he wants the stories of the Bedouin culture to be preserved and available in Jordan, especially in Petra, and in NYUAD’s vast archive for the region.
