The National Archives enriches its oral history with new interviews with narrators in Abu Dhabi and Al Ain
The National Archives enriches its oral history with new interviews with narrators in Abu Dhabi and Al Ain
The National Archives continues to collect oral narrations through interviews, which amounted to 913 interviews conducted by specialists in oral history, audio and video, with elderly narrators. In this regard, the National Archives conducted, in the first quarter of this year, a large number of interviews in Abu Dhabi and Al Ain. Witnesses of the era, men and women, talked about the exploits of the fathers and grandfathers that enrich the memory of the nation, add to the ancient Emirati values, and remain immortal for generations to learn from, what strengthens their belonging to the homeland and consolidates their national identity.
The interviews conducted by the National Archives recently with thirteen individual narrators varied; Men and women, to talk either about the life they lived or lived through, and what it was full of in the field of education, societal and economic events and other customs, traditions and values, or they spoke in particular about grazing, and the changes that occurred in the natural pastures in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, and ways to preserve them To ensure the sustainability of biodiversity resources.
Among the most prominent oral history interviewees: the narrator, Mrs. Fatima Muhammad Salem Al Mazrouei, who is a model for the interviews in which narrators talk about their lives; As there are many paths of her speech to cover the places of residence and the heat, the work of women in the food and wicker industry, the cooperation between people in the past, the generosity in receiving guests, the old travel to Al-Ain, and she remembers the first car, and her father’s work in diving and then in Saudi Arabia, and the first currency, and she describes the market The old center in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi and its objects, old games, the habits of the people of society during the month of Ramadan, the methods of teaching prayer, fasting and memorizing the Qur’an, the pilgrimage trip to Makkah Al-Mukarramah and Al-Madinah Al-Munawwarah, then the joy of Eid, the women’s dress and wearing the shayla and abaya for the first time, and she also remembers the customs And the traditions of marriage, and the multiplicity of types of dates in the eye in the past, and the methods of preserving dates, and obtaining water, and folk remedies that people used to treat in the past, and then the first hospital built in Al Ain, as you remember the sheikhs who lived with them, and in the forefront of them is the late – God willing – Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, and his efforts for the sake of the establishment of the union, and the growth, development and renaissance that resulted from his efforts, and his wisdom and advice to the people of his society.
The National Archives conducted a large number of documented audio and video interviews with the thirteen narrators in Abu Dhabi and Al Ain, namely Salem Eid Obaid Al Muhairi, Khalfan Jumaa Saif Al Kaabi, Rashid Ali Saif Al Nayli Al Shamsi, Muhammad Ali Saif Al Nayli Al Shamsi, Rabi` Saadoun bin Zuwaid Al Nuaimi, and Saleh Saeed Ahmed. Al-Khalis Al-Amiri, Obaid Saif Obaid Al-Kaabi, Zulaikha Muhammad Hassan Al-Hammadi, Fatima Al-Abd Khuzam Al-Amri, Fatima Salem Rashid Al-Ketbi, Fatima Muhammad Salem Al-Mazrouei, Kleitham Kishish Mubarak Al-Shamsi, and Maryam Juma Al-Kaabi.
These newly conducted interviews with the narrators joined the collection of interviews kept by the National Archives, which amounted to 913 interviews, to draw from their oral memory, which is a historical reference with their voices and expressions, and to add to the archive documentation of secondary events that were not monitored in the written documents, and in order to It enriches the information base, and increases the stock of oral history interviews that contribute to the production of researchers, academics, and those interested in the history and heritage of the state, and then preserved for future generations to see the lives of parents and grandparents, lifestyles and stages of development.
