Dar Onboz' cases full of exquisite Arabic picture books
A small apartment in Beirut. A flying fish on the wall. A display cabinet of dead beetles. And in one corner of the living room – where, as you will frequently find in apartments in this city, a lot is happening all at once – a glowing wooden model of the legendary Baron Hotel in Aleppo. This is where Nadine Touma lives, where she works, and where she sells the books published by her publishing house Dar Onboz, which are spread out on two long tables. For many years now, Dar Onboz has been making the question of what an Arab children’s book is redundant, with great aplomb.
Dar Onboz was founded in the summer of 2006, during the war against Israel. Its founders, Nadine Touma and Sivine Ariss, viewed it as a personal act of resistance against a violence that they both remembered from the days of the civil war.
Their initial list consisted of five books. Every one of them was a mini revolution. Board books for crawling babies had barely existed here before. And the work illustrated by Areej Mahmoud in black Chinese ink was a first, too – not just because it was entirely black and white, but because his story was told solely in the form of questions ("Are all heroes boys?"). There was also an accompanying CD of music specially composed for the book by Charbel Haber, who is known in Beirut as a pioneer of experimental music.
It was the first time children’s books had appeared in hardback in this cultural sphere, with the names of both author and illustrator on the cover – all things that seem natural in other languages, but were not for children’s books in Arabic.
For a long time, Arabic children’s books had a reputation for being didactic, for finger-wagging stories with religious underpinnings or a political bias. And for being printed on thin paper, making them look cheap in comparison to the other offerings in Lebanon’s polyglot bookshops.
If children are made to think that all the beautiful books, all the lovingly illustrated and imaginatively told stories are only available in French or English, what kind of attitude are they likely to develop towards their mother tongue? That is the key question driving Nadine Touma and Sivine Ariss.
New books are on ice
They have caused some amazement with the design and format of their books. Some are illustrated with collages and linocuts, others in oils or ink. They are almost always accompanied by music, arranged by Sivine Ariss in such a way as to make unusual links – such as when a traditional instrument like the kanun strikes up a lullaby, or a piece from the repertoire of Western classical music. And almost all the books have some kind of add-ons, in the form of videos, paper model kits, mobiles, peep-show boxes, posters, postcards or construction kits.
Over the years, Dar Onboz has developed a substantial fanbase. They follow the two women on their "Dar Onboz Journeys", which take them all over the country. To readings in mosques and schools. Into the tents of the protest movement, which populated the centre of Beirut a year ago. And onscreen too, where Nadine Touma has been playing the role of the Arab storyteller, the hakawati, streaming herself into people’s homes during lockdown.
But she has now had to abandon the core part of her business: publishing books. The economic crisis in Lebanon has seen the value of the Lebanese currency plummet, which is devastating for a country that imports the majority of its goods and has to pay in dollars on the world markets. Every industry is affected, including publishing: paper and ink are imported, as are replacement parts for the printing machines. Like many businesspeople in the country, Nadine Touma and Sivine Ariss are currently selling off what stock they already have. New books have been put on ice.
Associated with political speeches and religious sermons
The customer base has changed. "When the protests broke out last autumn, they awakened the curiosity of the diaspora in particular," says Touma. For many Lebanese people who have emigrated to Canada, Brazil, France or the United States, hope of regime change is linked to a growing interest in the country’s culture and language. This has given rise to the "Dar Onboz Ambassadors", who have quickly become important props for the business: they come, fill a suitcase with books, fly back and sell them to the Lebanese community abroad.
"In the past six months, mind you, our best customers have been students," says Touma, who is not surprised by this. Over the course of the protests, their interest has also been reawakened in a language that, although they use it every day, they were never taught at school.
Schools in Lebanon usually follow French and English curricula, and teach Arabic as if it were a foreign language. There is a lack of teaching materials in Arabic. And where they do exist, as in the small encyclopaedia of flying published by Touma and Ariss – which contains stories about migratory birds, for whom the flight across Lebanon is particularly dangerous due to all the hunters; of the swamps on the Beqaa plain that give them a place to rest; of the skeleton of a flying dinosaur that was found in the mountains – where the material for a unit of teaching does exist, then, the Arabic language is sometimes met with mistrust, even from those who speak it.
Arabic is commonly associated with political speeches and religious sermons. And with the little details of daily life. "But you hardly ever associate it with cultural themes," says Touma. And certainly not when it comes to the Lebanese dialect, which dominates at Dar Onboz, as opposed to Modern Standard Arabic.
A tiresome discussion
The children’s book prize that has been awarded during the Sharjah book fair for several years now, and is designed to support the very slowly growing sector, also only goes to titles in standard Arabic. Dar Onboz has never entered, on principle. But it has attracted attention all the same, especially in Italy and Germany: it has won several prizes at the children’s book fair in Bologna, and the "White Raven" in Munich. But finding readers in the West beyond this has been difficult. Only one book from their list has so far been translated – a graphic novel for adults.
"Publishers from the West often ask me what’s Arab about our books," Nadine Touma says. A tiresome discussion. You sense it’s one that Touma has had many times. Her books don’t tell stories of refugee journeys, displacement and war. They are about cunning mice, migratory birds and passing time, bored balls going outside in search of adventure.
Her design is packed with references to the art of calligraphy. But also to M.C. Escher, Matisse, Durer and Bauhaus. "It’s always easier if we’re victims," says Nadine Touma. "It gets much more difficult if we try to do something with dignity."
© FAZ / Qantara.de 2021
Translated from the German by Ruth Martin
Dar Onboz is an independent award winning Lebanese publishing house, co-founded by Nadine Touma and Sivine Ariss, that creates artistic picture books for children and adults.