Hilda letter November 1900 (Drower 2004: 159-160):
“outside the gate is Ali’s square hut, with a yard of bus, and a mud mastaba, and a mud oven where his wife bakes our bread.
She is a rather pleasant little girl who wears a great deal of Arab jewellery, bakes very good bread, and sits sewing a teqieh (embroidered skull-cap) all day long. We have short talks often, but she talks very provincial Arabic, or perhaps it is women’s talk, so we don’t understand each oteher very well.”
Of all these striking images, this portrait is the most poignant for me. A reminder of a small community living on a tiny island at the edge of the Nile just south of Luxor,where during two visits I had the pleasure of drawing a number of women in their mud home.
ReplyDeletePoignant, because this tiny community has now been moved off the island.
Sriking, as this image could have been taken just two or three years ago!
Adele Wagstaff (Faces of Egypt exhibition 2009)
It is still a reality in many parts of Sub-Saharan Africa.
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