I once asked several local friends to tell me about their lives before the Union and in the early years just after. They recounted to me a gentler existence in which their daily lives were much more involved with the environment in which they lived. Their needs were simpler but harder to reach and a lot of their work was towards producing food and water. Communications and transport between the Emirates was much harder and a lot of families still lived a very tribe-based lifestyle. Here are a few of the stories they shared with me. I have changed the local names to protect their anonymity.
Ahmed from Kalba on the East Coast told me that when he was a boy, he and his friends attended the local Mosque to learn the Quran every afternoon but often they would not go (especially in the hotter months) and they would run around the Palm groves and swim in the water tanks and the Falajah water channels where the water was cool and they could eat fallen dates or pick mangoes in the season. They used to use fishing lines they found on the beach and after spending hours untangling them they would set snares to catch birds by the leg so they could then keep them as pets.
When he got older he would spend his summers on the farm up in the mountain wadis and he and his grandfather would produce and collect salt for trading with other villages in the mountains. To do this they would ride to the coast at Kalba and when the tides were low, dig pools at the high tide mark which when the tide came and filled them would be left standing in the sun so the water could evaporate leaving a dirty residue of salt crusted around the edge of the pool. They would collect this and store it in clay pots and when they had enough (after several days) they would transport it all by donkey back to the village to issue for cooking and for salting meat to store it or for trading. Ahmed told me that everywhere along the seashore where there wasn’t salt there would be layers of small fish drying in the sun from the day’s catch and the air would be thick with flies and the smell would catch the back of his throat!
Another friend, Bedr grew up in the desert in the Western Region and his family had camels which they kept for milk and to trade with. Their milk herds were the dark black camels (Mujaheen) and their trade herd were the red camels (Asayel). Bedr grew up listening to his uncles and his grandfather singing the traditional songs which were really historical stories and they would be invited to weddings and special events to perform and the partygoers would pay them and feed them well. They would also compete with each other amongst the families and farms to see who had the best camels. They would use categories like the best milk producers and the most beautiful camels. These competitions are still run today at festivals like the one at Al Dhafra in the Western Region which runs all through December every year. It attracts camel owners from all over the GCC and they come to compete and to buy and sell camels. Bedr used to go for long walks with his grandfather in the desert and he would learn all about the plants and animals and their food benefits or their medicinal uses. Sometimes they would capture an animal to keep as a pet for a few months and to learn about it. Bedr’s favourite was the huge Dhrub lizard (spiny tailed lizard). They would set handfuls of leaves on fire to produce smoke and place them at one entrance to the Dhrubs home which was a hole in the sand, then they would go round the back of the mound of sand and wait for the Dhrub to use the emergency exit they dug and they would catch them with a net. He said he and his sisters would walk the lizard like a dog with a collar round its neck but their grandfather would always make them release it back in to the wild so it could breed.
My friend Abdulrahim who is from the Fujairah emirate used to go with his friends and their mothers by old Land Cruiser or Land Rover to the fort at Bithna on the Kalba to Fujairah Road. The fort was above a wadi and the banks were surrounded with lush farms because the wadi always had water in it. Even in the height of summer it was possible to find standing pools under the shade of the date farms and he and his friends used to swim and splash in the water to stay cool whilst their mothers would sit on the edge and paddle their feet and talk. When the water was high in the rainy season it would flow from pool to pool like a small river and there would be little fish that could be caught in the shallows using cupped hands. They would sometimes catch lots of them and fry them on a fire by the pools for lunch. The families would bring big old kettles to make sweet black tea and bitter Arabic coffee. Abdulrahim’s mother would carry the spices for the tea or coffee in a small pouch in the pocket of her abaya so he always knew when they were going out to picnic because he would smell a mix of cardamom, cinnamon and clove when he stood next to his mother.
On Fridays Abdulrahim would go to the Bull Butting Competition with his father. It was held on a square piece of dirt just up from the sea shore and all the local farms who kept bulls would come. These were massive Brahma bulls with the enormous shoulders and a ring through their nose to control them. Two of them would face each other, and then lock horns in a competition to see which could push the other back three paces to win. It wasn’t just about the size of the bull or how much it weighed, it also came down to experience in the ring and skill and often the lighter smaller bulls would win. Every year the ruling Sheikhs would put up prizes for the winner of the season to take home but for the families involved a lot more was at stake and to them it was about family honour. The bulls lived a luxury life with the best fodder and regular exercise up and down the beach with their handlers.
After the Union in 1971 these traditions continued but some faded away. Swimming in pools beside the tracks and roads became a rarely possible trip as the water levels in the wadis dropped as more people lived near them and drew water. Now it’s really only the day or two after heavy rains that this can be done. You can still attend the Bull Butting in Fujairah every Friday in the season and there is a Royal perpetuity fund that ensures there will always be prizes each year so this tradition can continue. You can also travel to the Dhafra festival in the Western Region (outside Madinat Zayed City) in December to see the Camel festival which is one of the biggest in the GCC. Sadly it is now rare to see a Dhrub lizard in the wild. You can drive into the Hajar Mountains and find old date farms with tall trees giving plenty of shade and concrete channels between them to irrigate the farm. It is also still possible to see a lot of wildlife in the form of birds and insects on these farms. The practice of collecting salt died out when it became readily available in the markets but you can still see the fisherman drying their catch beside the road in Kalba in the hot sun and it really does smell so keep your windows wound up!
Words By: Dan Wright
Photos By: Nirjala Tamrakar, Dan Wright and Ajmal Hassan
