Aragouz historically tools of satire and criticism
CAIRO: The Egyptian people have never been shy about voicing their opinions and at times they can even be quite innovative in how they chose to do so.
Historically folkloric art has been instrumental in exposing controversial issues, using the humble aragouz (puppet) as the tool. For many years, the aragouz mimicked, improvised, debated and recounted its way through history, enlivening public discourse and satirizing political figures along the way.
The aragouz represented a defense mechanism at the time of the British occupation and earlier, explained Nabil Bahgat, lecturer of Arab theater at Zaqaqiq University. I personally consider it the theater of the suppressed.
During the Ottoman Empire an aragouz would follow the sultan to criticize his policies. Later in the 19th century – and until the end of the British occupation in the early 20th – the aragouz would play a political role in criticizing the situation and raising people s awareness of the vices of colonialism.
The aragouz is a small doll whose head is made of wood. A puppeteer who sits behind a small booth controls it. The puppeteer usually sings, chants narration and speaks either in monologue or conversation between two aragouz puppets or more.
Usually the aragouz is a playful, smart character who acts as a simple citizen who is willing to take revenge for the poor and sarcastically exposes reality.
The text of the scenes performed by the aragouz is called baba. Scenes usually incorporate 12 characters including the miserly man, the policeman and the wife and husband.
Nobody knows exactly when the aragouz started as an art. Whatever its beginnings; the aragouz is now at a crossroads.
One of the oldest aragouz puppeteers alive is Mostafa Othman – known as Am Saber Al-Masry. Al-Masry has been working in this field for 40 years now.
Born in 1939, Al-Masry learned this art from the late comedian, aragouz puppeteer and monologist Mahmoud Shokokoh. When he was a young kid he would climb a tree overlooking the casino where Shokokoh used to play to watch him.
Thanks to Shokokoh and the folkloric muwlid, I managed to learn the movements, to use al-amana [an instrument a puppeteer puts in his mouth to produce the aragouz s funny squeaky voice] and the other aspects featuring an aragouz show, Al-Masry recalled. Then I eventually worked in the field.
For Al-Masry, the relationship between a puppeteer and his aragouz puppet is like that of a father and son. My aragouz is 30 years old. I change its clothes when they get dirty and I take care of it, he passionately explained.
Al-Masry and the few remaining other puppeteers are having a hard time making a living as, according to him, people now depend on the DJ and other means of entertainment at their parties and celebrations. I just sit at Al-Fananeen (Artists) café in Mohamed Ali Street waiting for my bounty, he said.
Now Al-Masry is a key member in Wamda group, which is working hard on reviving this art and protecting it from dying out.
