(#047) A Guitarist in Gaza: An Interview with Ahmed Muin Abu Amsha
Every week, a story from the world about how music can help us make sense of reality and how reality can help us make sense of music.
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Ahmed Muin Abu Amsha is a musician. Born in Beit Hanoun, in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, Ahmed taught guitar at the American International School of Gaza City and at the Edward Said National Conservatory of Music. He had a recording studio, a band, and worked on several audio commercials for Palestinian companies. All of that ended at three o’clock in the morning one night in December of last year, when he received a call at his house in Beit Hanoun. It was Israeli soldiers. They told him that he had five minutes to take his family and get out of the house and away from the city. So he did: Ahmed, his five kids, and the rest of his family did not even have the time to grab shoes: they left the house in bare feet and started running. Soon after, the neighborhood where they used to live was bombed, and Ahmed’s recording studio was destroyed.
After several months in which he moved further and further towards the south with his family, Ahmed today lives in Khan Younis, in south Gaza. He lives in a tent by the beach and has found a way to channel his talent, artistic vision, and skills to serve his community. A few months ago, he launched a music therapy project for kids, whose purpose is to commence and substantiate the process of healing from a trauma that kids often cannot even begin to understand. Every week, about eighty kids of all ages from Ahmed’s camp meet in small groups with instructors to sing and learn to play guitar, oud and ney (a big flute-like instruments that is typical of the area). Given that schools are closed, Ahmed’s music gatherings are a way to give them a purpose, an alternative to playing on the streets, and a glimpse of what their normality could, and hopefully will, be like. In a place where there are no food, no water, no electricity, no clothing and no medicine this kind of project may appear crazy. Yet, in a city in which half of the population is underage, the need for a project that explicitly focuses on kids’ psychological conditions going forward is more practical than it may appear.
While connection in Khan Younis is scarce not to say barely existent, there are a few spots from which, through some complicated cable maneuvering, it is possible to access the internet. It is while he is at one of these spots that I managed to reach Ahmed for a little over thirty minutes of conversation. We talked about him and his story, how his project was developed and how it operates on a daily basis, his vision for his future and the future of the community he belongs to, and his hopes. Below is a transcript of our conversation, edited for length and clarity.
How did you end up in Khan Younis?
After we left Beit Hanoun, we went to Jabalia, in Central Gaza. We stayed at a school but then Israeli soldiers bombed it. I saw many kids die in front of my eyes. I have seen things that I had never seen in my life and that I hope to never see again, kids and women dying, screaming, crying. There is a crying voice that never leaves my mind and that I hear every night when I try to sleep. After that, we went to Nasser, and then for the first time to Khan Yunis. I wasn’t yet working with music therapy because the situation was very bad. You could hear explosions wherever you were and there was simply no way or time to think. So we went to Rafah, where the situation was relatively safe for a while. That’s where I first had the idea of making a music group. Suddenly, though, we were once again displaced and we returned to Khan Younis where I live right now.
When and why did you start your music therapy project?
It was in Rafah. I was seeing kids just spending their days playing on the streets and not having anything to do. The idea was to keep the children busy with something else. After a few days, the families of the kids involved came to thank me for giving their kids something to do. “You changed our kids. They are better,” they said. So I decided to start a proper music therapy project in Rafah. Step by step, we assembled a big team, of about 50 kids. We sang and played the guitar. Then, when we ended up in Khan Younis, I started again. Here, there are many very talented kids here that know something about music so we are working well.
How many kids do you work with and how old are they?
Right now, about eighty, both boys and girls. They are aged between 6 and 20.
What does a weekly schedule look like?
Every week we have two sessions singing, two of guitar, two with oud, and two with ney. I have a few colleagues from the Edward Said National Conservatory of Music that are displaced in Khan Younis like me, so I asked them for their help and they agreed to hold classes for children for free. We have teachers for each of the sessions. I teach guitar.
Where do you meet to hold your sessions?
Usually, we just meet in my tent. In most of Khan Younis there are currently no schools, buildings or even chairs, so I simply bring some wood to make chairs, and we hold our sessions there. When I told my family that we would use that space for my guitar sessions they said not to worry and they help me out however they can.
How many instruments do you work with?
That’s a big issue for us. Most houses that contained instruments are gone, so there are probably just two ouds in all of southern Gaza. One is at the place of a friend of mine so every time there is a session I go and borrow it, bring it to the oud teacher, and then bring it back. For my sessions, I managed to borrow two guitars for about ten to fifteen kids. When we can, we make instruments with out hands. We made a few neys from plastic pipes. We take the measurements and just figure it out.
How do people there react when you tell them about your music therapy project?
Right now we are famous in Khan Younis. Everybody knows us and calls us unstoppable and see how we make children happy despite the war and the explosions and that is good. Of course, some think thought I am crazy. We need food, water, tents more than music. I said no, the kids need this.
Why is this project needed specifically for kids?
Everything I have seen in this war has brought me trauma. Yet I think to myself that I am big, I am a man, and I understand everything that is happening. I know what trauma is and I know that I am experiencing it. What about the kids, though? How can they deal with these things? I feel the need to help them, to heal them from this feeling they do not have the instruments to describe. Older people are tired and ill and stressed and can’t sleep, but for kids this is even bigger because they cannot really understand, quantify, or define the trauma they are experiencing. Older people can. Music is a language that can be used to communicate with them and real musicians have the sensitivity to do so. They feel things other don’t. That’s why I think it is crucial that music be at the center of this healing process.
How do you see the situation going forward?
The situation is complicated but everything has a beginning and an end. I know it will not stay like that. Some day this madness will end. I see the kids need help though: one of our sessions is not enough, these things need time. During the war I am going to continue with this, and after the war ends I want to make a big music therapy institute in north Gaza, then south Gaza, then countries around the area in the Middle East, and then the whole world because this kind of project regards everybody. And I know that when you dream and you believe in that dream, nothing can stop you.
What’s a last message that you’d like to send us?
We are innocent people, we love life and we just want to live in peace. And we are tired. Really, we are tired. We live in tents, there is no food, there is no home. I want everybody to know this story.
To support Ahmed and his project, you can donate some money to his GoFundMe page and you can follow him on Instagram. His account is experiencing difficulties: his followers shrink for no apparent reasons besides his activity aand the views on his reels often plummet. For this reason, support is particularly appreciated.
I’ll be in your inbox next Sunday, with another story and feel free to reach me by emailing me at zeric.bojan@gmail.com or contacting me on Instagram at bojan.zer0.