Aida and the Rattles Players in the Presence of King Beye: A Cinematic Kushite Drama

By Kamal Eldeen Fadul Osman

This work of Kamal begins with archaeologists who were faced by a whole kingdom of Kush revealing itself before them in a fantasy that transcends history itself where time and ages overlap and intertwine and where personalities that lived centuries ago meet and enter into a dialogue where the author expresses and show a number of human values taking advantage from his abundant wealth of historical and archaeological knowledge.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Nov 26, 2019
• ISBN: 9781796072457

Book preview

Contents

Dedication:

Introduction by Professor Yousif Fadul Hassan:

The Search for Gold

List of references:

Appendices

Appendix No. (1)

Appendix No. (2)

Curriculum vitae

Aida and the Rattles Players In the Presence of King Beye

A Cinematic Kushite Drama:

By: Kamal Eldeen Fadul Osman.

Introduced by: Professor Yousif Fadul Hassan.

IN THE NAME OF ALLAH, THE

BENIFICIENT AND MERCIFUL

«Recite in the name of your Lord who created(1) Created man from a clinging substance (2) Recite, and your Lord is the most Generous(3) Who taught by the pen(4) Taught man that which he knew not(5)» Al-Alaq: 1-5

Dedication:

To the soul of

My mother Sit Aboha Khalil Nogdallah.

My father Fadul Osman Mohammed.

My father Basheer Osman Mohammed Fadul.

And to

My wife Jawahir Yagub

My sons ... and my grandchildren

All of them have my thanks and appreciation…

Thanks and appreciation:

To everyone who taught me a word or information that made this work possible..

I particularly extend my thanks to the following:

Professor Osama bdulrahman Alnoor.

Professor yousif Fadul Hassan.

Professor Abdulrahman Ali Mohamed.

Professor Salah Uddin Mohammed Ahmed

Professor Charles bonnet

Professor Mathew Honecker

Who all made valuable contribution to this work.

And thanks to all who contributed to the output of this work…

Cover design: The artist / Abdul Rahman Yahya

Print texts: Ehab Ahmed Babiker

Introduction by Professor Yousif Fadul Hassan:

I hesitated a lot before I responded to the request of my friend the famous theatrical and television director Kamal Fadul to write an introduction to his book the rattles players. And despite the fact that I found the work interesting and useful but it does not fall under my specialty as the field that is new to me and had no experience in such work. But after his relentless insistence I yielded and agreed to write my impressions about it not more.

I found that the author was quite skilful and persuasive in combining historical facts about ancient Sudan with an artistic piece of a dramatic events, I will not be exaggerating if I said it was one of the most interesting work of literature.

In fact the link between literature and history in Sudan, particularly in theatre, has never seized since the writings of Ibrahim AlAbadi, Khalid Abu Alroos, Al-Tahir Shibaika to Hashim Siddiqe, Yousif Aidabi and Khalid Al-Mubarak. They all based their dramatic work on historical facts such as in the plays of Al-Mack Nimir of Abadi, Suba destruction by of Abo Alroos and protected Sinnar of Shibaika and my beloved Napata of Hashim Siddiqe as well as the ostrich feathers of Khalid Al-Mubarak.

This work of Kamal begins with archaeologists who were faced by a whole kingdom of Kush revealing itself before them in a fantasy that transcends history itself where time and ages overlap and intertwine and where personalities that lived centuries ago meet and enter into a dialogue where the author expresses and show a number of human values taking advantage from his abundant wealth of historical and archaeological knowledge.

I was particularly fond of the scene of Aide’s entry, a character invented the French Egyptologist Mereth Pasha and composed by Verdi the Italian conductor in 1870 at the request of Khedive Ismail and was performed at the inauguration of the Egyptian Opera House. Kamal’s skilfulness is demonstrated in the way Aida introduced herself and in the dialogue between her and the priests in a smooth delicate manner that assures everyone that Aida is a Sudanese that fell in love with a Ptolemaic leader in Egypt and that Arkamani is the leader of the revolution of change in Meroe and that Amun is a Napatan God in the first place and also that Amunasir is the last to rebuild the old palace at Jabal Al-Barkal.

Most of these information are still under debate and opinions vary about it but the author took a position and formulated them in a dramatic manner that made it easy to accept and adopt by the reader. Here I quote the dialogue that I was talking about:

(Aida on a seat looking at the floor with sorrow)

(Cut)

Scene (41)

(The two priests enter looking surprisingly at Aida)

-tetermut: for God’s sake Madak, do you see what I see or am I dreaming?

-Madakmut: no she is real.

-tetermut: how did she arrive here and when?

(Aida stands between them)

-Aida: don’t rush into speculations dear priests, my name is Aida from an upcoming age and my uncle is King Arkamani or Argamins as people call him.

-the two priests together: Arka!!

-Aida: yes, the leader of the revolution of change in Merowe.

-the priests: and who is your father?

-Aida: my father is Amonasro, Arkamani’s successor.

-tetermut: you mean the last king who reconstructed the old palace at the sacred mountain?

-Aida: yes, before it was replaced by the new palace.

-Madakmut: how strange is that?

-Aida: am a Kushite Meroitic princess known for falling in love with a Ptolemaic prince in Egypt.

With such a smooth style the author show and discusses a number of historical events and some from his own imagination as we see the rattles players dance before our eyes. While Shabako writes the first artistic work I history.. the author goes on to immerse the reader in his world of fantasy where reality mixes with myth and imagination, leaving the reader in a state of confusion and joy akin to the feelings of joy of a mother giving birth to her first baby, a mixture of emotions that resembles the calling of Pyie from the afterlife when he comes from Egypt after quelling the rebellion there…a scene that you can’t resist reading it again and again.

Dear reader am glad to invite you to read this wonderful book which am sure will be a valuable addition to the Arab and Sudanese library.

Professor: Yousif Fadul Hassan

The Search for Gold

Visibly tired four men of different ages stand around a well they dug in a rented land plot in search for gold.

• Amin (trader and financier),

So what else can we do? We have been digging and searching for more than two months.

• Student (worker),

You got frustrated or tired?

Amin: Our efforts only resulted in frustration and evaporated dreams. We have to come to a unanimous decision.

• Employee,

•