A passage from Abdulrazak Gurnahās 2001 novel By the Sea was the starting point for our third session which was devoted to remembrances. In this extract, the protagonist, sixty-two-year-old Saleh Omar, is humiliated by the customs officer at Gatwick airport who, in a theatrically exaggerated manner, displays the meagre contents of his suitcase and confiscates the only valuable possession he took with him from Zanzibar: a small casquet containing the perfume ud-al-qamari. Ā As it is, ud-al-qamari is his emotional link with his homeland, which he is obliged to leave for fear of his life. When Kevin Edelman, the customs officer at Gatwick, dispossesses Saleh Omar from his precious object, this is felt as a theft, as an illegal act sanctioned by the law, and this is exactly the way that our participants interpreted the scene and connected it with the theft of the Chagos Islands. We think it is worth reproducing the whole passage:
āWhatās this?ā he asked, then carefully sniffed the open casket. It was hardly necessary, as the little room had filled with glorious perfume as soon as he opened the box. [ā¦] So I didnāt tell him that it was ud-al-qamari of the best quality, all that remained of a consignment I had acquired more than thirty years ago, and which I could not bear to leave behind when I set out on this journey into a new life. When I looked up again I saw that he would steal it from me.
Ud-al-qamari: its fragrance comes back to me at odd times, unexpectedly, like a fragment of a voice or the memory of my belovedās arm on my neck (Gurnah 13 & 14)
The historical, emotional and cultural import attached to the wooden casquet of ud-al-qamari led us to request the participants to bring any objects that they regarded as part of their history to form part of what we called the history box. The rationale behind this exercise was that these objects could be placed within a box and could be sent to outer space as an example of their culture so if any being opened the box they would have an idea of what this culture meant for humanity.Ā Among the objects that the participants chose for the history box were sand and shells from the islands, conscientiously preserved by the older members of the group, which they had collected on the pilgrimage trip they were allowed in 2006. The younger members of the group suggested putting a fishing rod in the box as a reminder of the profession of many of the inhabitants of the islands.Ā The bomme and the zeze, musical instruments used in sega singing and dancing, were also considered to represent their culture and the inclusion of a pikĆ©, a tool used to cut up coconuts, indicated the widespread use of the fruit in their cuisine as well as a tribute to the major export and source of livelihood of the archipelago.