Nationalist Voices in Jordan: The Street and the State

1. THE WRITING OF A NATIONAL NARRATIVE

o n e THE WRITING OF A NATIONAL NARR ATIVE We have struggled and we have fought from the beginning, and on behalf of a message, just as our fathers and grandfathers fought beforehand, in defense of their message, the message of unity, the message of freedom, the message of strength, the message of building, the message of protecting our sacred things and our sacred land, and the message of protecting the land of the Arabs for the unity of the Arabs. king hu sayn1 King Husayn holds the “hearts of the people.”2 a l-tar ikh al-
ar abi al-hadit h, modern arab history The quotes above come from history textbooks published by the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in 1959 and 1975, respectively. The theme of these quotes and of the textbooks as a whole is: The Hashemites are Jordan ; Jordan is the Hashemite family. A sample sentence says, “The Arabs in Jordan welcomed Emir
Abdullah bin Husayn with a great fervor, and they gave to him the title of savior of Syria. In April 1921, the Emir established a government for his Emirate.”3 Subsequently, the subject of sentence after sentence is the reigning Hashemite king and the state he controls. The citizens of the country have no faces and no names. The British creators of the state are merely a force to be fought by the Hashemite kings. His Majesty King
Abdullah continued until the end of the Second World War to struggle to end the British Mandate in Jordan. In spring 1946, His 1 T3118.indb 1 T3118.indb 1 1/4/05 12:53:17 PM 1/4/05 12:53:17 PM n at i o n a l i s t v o i c e s i n j o r d a n 2 Majesty went to London to demand independence for his country, and for his patience and his political wisdom, he signed with Britain a new treaty abrogating the Mandate over Jordan.4 Regardless of the fact that the Hashemites themselves were foreigners to Jordan, the lesson to be learned is that Jordan could not exist without the Hashemites. To succeed in their transformation from Hijazis to Jordanians , the Hashemites had literally to “imagine” the state because no such entity called Jordan existed before the establishment of its boundaries and administrative structures in 1921.5 They then had to manufacture institutions and a narrative inextricably connecting Jordanians to a state ruled by them. Concomitantly, the Hashemites expropriated, as part and parcel of Hashemite lore and biography, events that had taken place throughout history, yet were now bounded by the borders of twentiethcentury Jordan.6 These textbooks instruct students to look to Kings
Abdullah and Husayn as the generators of state largesse; to thank
Abdullah and Husayn for protecting the rights of the Palestinians; and to reward
Abdullah and Husayn with their loyalty. His Majesty Emir
Abdullah attached importance to opening schools and spreading education among all levels of the society, just as he was concerned with the army and with improving the economy of the country and in organizing the administrative apparatus. There hastened to Transjordan many of the Arabs of Palestine and Syria to live under the protection of a just, democratic Arab government and to enjoy what Transjordan had to offer in terms of security and prosperity.7 The overall message conveyed is that students should express their gratitude to the Hashemites. As for the faceless residents of this new state, the textbooks discuss them only in relation to the places where they live: in “urban,” “rural,” and “nomadic” areas.8 The textbooks provide only simple recitations of their lifestyles and the type of schooling required for each group. For example, urban residents have a decreasing appreciation for the customs and traditions existing in the villages. Discussion of the rural areas highlights the need to reconfigure education to focus on the particular concerns of agriculture. In both areas, the biggest problem is the need for more social and recreational centers to give people direction in their free time. In discussions of the bedouin areas, subdivided into nomadic, seminomadic , and settled categories, the texts stress the people’s reliance on T3118.indb 2 T3118.indb 2 1/4/05 12:53:19 PM 1/4/05 12:53:19 PM t h e w r i t i n g o f a n...