when the Sahara desert used to be green
two poems and a history lesson
stone-age embrace pantoum
she was always the blanket for the girls, the safe cave,
the petals that hide the bumblebees from the monsoon.
only the mother knows what trembles in her children's hands,
only she senses the urgency of the water dripping from
the petals that hide the bumblebees from the monsoon.
her shoulders never ached while carrying the clay vessels, all the
urgency of the water dripping and dripping from
her honey-dewed face, as her girls rest on her hips.
her shoulders never ached while carrying the clay vessels, all the
arrows of invisibility piercing through the river when she sees
her reflection, her honey-dewed face as her girls rest on her hips.
at the right angle, the curling ripples of sunlight will get closer and
arrows of invisibility will pierce through the river as she sees
the wide blue lips of the river. swallowing the two hearts that held her so close.
at the right angle, the curling ripples of sunlight will get closer.
fingers intertwined like acacia. the clay vessel cracks—dust drowning
as the blue lips of the river swallowed the three hearts that held each other so close.
only the mother knows what trembles in her children's hands. the fear in the
fingers intertwined like acacia. the clay vessel cracks. drowning, because
she was always the blanket of the girls, forever the safe cave.
[A pantoum is a poetry format where EVERY line is repeated, the second and fourth line of each stanza repeats in the next stanza, but in the first and third position. And in the last stanza, the first and third line of the first stanza repeats as the second or fourth line.]
ghazal on the apparitions of the Green Sahara
the archeologist brushes the skull carefully, souls flying in the dust,
bone upon stone upon bone, a cemetery was found living in the dust.
sand melts through my fingers like it’s reincarnated from water, scarlet-stained
figures & handprints on caves of sandstone, see the swimmers diving in the dust?
the sun spreads its bony wings across the dunes, weightless feathers of gold piercing
through sand like blunt ivory harpoons, even fish were once swimming in the dust.
the stars smudge in the sky like landmarks on a crumpled map, the only compass
for the weary souls that came before. hear the tender hands pleading in the dust?
pottery cracks in their rib cages, art of clay breathes in humans made of clay.
we are made of the thing we sleep in. tonight, find my flesh crumbling in the dust.
eight thousand years or more, life sprouted from barren land. I think of them like I
think of myself. tonight I’m out with a shovel, finding myself in the dust.
The First Time the existence of life on the Sahara desert was considered
In 1930s, the Hungarian cartographer László Almásy was exploring the Sahara Desert, specifically the Gilf Kebir plateau in Western Egypt. What he found was astonishing for an area so dry and remote, that no signs of life were present. He entered a cave, in which the sandstone walls seemed to have drawings on them, reddish-brown figures, giraffes, elephants, and the weirdest of all, drawings of swimmers. Swimmers in a landscape like the Sahara! The cave turned out to be named Cave of Swimmers. It was suggested by Almasy that maybe the Sahara used to have lakes, and was not so dry as it is now. But this was not a popular theory at the time since there was no archeological nor geographical evidence.
The Cave of Beasts was discovered much more recently in 2002 by archeologists, Ahmed Mestikawi and Massimo and Jacopo Foggini. Named such because there are many drawings of supernatural-looking creatures. Both are located in the Wadi Sura (the valley of the pictures). By using carbon dating techniques, it was found that these rock paintings are dated more than 7000 years ago.
When old drawings are found like this, the people that drew them usually drew what was around them. So to see giraffes, elephants, grass and swimmers in lakes, all meant that the Sahara was once green. But how to confirm this?
Discovery of the largest Stone Age cemetery in the Sahara desert
In the year 2000, Paleontologist Paul Sereno was trying to find dinosaur remains in the Sahara desert that's part of Niger (Tenere), but upon excavation, the fossils (bones) that were found were too dark, and scattered around on the entire area. These bones were definitely belonging to species that are much more recent. Crocodile bones, fish bones, hippo bones, many types of vertebrates, all were excavated. But then human skulls were found. Not just a few bones, WHOLE intact skeletons. Skeleton upon skeleton upon skeleton, this area was a graveyard, dated from 8000B.C to 3000 B. C. That's 5000 years of civilization. 5000 years. This archeological site is now called Gobero.
Maybe death was the only evidence we needed for life.
So…5000 years of civilization in a desert? How?
The Sahara was not always a desert. To understand this part of history we must understand the geography behind it.
Our planet moves a lot. It spins on its own, which causes day and night, by rotating around itself. One rotation takes 24 hours. It has many movements but none of them are really consistent, they change in cycles.
Orbital axis, also known as eccentricity. How the earth spins around the sun. There are certain times the earth is further away from the sun, sometimes more near than others, so this cycle is 100,000 years.
Obliquity, which is the tilt of the sun at its axis, at 23.5 degrees to be exact. The tilt’s cycle is about 41000 years.
Axial precession, which is how earth “wobbles” on its axis. Kind of like when you spin those toys on the floor, how it wobbles after a certain point, but still spins. One precession is 25,000 years.
These three are called the Milankovitch cycles. What really affects the difference in climate in this case, is axial precession.
As the Earth moves around its orbit to the sun, the closest to where it is to the sun occurs in early January, when the northern hemisphere winter is tilted towards the side OPPOSING the sun. But because of the earth's “wobble”, the earth could've tilted in a different way during the Green Sahara period, which is thought to be in July, so the northern hemisphere summer faced the sun.
So you would think, hey, if the earth is facing the sun now, there should be more solar radiation striking earth right, so it would be way hotter and the Sahara would be more of a desert than it is now? Yes for the first part. There was 7 percent more solar radiation in the African humid period.
But it was this heat that allowed the monsoons! During the summers, the land would get really hot and this hot air rises, allowing water from the Atlantic Ocean to cause the seasonal monsoons. So in summers they had regular monsoons. Which means, lakes and rivers existed, the landscape was grassland. And not only did these people rely on rain water, there was also groundwater. Wherever there is water, there is life. There is civilization.
Okay back to the history.
The Civilizations
9700 years ago, the first people to settle in Gobero were the Kiffians. They were really tall, men and women were both easily over 6 feet. They had really strong bones, which means they had a good diet. They hunted fish and crocodiles with weapons (harpoons and spears) made of hippo bone and ivory. They were the ones who created the cemetery of Gobero. Their pottery had distinct wavy lines. And they had a very distinct method of burying their dead, they would bind the bodies in a very tight position before placing them in the dust:
8000 years ago, the rain decreased at the site and so the Kiffian population decreased, perhaps moved to somewhere else. But by about 7000 - 7200 years ago, the Tenerian people settled in Gobero, and used the same burial site! These people were shorter and lighter in build compared to the Kiffians. They also knew how to deal with livestock, suggested by the presence of cow bones, which does not date to the time of the Kiffians. These people hunted with bows and arrows, their jewelry made of ivory and eggshells. They had a different way of burying the dead, not like the accordion.
But by 4500 years ago, the climate began to get worse, due to the precession cycle. Gobero dried out, and so did any signs of human life. It was not a place to live in permanently anymore.
My thoughts
Thousands of years ago, people lived with their own traditions and cultures, burying their loved ones in flower beds. Making jewelry, pottery, drawings, creating art. Doing the same thing we do now, because we are human. And I think the best part of learning history for me, is seeing myself in those people. Feeling, maybe not what they felt, but feeling for them. I think it is crazy that a land that was once so lush with greenery and wildlife, just became a landscape where human life is almost impossible.
There are thousands of untold stories, myths, LANGUAGES buried under the dunes, and we might never know. It is so intriguing. I am not a mother, but I felt so deeply by the stone-age embrace of a woman and her offspring, how close they are, how they were buried over flowers, these are people that were loved, I felt so much I wrote a poem about them. And we still don't know who they are, what their story is, how did they even die. I think it is beautiful to be forgotten by people on earth, but I also think it's beautiful to be found and remembered, even if it’s thousands of years late. I think whenever we talk about history we should remember that those skeletons excavated were people too, people who had memories, who loved the world or who hated the world, who had favourite things, who did stuff just like you and I did.
Sources
source of pictures and context of them
amazing video that basically covers everything
love,
afifa
This is such beautiful piece! I love you said that these people were forgotten but found again and remembered, that's so beautiful! It's crazy to think about how much the earth has changed over time. Like there were people who lived even during the ice ages and I've always wondered how life was for those people.
the pantoum was so lovely 🥺🥺