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Young Kuwaiti divers brave peak of summer heat to glorify ancestors

Kuwaiti young man revives pearl-diving folkloric activity
Kuwaiti young man revives pearl-diving folkloric activity

   By Hamed Al-Amiri
   KUWAIT, Aug 21 (KUNA) -- Kuwait has witnessed the annual pearl-diving folkloric festival, with some 200 youth boarding wooden dhows, scouring the seawaters and hunting for pearls, bringing to life one of the ancestors' bread-winning hard tasks.
   "Al-Gefal," the natives' term for conclusion of the week-long adventure at the sea, took place at Al-Khairan seas-side resort, some 100 kilometers south of the Kuwaiti capital, where 200 enthusiastic youngsters demonstrated the pearls they picked from the seabed, using primitive diving tools, just as the Kuwaiti divers used to do in the old times.
   Veteran skippers (Nokhathas), who led the Kuwaiti youth in the annual folkloric adventure, told KUNA that the activity reflected the young generation's interest in the ancestors' sea heritage and glorified some of the sacrifices given by the old generations for sake of earning bread at times Kuwait had very limited resources.
   By involving in the adventure, the Kuwaiti youth could experience, to a limited extent, some of the hardships the old generation used to bear, however such difficulties were easily coped with by close solidarity and cooperation among the divers and skippers at sea, one veteran captain said.
   This year's adventure, organized by Kuwait Sea Sporting Club, was particularly difficult for the young men who had to endure the peak of the summer heat, hitting more than 47 degrees, and high humidity, however, they had shown eagerness to endure the hardships just for sake of following steps of the forefathers.
   As in the pre-oil times, the expedition had gotten underway, with a chain of wooden dhows sailing gracefully across the waters, to cheers of crowds of parents, families and relatives and other spectators who gathered at the Khairan harbor.
   The flotilla had sailed, on daily basis, at sunrise, to the sound of "Al-Naham" singing the old divers' songs, after having a light breakfast. After the hunt, the divers would collect the oysters on deck and open them to see if they contained pearls. Having done that, they would embark on cleaning up the ship and their cloths.
   As the forefathers did, they would have lunch on deck; some rice and fish. The hunt was celebrated at the resort with folkloric songs at the end of the adventure.
   The 26th annual pearl diving trip had begun under patronage of His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah. It witnessed participation of 200 youths from Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman.
   Natives call the large pearl "hasba," and the small one "Gmasha." Pearl-diving was once the nerve of the Kuwaitis' simple economy before the oil boom that fundamentally transformed manifestations of life in this North Gulf country.
   It was His Highness the late Amir Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah who had first proposed holding the annual festival with aim of preserving the national heritage and enabling the young generation get a sense as how life used to be in Kuwait, where the natives managed to survive despite the difficulties.
   Kuwaitis in the old times also depended on other sea resources such as fish and sailed overseas for trade. Some sea treks had lasted for months.
   They made their boats, known as the dhows, basically from wood, nails and ropes. Some of the best wood had been imported from India, one of the ancestors' trade destinations. 

The pearl diving profession in Kuwait prospered under the reign of Sheikh Mubarak Al-Sabah, also known as Mubarak Al-Kabir, who ruled the country between 1895 and 1915; it went on afterwards for periods of time until the outbreak of World War II in the 1940s, and then the cultured pearl emerged.
In ancient Kuwaiti society, divers, with all their different ethnic backgrounds, gained high social standard and reputation as they were also looked at with admiration and respect among people.
They used to dive during specific sailing seasons and with different number of sailors onboard local wooden-made dhows, which varied in types and names depending on their sizes and shapes such as "Boom", "Baghlah", "Sanbouk", "Shoaai", and "Jalboot", and sailed across various diving sites in the Gulf depending of depth of water and type of soil.
Divers depended on following the stars in the sky and compass to know pathways. They also used an oblong piece of lead, known as "Beld", which was marked with horizontal lines to identify the type of the soil in the sea before descending into the water.
They worked for an approximate 12 to 16 hours daily, in which the diver descends several times into seabed without using breathing equipment, oxygen, or eye protective glasses, depending only on holding his breath and stamina.
Some of the difficulties that a Kuwaiti diver faced during his search for pearl oysters included running out of breath underneath the sea, coming out from the water in a coma situation, known as "Sanna", forcing his mates to descend into the water to pull him out of the water and carry him onboard the ship to rest, or to die in some sever cases, especially if the diver was unconscious of the depth of seabed.
Other burdens faced by divers included getting eardrum rapture due to strong pressure underneath the water, leading to a severe pain and blood coming out of the ear with unavailability of necessary medical treatment onboard of the ship. Also, divers would get skin infection due to staying under the water for a long time, as well as cramps, rashes and sores.
They had also endangered their lives by facing off with sea predators such as sharks, which attacked many divers and caused them some severe injuries, leaving them handicapped for the rest of their life. (end) ha.rk