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Translator documents Iraq's growing graffiti scene
Chicago Tribune
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- On the brick wall of the parking lot adjacent to one of the largest mosques in the city, several anonymous observers of modern-day Iraq have spray-painted their commentary in black and red.
"Where is the mustache of Saddam?" asked one writer, who was insulting the deposed leader by using an Iraqi expression for challenging one's manhood.
Another states that, "the killing of Americans is halal," or acceptable under Islamic law. And a third writer scrawled in English that the "USA Rocks!"
Under the former regime, tagging a wall with a controversial political message was punishable by a long jail sentence and, sometimes, execution.
The walls of post-Saddam Hussein Baghdad, however, have become a canvas for political dialogue and colorful self-expression.
From the slums of Sadr City to the posh Mansour neighborhood, graffiti has sprouted wherever writers can find a flat surface. Iraqis have weighed in on politicians, the American presence, and the reputations of their enemies' sisters.
"In Saddam's time, maybe occasionally you would see slogans written on the wall that were in his favor," said Amir Nayef Toma al-Sayegh, 52, a retired Iraqi army radar operator who has been documenting graffiti in Baghdad since shortly after the invasion last year. "This graffiti we see now is pure expression. It is written in the darkness of night. It is straight from the heart to the wall."
And it's all over the place.
Twice a week, al-Sayegh sets out on foot with a pen and journal to find new graffiti. So far, he has documented more than 1,700 messages scrawled on walls, highway underpasses, buses and other surfaces.
"This is my obsession," said al-Sayegh, who earns his living translating automobile repair manuals from English to Arabic for Iraqi mechanics.
At a table in the famous Shabandar cafe in the Old Town section of Baghdad, al-Sayegh spends just about every afternoon translating the mostly Arabic graffiti into English in tattered journals, whose contents he hopes to someday publish. Often, he said he puts aside his paid translation projects to work on his graffiti collection.
The book he envisions is inspired by the "Chicken Soup" series popular in the United States.
For the most part, he eschews the vulgar and silly writings, but there are some at which, he said, he couldn't help but chortle. His favorite in the silly category is a rhyme he found on the Jamahiriya Bridge that pokes fun of slain Shiite cleric Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim and Ahmad Chalabi, founder of the Iraqi National Congress.
"No Hakim, no Chalabi, I just want beer and lablabi" an unknown writer painted on the bridge. Lablabi is a popular chickpea dish.
It isn't an easy job, al-Sayegh said. He does most of his scouting from the window seat on the bus he rides to the cafe each day.
If he spots a neighborhood where there appears to be some new writings, he'll go back on foot for a closer inspection.
The idea of documenting Baghdad's graffiti was sparked by a memory of a magazine article al-Sayegh read more than 15 years ago about a British woman who documented the graffiti in Tehran, Iran, during the Iranian Revolution.
The Iraqi graffiti, al-Sayegh contends, offers a tableau of the progression of opinion in the country in the 15 months since the invasion.
His first entry in his journal, which came days after the fall of Baghdad, was a fairly simple and optimistic scrawling signed by the Iraq Communist Party: "Free Country and Happy People."
During the early days of the occupation, al-Sayegh said the "wall writers" slowly tested the limits of their newfound freedom of speech -- tempering their opinions about the U.S. forces and Hussein.
He said it was only a matter of weeks before taggers were bold enough to ridicule the Americans and Hussein. They also quickly became accustomed to using vulgar and coarse language to get their points across.
Throughout the various trials and tribulations of the American occupation, al-Sayegh said the writing on the walls has reflected the mood of the Iraqi people. From jubilation over the capture of Hussein to disgust with the American occupation following the U.S. military prison abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib.
"I am now waiting to see what people will write about Saddam Hussein's trial," he said.
Al-Sayegh said he felt ambivalent about the ethics of Iraqis scrawling graffiti on walls. It is, after all, the destruction of property, and something he would never do himself, he said.
On the other had, he said it is the unvarnished speech of people who are only getting used to living in a society with free speech. In a sense, graffiti has been a tutorial for Iraqis on expression, al-Sayegh said.
"Someday, I hope these people won't feel like they have to sneak into the dark to express what is in their heart," he said.
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