Socotra, the land of djinns by Jordi Esteva

Socotra, the Island of Djinns Jordi Esteva siwa1@mac.com http://www.jordiesteva.com

Socotra, the Land of Djinns, Jordi Esteva

Socotra, the Island of Djinns Jordi Esteva siwa1@mac.com http://www.jordiesteva.com

A project by Jordi Esteva: 31 photographs 34 x 54 cm Rag Museum Paper 4 Platinotipes 33 x 50 cm Video about Socotra: http://vimeo.com/101082318

The island of Socotra lies in the Indian Ocean between the African Horn and the Arabian peninsula. Its size is similar to the island of Mallorca. In the rest of the Indian Ocean, the monsoon winds, have propitiated commerce and civilisation. Without any bay or natural port and surrounded by reefs, Socotra is isolated during the monsoon when is imposible to land. This isolation has preserved a unique environment. Frankincense and myrrh trees grow freely on Socotra. The dragon blood tree unique to the island has sap that is a red as blood. It was used by the gladiators of Ancient Rome to cover their skin and to protect it from injuries. The varnish that gave

Socotra, the Island of Djinns Jordi Esteva siwa1@mac.com http://www.jordiesteva.com

a unique and precious touch to Stradivarius violins, is also credited to the sap of the tree, a secret kept by the luthiers of Cremona. These products brought Indians, Greeks, and southern Arabs to the island, after them came pirates. Socotra was the island where Gilgamesh found the plant of immortality. For the Egyptians it was “The land of the genii”, the manuscript of the “Wrecked Sailor” tells the story and is preserved in The

Hermitage of Saint Petersburg. Herodotus said that the Phoenix dwelled in the mountains of Socotra and Arab sailors thought that the Rukh bird of Sinbad, nested there. According to Marco Polo the socotrians were the most powerful magicians of the known world. The Portuguese conquered Socotra to defend its maritime route to India. Since the late XIX century Socotra was a British protectorate. Although ruled by a sultan, the British incorporated the island in the new communist government of South Yemen in 1967. During the Soviet era the island was believed to support a submarine base. The isolation of centuries ended with the arrival of its first commercial flights. Hadibou, the main settlement, and its surroundings, show some changes, but most of the island remains a remote and fascinating place. The Socotra of the old days, can be found on the heights of the Haggar Mountains where the old birds of the ancients nested and where the Uranus god had its throne before being castrated by its son Cronos. The Socotrans of today know their own legends but have forgotten those of the ancient Egyptians and Greeks, neither do they remember the stories recounted by Renaissance travellers.

Socotra, the Island of Djinns Jordi Esteva siwa1@mac.com http://www.jordiesteva.com

THE AUTHOR AND SOCOTRA ISLAND

Since 2005, Jordi Esteva has visited Socotra many times. Thanks to his friendship with Ahmed Afrar posthumous son of the last sultan he has had the opportunity to travel to remote areas, to meet leaders and people from the semi-nomadic clans of the interior who live scattered in the mountains. In 2011, Jordi Esteva published: “Socotra, la isla de los genios”. -(Atalanta editions)-. The initial impetus and material for the film spring from the research and writing of this book. Jacinto Antón (“El País”) wrote: Extremely beautiful, extraordinary and exciting. Melancholic voyage to the lost island of Sinbad.

Socotra, the Island of Djinns Jordi Esteva siwa1@mac.com http://www.jordiesteva.com

C.V.: Jordi Esteva (Barcelona 1951) is a film maker, photographer and writer, is a passionate documenter of african and oriental cultures and lived in Cairo from 1980 to 1985. His work about the Egyptian desert oases resulted in the “Oases of Egypt” (Ed. Lunwerg 1995). From 1987 to 1993 he was editor in chief of the cultural monthly magazine “Ajoblanco” . In 1994 he participated in UNESCO’s project of conservation of historic cities, photographing the medina of Marrakech. His work on Moroccan Atlas mud architecture, “Fortalezas de barro en el sur de Marruecos”, (Compañía Literaria) was published in 1996. His book of conversations with intellectuals and artists from both sides of the Mediterranean about the Arab societies and the challenge of the modernity “Mil y una voces” (El País) was published in 1998. His book on African spirituality documenting initiation rituals and ceremonies of possession and trance “Voyage to the Land of Souls” (Pre-Textos) was published in 1999. A

further

exploration

arabian

maritime

life

“Los

árabes

del

mar” (Península/Altair) was published in 2006. The book explores the journeys of the old sailors of the Arabian coast who sailed along the various ports of the Indian Ocean aided by the monsoon and following a route that had remained practically the same since the times of Sinbad the Sailor. December 2008: Jordi Esteva returned to the Ivory Coast to film “Return to the Land of Souls” based on his book “Voyage to the Land of Souls”. In the film Esteva shows the rituals of initiation to become a komian or traditional animist priest. The film received several international prizes, and was selected by many festivals

Socotra, the Island of Djinns Jordi Esteva siwa1@mac.com http://www.jordiesteva.com

September 2011:“Socotra, la isla de los genios” (Socotra, the Land of Djinns”) is

published by Atalanta. Four years after the filming of “Return to the Land of Souls”, Jordi Esteva went back to the Ivory Coast to film “Komian”. The film recounts the search for a priestess possessed by the Spirit of a Panther. Filmed in black and white, with the rhythm of a road movie, the narrator travelled to Ghana to look for the only drummers able to accompany the priestess and invoke the powerful Spirit. October 2015. Sanabel Editions publishes in Cairo “The arabs of the sea” translated into Arabic.