يَسُرُّنَا أَنْ نُعْلِنَ عَنْ إِطْلَاقِ:

The Digital Magazine and Archive of The Dr. Ali Zohery Podcast

«الْمَجَلَّةُ الرَّقْمِيَّةُ وَأَرْشِيفُ بُودْكَاسْتِ الدُّكْتُورِ عَلِي الزُّهَيْرِيِّ»

إِطْلَاقُ الْمَجَلَّةِ الرَّقْمِيَّةِ وَأَرْشِيفِ بُودْكَاسْتِ الدُّكْتُورِ عَلِي الزُّهَيْرِيِّ

يَسُرُّنَا أَنْ نُعْلِنَ عَنْ إِطْلَاقِ:

The Digital Magazine and Archive of The Dr. Ali Zohery Podcast

«الْمَجَلَّةُ الرَّقْمِيَّةُ وَأَرْشِيفُ بُودْكَاسْتِ الدُّكْتُورِ عَلِي الزُّهَيْرِيِّ»

وَهِيَ مَجَلَّةٌ رَقْمِيَّةٌ أُسْبُوعِيَّةٌ، وَأَرْشِيفٌ تَعْلِيمِيٌّ وَثَقَافِيٌّ دَائِمٌ، يَهْدِفُ إِلَى تَوْثِيقِ حَلَقَاتِ «بُودْكَاسْتِ الدُّكْتُورِ عَلِي الزُّهَيْرِيِّ»، وَتَحْوِيلِ مَا تَحْمِلُهُ مِنْ خِبْرَاتٍ وَأَفْكَارٍ وَقِصَصٍ إِنْسَانِيَّةٍ إِلَى مَوَادَّ مَكْتُوبَةٍ مُنَظَّمَةٍ، يَسْهُلُ قِرَاءَتُهَا وَمُشَارَكَتُهَا وَالرُّجُوعُ إِلَيْهَا.

تَصْدُرُ الْمَجَلَّةُ أُسْبُوعِيًّا كُلَّ يَوْمِ سَبْتٍ، إِنْ شَاءَ اللَّهُ، بِالتَّزَامُنِ مَعَ الْحَلْقَةِ الْجَدِيدَةِ مِنَ الْبُودْكَاسْتِ. وَيَتَضَمَّنُ كُلُّ عَدَدٍ مَقَالًا رَئِيسِيًّا شَامِلًا عَنْ ضَيْفِ الْحَلْقَةِ وَمَوْضُوعِهَا، مَعَ تَقْدِيمِ سِيرَتِهِ، وَأَهَمِّ مَحَاوِرِ الْحِوَارِ، وَالْأَفْكَارِ وَالدُّرُوسِ الَّتِي طُرِحَتْ، وَالْعِبَارَاتِ الْمُؤَثِّرَةِ الَّتِي وَرَدَتْ عَلَى لِسَانِ الضَّيْفِ.

وَتُقَدَّمُ مَوَادُّ الْمَجَلَّةِ بِاللُّغَتَيْنِ الْعَرَبِيَّةِ وَالْإِنْجِلِيزِيَّةِ؛ لِتَصِلَ رِسَالَةُ الْبُودْكَاسْتِ إِلَى الْجُمْهُورِ الْعَرَبِيِّ وَالدُّوَلِيِّ، وَلِتُسْهِمَ فِي نَقْلِ خِبْرَاتِ الْعُلَمَاءِ وَالْمُفَكِّرِينَ وَالْإِعْلَامِيِّينَ وَالْمُبْدِعِينَ إِلَى الْبَاحِثِينَ وَالطُّلَّابِ وَالشَّبَابِ وَكُلِّ الْمُهْتَمِّينَ بِالْمَعْرِفَةِ وَالثَّقَافَةِ وَالتَّارِيخِ وَالْحِوَارِ الْحَضَارِيِّ.

وَلَنْ تَقْتَصِرَ الْمَجَلَّةُ عَلَى التَّعْرِيفِ بِالْحَلَقَةِ الْجَدِيدَةِ، بَلْ سَتُشَكِّلُ، مَعَ مُرُورِ الْوَقْتِ، أَرْشِيفًا رَقْمِيًّا مُنَظَّمًا يَضُمُّ الْحَلَقَاتِ السَّابِقَةَ وَالْحَالِيَّةَ وَالْمُقْبِلَةَ. وَسَيَتَمَكَّنُ الْقَارِئُ مِنَ الْبَحْثِ فِي هَذَا الْأَرْشِيفِ وَالْوُصُولِ إِلَى الْمَقَالَاتِ وَالضُّيُوفِ وَالْمَوْضُوعَاتِ وَالرَّوَابِطِ الْأَصْلِيَّةِ لِلْحَلَقَاتِ.

وَيَحْتَوِي كُلُّ عَدَدٍ عَلَى:

• مَقَالٍ تَحْرِيرِيٍّ مُفَصَّلٍ عَنْ الْحَلْقَةِ.

• تَعْرِيفٍ شَامِلٍ بِالضَّيْفِ وَمَسِيرَتِهِ الْعِلْمِيَّةِ أَوِ الْمِهْنِيَّةِ.

• أَهَمِّ الْأَسْئِلَةِ وَالْإِجَابَاتِ وَالْأَفْكَارِ الَّتِي نَاقَشَهَا الْحِوَارُ.

• مُقْتَطَفَاتٍ وَعِبَارَاتٍ مُلْهِمَةً مِنْ كَلَامِ الضَّيْفِ.

• صُوَرِ الْحَلْقَةِ وَالتَّصْمِيمَاتِ الْخَاصَّةِ بِهَا.

• رَابِطٍ مُبَاشِرٍ لِمُشَاهَدَةِ الْحَلْقَةِ الْكَامِلَةِ عَلَى يُوتُيُوب.

• نُسْخَةٍ عَرَبِيَّةٍ وَأُخْرَى إِنْجِلِيزِيَّةٍ لِتَوْسِيعِ نِطَاقِ الْوُصُولِ.

• رَوَابِطَ لِلْحَلَقَاتِ وَالْمَقَالَاتِ الْمُرْتَبِطَةِ بِالْمَوْضُوعِ.

وَتَمْنَحُ الْمَجَلَّةُ ضُيُوفَ الْبُودْكَاسْتِ مَادَّةً مَكْتُوبَةً مُتَكَامِلَةً يَسْتَطِيعُونَ مُشَارَكَتَهَا مَعَ زُمَلَائِهِمْ وَطُلَّابِهِمْ وَجَامِعَاتِهِمْ وَمُؤَسَّسَاتِهِمْ وَمُتَابِعِيهِمْ عَلَى وَسَائِلِ التَّوَاصُلِ الِاجْتِمَاعِيِّ. وَبِذَلِكَ تَتَّسِعُ دَائِرَةُ الِانْتِشَارِ مِنْ خِلَالِ جُمْهُورِ الْبُودْكَاسْتِ وَالشَّبَكَاتِ الْعِلْمِيَّةِ وَالْمِهْنِيَّةِ لِكُلِّ ضَيْفٍ.

كَمَا تَفْتَحُ الْمَجَلَّةُ بَابًا طَبِيعِيًّا لِلتَّعْرِيفِ بِالْمَشْرُوعَاتِ الثَّقَافِيَّةِ وَالتَّعْلِيمِيَّةِ وَالسِّيَاحِيَّةِ الَّتِي يُقَدِّمُهَا الدُّكْتُورُ عَلِيٌّ الزُّهَيْرِيُّ، وَمِنْ بَيْنِهَا Zohery Tours International، وَذَلِكَ مِنْ خِلَالِ الْمَوْضُوعَاتِ الْمُرْتَبِطَةِ بِوَاشِنْطُنَ وَمِصْرَ وَالتَّارِيخِ وَالْمَتَاحِفِ وَالسِّيَاحَةِ وَالتَّوَاصُلِ بَيْنَ الثَّقَافَاتِ.

وَنَفْتَتِحُ الْعَدَدَ الْأَوَّلَ بِمَقَالٍ خَاصٍّ عَنْ لِقَاءِ الْإِعْلَامِيِّ الْمِصْرِيِّ الْقَدِيرِ الْأُسْتَاذِ مُحَمَّدٍ عَبْدِ الْكَرِيمِ، تَحْتَ عُنْوَانِ:

«مِنَ الْقَاهِرَةِ إِلَى طُوكْيُو وَوَاشِنْطُنَ

خَمْسَةٌ وَأَرْبَعُونَ عَامًا خَلْفَ الْمِيكْرُوفُونِ»

وَهِيَ رِحْلَةٌ إِعْلَامِيَّةٌ تَمْتَدُّ مِنَ الْإِذَاعَةِ الْمِصْرِيَّةِ وَإِذَاعَةِ الْيَابَانِ إِلَى صَوْتِ أَمْرِيكَا، وَتَتَنَاوَلُ اللُّغَةَ وَالتَّدْرِيبَ وَالْمَوْضُوعِيَّةَ وَالْإِعْلَامَ الرَّقْمِيَّ وَالذَّكَاءَ الِاصْطِنَاعِيَّ، إِلَى جَانِبِ كِتَابِهِ «عَلَى الْهَوَاءِ: الْقَاهِرَةُ… طُوكْيُو… وَوَاشِنْطُنُ».

نَدْعُوكُمْ إِلَى مُتَابَعَةِ الْمَجَلَّةِ، وَقِرَاءَةِ أَعْدَادِهَا، وَمُشَاهَدَةِ الْحَلَقَاتِ، وَمُشَارَكَةِ الْمَقَالَاتِ مَعَ الْأَصْدِقَاءِ وَالزُّمَلَاءِ وَالْمُؤَسَّسَاتِ التَّعْلِيمِيَّةِ وَالثَّقَافِيَّةِ.

كُلُّ حَلْقَةٍ حِوَارٌ يُسْمَعُ، وَكُلُّ عَدَدٍ مَعْرِفَةٌ تُحْفَظُ وَتَنْتَشِرُ.

The Dr. Ali Zohery Podcast

مِنْ وَاشِنْطُنَ إِلَى الْعَالَمِ

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ANNOUNCING THE DIGITAL MAGAZINE AND ARCHIVE OF THE DR. ALI ZOHERY PODCAST

We are pleased to announce the launch of:

The Digital Magazine and Archive of The Dr. Ali Zohery Podcast

This new weekly digital magazine will also serve as a permanent educational and cultural archive for The Dr. Ali Zohery Podcast. Its purpose is to document every episode and transform the experiences, ideas, personal stories, and professional insights shared by our guests into organized articles that readers can explore, share, and revisit.

A new edition is planned for every Saturday, God willing, alongside the podcast’s latest episode. Each edition will feature a comprehensive article introducing the guest, presenting the main subjects of the conversation, explaining its historical or professional context, and preserving its most valuable observations and memorable quotations.

The magazine will publish its principal material in both Arabic and English. This bilingual format will allow the podcast’s message to reach Arabic-speaking and international audiences while making the knowledge of its scholars, media professionals, authors, educators, and distinguished guests available to students, researchers, young people, and readers interested in history, culture, travel, leadership, media, and intercultural dialogue.

The magazine will cover more than the newest weekly episode. As additional editions are published, it will become an organized digital archive containing past, current, and future episodes. Readers will be able to locate guests and subjects, read the accompanying articles, and access the original video recordings.

Each edition will include:

• A substantial editorial article based on the episode.

• A detailed introduction to the guest and the guest’s academic or professional career.

• The central questions, answers, and ideas discussed during the interview.

• Selected quotations and important lessons from the conversation.

• Photographs and visual materials associated with the episode.

• A direct link to watch the complete episode on YouTube.

• Arabic and English editions designed for a wider audience.

• Connections to related episodes, articles, books, and subjects.

The magazine will also provide every podcast guest with a carefully prepared article that can be shared with colleagues, students, universities, professional organizations, and social-media followers. Each guest’s network can therefore help introduce the podcast and its educational content to new audiences.

The publication will also offer a natural way to introduce the cultural, educational, and travel projects developed by Dr. Ali Zohery. These include Zohery Tours International and its programs concerning Washington, Egypt, museums, history, tourism, and communication between cultures. Such projects will be presented whenever they are meaningfully connected to the subject of an episode.

Our inaugural edition features veteran Egyptian broadcaster Mohamed Abdelkarim:

From Cairo to Tokyo and Washington

Forty Five Years Behind the Microphone

The article follows his distinguished media career from Egyptian Radio and Radio Japan to Voice of America. It examines the importance of language, professional training, truthfulness, objectivity, translation, documentary production, digital media, and artificial intelligence. It also introduces his book, On Air Cairo Tokyo Washington, which records the people, institutions, and experiences that shaped his career.

We invite you to follow the magazine, read and share its weekly editions, watch the complete interviews, and introduce these conversations to friends, colleagues, students, and educational and cultural organizations.

Each podcast episode begins as a conversation. Through this magazine and archive, its knowledge can remain available and continue reaching new audiences.

The Dr. Ali Zohery Podcast

From Washington to the World

#TheDrAliZoheryPodcast

#DrAliZohery

#DigitalMagazine

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#Podcast

#Media

#Education

#Culture

#History

#WashingtonDC

#ZoheryTours

See less

مِنَ الْقَاهِرَةِ إِلَى طُوكْيُو وَوَاشِنْطُنَ

خَمْسَةٌ وَأَرْبَعُونَ عَامًا خَلْفَ الْمِيكْرُوفُونِ مَعَ الْإِعْلَامِيِّ مُحَمَّدٍ عَبْدِ الْكَرِيمِ

From Cairo to Tokyo and Washington

Forty Five Years Behind the Microphone with Mohamed Abdelkarim

The Dr. Ali Zohery Podcast Weekly

الْمَجَلَّةُ الرَّقْمِيَّةُ وَأَرْشِيفُ بُودْكَاسْتِ الدُّكْتُورِ عَلِيٍّ الزُّهَيْرِيِّ

الْعَدَدُ الْأَوَّلُ

مِنَ الْقَاهِرَةِ إِلَى طُوكْيُو وَوَاشِنْطُنَ

خَمْسَةٌ وَأَرْبَعُونَ عَامًا خَلْفَ الْمِيكْرُوفُونِ مَعَ الْإِعْلَامِيِّ مُحَمَّدٍ عَبْدِ الْكَرِيمِ

From Cairo to Tokyo and Washington

Forty Five Years Behind the Microphone with Mohamed Abdelkarim

Watch the complete episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/Y10obahSjAE

إِعْدَادُ هَيْئَةِ تَحْرِيرِ بُودْكَاسْتِ الدُّكْتُورِ عَلِي الزُّهَيْرِيِّ

مُلَخَّصُ الْحَلْقَةِ

يَسْتَضِيفُ الدُّكْتُورُ عَلِيٌّ الزُّهَيْرِيُّ فِي هَذِهِ الْحَلْقَةِ الْإِعْلَامِيَّ الْمِصْرِيَّ الْقَدِيرَ الْأُسْتَاذَ مُحَمَّدَ عَبْدَ الْكَرِيمِ، فِي حِوَارٍ يَتَتَبَّعُ مَسِيرَةً مِهْنِيَّةً امْتَدَّتْ أَكْثَرَ مِنْ خَمْسَةٍ وَأَرْبَعِينَ عَامًا بَيْنَ الْإِذَاعَةِ وَالتِّلْفِزْيُونِ وَالتَّرْجَمَةِ وَإِنْتَاجِ الْأَفْلَامِ الْوَثَائِقِيَّةِ. وَتَنْتَقِلُ الْحَلْقَةُ مَعَ ضَيْفِهَا مِنْ شِبِينِ الْكَوْمِ إِلَى الْقَاهِرَةِ، ثُمَّ إِلَى طُوكْيُو، وَأَخِيرًا إِلَى وَاشِنْطُنَ؛ لِتُقَدِّمَ شَهَادَةً مُبَاشِرَةً عَلَى تَحَوُّلَاتِ الْإِعْلَامِ خِلَالَ نِصْفِ قَرْنٍ تَقْرِيبًا.

يَكْشِفُ الْحِوَارُ أَنَّ النَّجَاحَ الْإِعْلَامِيَّ لَمْ يَكُنْ عِنْدَ مُحَمَّدٍ عَبْدِ الْكَرِيمِ مَسْأَلَةَ صَوْتٍ جَمِيلٍ فَقَطْ؛ بَلْ ثَمَرَةَ قِرَاءَةٍ مُبَكِّرَةٍ، وَإِتْقَانٍ لِلُّغَةِ، وَتَدْرِيبٍ مُكَثَّفٍ، وَاحْتِرَامٍ لِلْكَلِمَةِ وَالْجُمْهُورِ. وَيَظْهَرُ هَذَا الْمَعْنَى فِي كُلِّ مَحَطَّةٍ مِنْ مَحَطَّاتِ رِحْلَتِهِ، مِنِ اخْتِبَارَاتِ الْإِذَاعَةِ الْمِصْرِيَّةِ إِلَى مِيثَاقِ صَوْتِ أَمْرِيكَا، وَمِنْ تَجْرِبَةِ رَادْيُو الْيَابَانِ إِلَى نَظْرَتِهِ الْمُتَوَازِنَةِ لِلذَّكَاءِ الِاصْطِنَاعِيِّ.

مِنْ شِبِينِ الْكَوْمِ إِلَى مَبْنَى مَاسْبِيرُو

وُلِدَ مُحَمَّدٌ عَبْدُ الْكَرِيمِ فِي مَدِينَةِ شِبِينِ الْكَوْمِ بِمُحَافَظَةِ الْمَنُوفِيَّةِ. وَيَسْتَعِيدُ فِي الْحَلْقَةِ صُورَةَ الْمَدِينَةِ قَبْلَ الِازْدِحَامِ الْحَدِيثِ، حَيْثُ الْخُضْرَةُ وَالْحَدِيقَةُ الْعَامَّةُ وَفَرْعُ النِّيلِ الَّذِي يَشُقُّهَا. وَفِي تِلْكَ الْبِيئَةِ نَمَا حُبُّهُ لِلْقِرَاءَةِ وَالْمُوسِيقَى وَالْخَطَابَةِ. قَرَأَ فِي صِغَرِهِ لِنَجِيبٍ مَحْفُوظٍ وَيُوسُفَ السِّبَاعِيِّ وَطَهَ حُسَيْنٍ وَالْعَقَّادِ وَإِحْسَانِ عَبْدِ الْقُدُّوسِ، وَكَانَ اسْتِمَاعُ وَالِدِهِ الدَّائِمُ إِلَى الرَّادْيُو مِنَ الْعَوَامِلِ الَّتِي قَرَّبَتْهُ مِنْ عَالَمِ الْإِذَاعَةِ.

دَرَسَ اللُّغَةَ الرُّوسِيَّةَ فِي كُلِّيَّةِ الْأَلْسُنِ بِجَامِعَةِ عَيْنِ شَمْسٍ، إِلَى جَانِبِ عِنَايَتِهِ بِالْعَرَبِيَّةِ وَالْإِنْجِلِيزِيَّةِ وَالْفَرَنْسِيَّةِ. وَيُقَدِّمُ فِي الْحِوَارِ خُلَاصَةً مُهِمَّةً لِهَذِهِ التَّجْرِبَةِ

«اللُّغَةُ هِيَ مِفْتَاحُ الْإِنْسَانِ إِلَى كَثِيرٍ مِنَ الثَّقَافَاتِ»

فَاللُّغَةُ، فِي رَأْيِهِ، لَيْسَتْ أَدَاةً لِلتَّرْجَمَةِ فَحَسْبُ؛ إِنَّهَا مَدْخَلٌ لِفَهْمِ الشُّعُوبِ وَثَقَافَاتِهَا. وَلِهَذَا يَرَى أَنَّ الْإِعْلَامِيَّ يَحْتَاجُ إِلَى إِتْقَانِ الْعَرَبِيَّةِ وَإِلَى لُغَةٍ أَجْنَبِيَّةٍ أَوْ أَكْثَرَ؛ لِأَنَّ سَلَامَةَ اللُّغَةِ هِيَ الْخُطْوَةُ الْأُولَى لِإِيصَالِ الرِّسَالَةِ بِدِقَّةٍ.

اخْتِبَارَاتٌ صَعْبَةٌ وَيَوْمٌ لَا يُنْسَى

بَدَأَتْ رِحْلَتُهُ الْمِهْنِيَّةُ فِي يَنَايِرَ عَامِ 1977، بَعْدَ مُسَابَقَةٍ إِذَاعِيَّةٍ امْتَدَّتِ اخْتِبَارَاتُهَا نَحْوَ عَامٍ. وَبِحَسَبِ ذِكْرَيَاتِهِ، تَقَدَّمَ نَحْوُ أَرْبَعَةِ آلَافِ شَخْصٍ، وَنَجَحَ فِي النِّهَايَةِ قُرَابَةُ أَرْبَعِينَ بَيْنَ مُذِيعٍ وَمُحَرِّرٍ وَمُتَرْجِمٍ. وَلَمَّا تَأَخَّرَ خِطَابُ النَّتِيجَةِ، ذَهَبَ بِنَفْسِهِ إِلَى مَبْنَى مَاسْبِيرُو، فَعَلِمَ أَنَّهُ نَجَحَ، وَطُلِبَ مِنْهُ أَنْ يَسْتَلِمَ عَمَلَهُ وَيَبْدَأَ التَّدْرِيبَ فِي الْيَوْمِ نَفْسِهِ. وَيَصِفُ ذَلِكَ الْيَوْمَ بِأَنَّهُ كَانَ مِنْ أَسْعَدِ أَيَّامِ حَيَاتِهِ.

لَمْ يَجْلِسِ الْمُذِيعُ الْجَدِيدُ أَمَامَ الْمِيكْرُوفُونِ مُبَاشَرَةً. تَلَقَّى تَدْرِيبًا عَامًّا لِمُدَّةِ ثَلَاثَةِ أَشْهُرٍ أَوْ أَرْبَعَةٍ، ثُمَّ جَلَسَ صَامِتًا إِلَى جَانِبِ مُذِيعٍ أَقْدَمَ، وَبَدَأَ بَعْدَ ذَلِكَ بِجُمَلٍ قَصِيرَةٍ، حَتَّى أَصْبَحَ قَادِرًا عَلَى قِرَاءَةِ نَشْرَةٍ كَامِلَةٍ وَإِدَارَةِ نَوْبَةِ بَثٍّ. وَمِنْ هُنَا تَشَكَّلَتْ فَلْسَفَتُهُ فِي الْعَمَلِ الْإِذَاعِيِّ

«لِلْمِيكْرُوفُونِ رَهْبَةٌ وَقَدَاسَةٌ؛ لِأَنَّكَ تَتَحَدَّثُ إِلَى الْجَمَاهِيرِ وَتُبَلِّغُهُمْ رِسَالَةً»

هَذِهِ الْقَدَاسَةُ عِنْدَهُ لَيْسَتْ وَصْفًا لِقِطْعَةٍ مِنَ الْمَعْدِنِ، بَلْ لِلْمَسْؤُولِيَّةِ الَّتِي يَحْمِلُهَا الْإِعْلَامِيُّ عِنْدَمَا يُخَاطِبُ مَلَايِينَ الْمُسْتَمِعِينَ. فَعَلَيْهِ أَنْ يَكُونَ صَادِقًا وَمُسْتَعِدًّا وَمُرَكِّزًا فِي كُلِّ كَلِمَةٍ.

إِذَاعَةُ الشَّبَابِ وَصِنَاعَةُ الْمُذِيعِ

اِنْضَمَّ فِي أَوَاخِرِ عَامِ 1977 إِلَى إِذَاعَةِ الشَّبَابِ تَحْتَ قِيَادَةِ الْإِذَاعِيِّ إِيهَابِ الْأَزْهَرِيِّ. وَكَانَتِ الْمَحَطَّةُ بِيئَةً شَابَّةً تَجْمَعُ زُمَلَاءَ مُتَقَارِبِينَ فِي السِّنِّ، وَتَتِيحُ لَهُمْ اقْتِرَاحَ الْبَرَامِجِ وَالِابْتِكَارَ دَاخِلَ قَوَاعِدِ الْعَمَلِ الْمِهْنِيِّ. عُيِّنَ كَبِيرًا لِلْمُذِيعِينَ عَامَ 1980، ثُمَّ تَوَلَّى مَهَامَّ رِئَاسَةِ قِسْمِ التَّنْفِيذِ وَالْإِشْرَافِ عَلَى الْبَثِّ وَجَدَاوِلِ الْمُذِيعِينَ وَتَدْرِيبِ الْجُدُدِ.

وَيُظْهِرُ حَدِيثُهُ عَنْ مَعْهَدِ التَّدْرِيبِ الْإِذَاعِيِّ وَالتِّلْفِزْيُونِيِّ مَدَى جِدِّيَّةِ إِعْدَادِ الْمُذِيعِ فِي تِلْكَ الْفَتْرَةِ. فَقَدْ دَرَّسَ لَهُمْ فَارُوقُ شُوشَةَ، وَإِيهَابُ الْأَزْهَرِيُّ، وَعَلِي عِيسَى، وَآمَالُ فَهْمِي، كَمَا دَرَّبَهُمُ الْفَنَّانُ عَبْدُ الْوَارِثِ عَسَرٌ عَلَى الْإِلْقَاءِ، وَدَرَّسَ لَهُمُ الْمُوسِيقَارُ عَبْدُ الْحَمِيدِ تَوْفِيقُ زَكِيٌّ التَّذَوُّقَ الْمُوسِيقِيَّ. وَخَرَجَ مِنْ هَذِهِ الْمَدْرَسَةِ بِأَرْبَعِ قِيَمٍ أَسَاسِيَّةٍ هِيَ الْإِعْدَادُ، وَالصِّدْقُ، وَالْمَوْضُوعِيَّةُ، وَالتَّوَازُنُ.

الْقَاهِرَةُ وَطُوكْيُو وَوَاشِنْطُنُ

كَانَتْ تَغْطِيَتُهُ أُسْبُوعَ الصَّدَاقَةِ الْمِصْرِيَّةِ الْأَلْمَانِيَّةِ عَامَ 1981 أَوَّلَ تَجْرِبَةٍ دُوَلِيَّةٍ مُبَكِّرَةٍ. أَرْسَلَ مِنْ أَلْمَانِيَا رَسَائِلَ صَوْتِيَّةً إِلَى الْإِذَاعَةِ، وَزَارَ اسْتُودْيُوهَاتٍ، وَعَادَ بِمَادَّةٍ وَاسِعَةٍ لِبَرْنَامَجِهِ الْعَالَمُ عِنْدَ أَطْرَافِ أَصَابِعِكَ. وَفَتَحَتْ لَهُ الرِّحْلَةُ بَابَ الْعَمَلِ فِي التِّلْفِزْيُونِ الْمِصْرِيِّ.

فِي عَامِ 1984 اِنْتَقَلَ إِلَى طُوكْيُو لِيَعْمَلَ مُذِيعًا أَوَّلَ فِي الْقِسْمِ الْعَرَبِيِّ بِإِذَاعَةِ الْيَابَانِ. تَوَلَّى تَحْرِيرَ النَّشْرَةِ الْيَوْمِيَّةِ وَقِرَاءَتَهَا، وَقَدَّمَ الْبَرَامِجَ وَأَجْرَى الْحِوَارَاتِ، كَمَا عَمِلَ مُرَاسِلًا لِلْإِذَاعَةِ الْمِصْرِيَّةِ. وَرَأَى فِي رَادْيُو الْيَابَانِ جِسْرًا لِلتَّعْرِيفِ بِالتَّقَدُّمِ الْعِلْمِيِّ وَالِاقْتِصَادِيِّ الْيَابَانِيِّ وَلِتَقْرِيبِ الْيَابَانِ مِنَ الْمُسْتَمِعِ الْعَرَبِيِّ. وَمِنْ بَيْنِ تَغْطِيَاتِهِ هُنَاكَ مَعْرِضٌ لِلْآثَارِ الْمِصْرِيَّةِ، وَلِقَاءَاتٌ مَعَ شَخْصِيَّاتٍ مِصْرِيَّةٍ وَعَرَبِيَّةٍ زَارَتِ الْيَابَانَ.

بَعْدَ اجْتِيَازِ مُسَابَقَةِ صَوْتِ أَمْرِيكَا، وَصَلَ إِلَى وَاشِنْطُنَ فِي أُكْتُوبَرَ 1989، وَبَدَأَ مَحَطَّةً اِسْتَمَرَّتْ نَحْوَ أَرْبَعَةٍ وَثَلَاثِينَ عَامًا. عَمِلَ مُذِيعًا وَمُحَرِّرًا وَمُتَرْجِمًا دُوَلِيًّا، وَشَارَكَ فِي إِنْتَاجِ الْبَرَامِجِ وَتَطْوِيرِهَا. وَقَدَّمَ بَرْنَامَجَ آفَاقٍ جَدِيدَةٍ فِي الْعِلْمِ، الَّذِي كَانَ يُطْلِعُ الْمُسْتَمِعِينَ عَلَى الْجَدِيدِ فِي الطِّبِّ وَالتِّكْنُولُوجِيَا وَالْفَضَاءِ، كَمَا ابْتَكَرَ بَرْنَامَجَ نَحْوَ حَيَاةٍ أَفْضَلَ.

فِي عَامِ 1996 اخْتِيرَ بَعْدَ مُسَابَقَةٍ دَاخِلِيَّةٍ لِتَقْدِيمِ نَدْوَةِ الْأُسْبُوعِ، وَهُوَ أَوَّلُ بَرْنَامَجٍ تِلْفِزْيُونِيٍّ يُنْتِجُهُ الْقِسْمُ الْعَرَبِيُّ. وَغَطَّى مِنَ الْبَيْتِ الْأَبْيَضِ زِيَارَاتِ عَدَدٍ مِنْ رُؤَسَاءِ الدُّوَلِ. وَمِنَ الْمَشَاهِدِ الَّتِي بَقِيَتْ فِي ذَاكِرَتِهِ خُرُوجُ الرَّئِيسِ الْفِلَسْطِينِيِّ يَاسِرِ عَرَفَاتَ مُتَجَهِّمًا مِنْ آخِرِ لِقَاءَاتِهِ مَعَ الرَّئِيسِ بِلْ كْلِينْتُونَ مِنْ غَيْرِ أَنْ يُدْلِيَ بِتَصْرِيحٍ، وَهُوَ مَا كَشَفَ لِلصَّحَفِيِّينَ أَنَّ اللِّقَاءَ لَمْ يَصِلْ إِلَى اتِّفَاقٍ.

مَدَارِسُ إِعْلَامِيَّةٌ وَدَرْسٌ وَاحِدٌ

يُلَخِّصُ مُحَمَّدٌ عَبْدُ الْكَرِيمِ أَثَرَ الْعَوَاصِمِ الثَّلَاثِ فِي تَكْوِينِهِ بِوُضُوحٍ. فَالْقَاهِرَةُ كَانَتِ الْمَدْرَسَةَ الْأُولَى الَّتِي تَعَلَّمَ فِيهَا أُصُولَ الْإِذَاعَةِ وَكَيْفَ يَقُولُ هُنَا الْقَاهِرَةُ. وَفِي الْيَابَانِ تَعَلَّمَ دِقَّةَ الْإِدَارَةِ وَالنِّظَامِ وَالْعَمَلِ. أَمَّا وَاشِنْطُنُ فَأَضَافَتْ إِلَيْهِ حُرِّيَّةَ الْحَرَكَةِ الْإِعْلَامِيَّةِ وَالِاحْتِكَاكَ بِثَقَافَاتٍ مُتَعَدِّدَةٍ.

وَرَغْمَ الِاخْتِلَافِ بَيْنَ الْمَدَارِسِ الْإِعْلَامِيَّةِ، يَبْقَى الْمِعْيَارُ الْمِهْنِيُّ عِنْدَهُ ثَابِتًا. فَالْخَبَرُ يَجِبُ أَنْ يُرَاجَعَ مِنْ مَصْدَرَيْنِ مَوْثُوقَيْنِ عَلَى الْأَقَلِّ، وَعَلَى الْمُرَاسِلِ أَنْ يَتَخَلَّى عَنْ أَهْوَائِهِ وَانْتِمَاءَاتِهِ عِنْدَ نَقْلِ الْوَقَائِعِ. وَقَدْ وَجَدَ هَذِهِ الْقِيَمَ مُثَبَّتَةً فِي مِيثَاقِ صَوْتِ أَمْرِيكَا الَّذِي يُلْزِمُ الْمُؤَسَّسَةَ بِالدِّقَّةِ وَالْمَوْضُوعِيَّةِ وَالشُّمُولِ، وَبِتَقْدِيمِ الْمُجْتَمَعِ الْأَمْرِيكِيِّ وَسِيَاسَاتِ الْوِلَايَاتِ الْمُتَّحِدَةِ بِصُورَةٍ مُتَوَازِنَةٍ.

الصَّوْتُ وَالتَّرْجَمَةُ وَالْفِيلْمُ الْوَثَائِقِيُّ

اِنْتَقَلَ بَعْدَ ذَلِكَ إِلَى الْإِنْتَاجِ وَالْإِخْرَاجِ وَتَرْجَمَةِ الْبَرَامِجِ، ثُمَّ تَوَلَّى رِئَاسَةَ قِسْمِ تَرْجَمَةِ الْبَرَامِجِ، وَعَمِلَ فِي إِنْتَاجِ الْأَفْلَامِ الْوَثَائِقِيَّةِ وَإِخْرَاجِ الدَّبْلَجَةِ وَالتَّعْلِيقِ الصَّوْتِيِّ. وَسَاعَدَتْهُ خِبْرَتُهُ أَمَامَ الْمِيكْرُوفُونِ عَلَى تَوْجِيهِ الْمُؤَدِّينَ وَمُهَنْدِسِي الصَّوْتِ وَتَحْدِيدِ الْوَقَفَاتِ وَالْمَوَاضِعِ الَّتِي تَحْتَاجُ إِلَى مُونْتَاجٍ.

وَيُشَبِّهُ التَّرْجَمَةَ بِالرِّيَاضِيَّاتِ؛ لِأَنَّ الْمُتَرْجِمَ يَبْحَثُ عَنِ الصِّيغَةِ الَّتِي تُوَصِّلُ الْمَعْنَى نَفْسَهُ فِي اللُّغَةِ الْأُخْرَى. وَهُوَ لَا يَرَى التَّرْجَمَةَ نَقْلًا حَرْفِيًّا، بَلْ نَقْلًا لِجَوْهَرِ الْمَعْنَى وَرُوحِهِ، مَعَ التِزَامٍ أَشَدَّ بِالدِّقَّةِ فِي الْأَخْبَارِ. وَيُشَدِّدُ عَلَى الْمُرَاجَعَةِ وَإِعَادَةِ الْقِرَاءَةِ قَبْلَ اعْتِمَادِ النَّصِّ.

كِتَابُ عَلَى الْهَوَاءِ

تَقَاعَدَ فِي أَوَاخِرِ عَامِ 2023، ثُمَّ أَصْدَرَ فِي يُولْيُو 2025 كِتَابَهُ عَلَى الْهَوَاءِ الْقَاهِرَةُ طُوكْيُو وَوَاشِنْطُنُ. لَمْ يُكْتَبِ الْكِتَابُ دُفْعَةً وَاحِدَةً؛ فَقَدْ دَوَّنَ مُلَاحَظَاتٍ وَجَمَعَ مَوَادَّ عَلَى مَدَى سَنَوَاتٍ، ثُمَّ كَرَّسَ الْعَامَ الَّذِي تَلَا التَّقَاعُدَ لِلْكِتَابَةِ وَالتَّنْظِيمِ.

يَصِفُهُ بِأَنَّهُ مَزِيجٌ مِنَ التَّجْرِبَةِ الشَّخْصِيَّةِ وَتَارِيخِ الرَّادْيُو وَسِيَرِ الْمُؤَسَّسَاتِ وَالْأَشْخَاصِ الَّذِينَ عَمِلَ مَعَهُمْ. وَيَحْمِلُ الْكِتَابُ مَعْنَى الْعِرْفَانِ لِلرُّوَّادِ الَّذِينَ عَلَّمُوهُ وَدَرَّبُوهُ، كَمَا يَقْدِّمُ خِبْرَتَهُ لِلشَّبَابِ الرَّاغِبِينَ فِي دُخُولِ الْعَمَلِ الْإِعْلَامِيِّ.

الْإِعْلَامُ الرَّقْمِيُّ وَالذَّكَاءُ الِاصْطِنَاعِيُّ

لَا يَرْفُضُ مُحَمَّدٌ عَبْدُ الْكَرِيمِ الِانْتِقَالَ مِنَ الْإِذَاعَةِ التَّقْلِيدِيَّةِ إِلَى الْمَنَصَّاتِ الرَّقْمِيَّةِ وَالْبُودْكَاسْتِ. وَهُوَ يُقِرُّ بِأَنَّ الْجُمْهُورَ، وَخَاصَّةً الشَّبَابَ، أَصْبَحَ يَخْتَارُ الْمَادَّةَ الَّتِي يُرِيدُهَا وَيُشَاهِدُهَا عَلَى الْهَاتِفِ بَدَلًا مِنَ انْتِظَارِ جَدْوَلِ التِّلْفِزْيُونِ. لَكِنَّهُ يَتَحَفَّظُ عَلَى ضَعْفِ الْقَوَاعِدِ الْمِهْنِيَّةِ، وَالْأَخْطَاءِ اللُّغَوِيَّةِ، وَتَقْدِيمِ مَوْضُوعَاتٍ ثَانَوِيَّةٍ عَلَى حِسَابِ مَا هُوَ أَهَمُّ.

وَيَرَى أَنَّ الذَّكَاءَ الِاصْطِنَاعِيَّ يَسْتَطِيعُ أَنْ يُسَاعِدَ الْإِعْلَامِيَّ فِي الْوُصُولِ السَّرِيعِ إِلَى الْمَعْلُومَةِ، وَلَكِنْ لَا يَنْبَغِي الِاعْتِمَادُ عَلَيْهِ اعْتِمَادًا كُلِّيًّا فِي الْكِتَابَةِ وَالتَّفْكِيرِ. فَالتَّعْلِيمُ الْجَيِّدُ، فِي رَأْيِهِ، يَجِبُ أَنْ يُبْقِيَ مَلَكَةَ التَّحْلِيلِ حَيَّةً، وَأَلَّا يَكْتَفِيَ بِتَقْدِيمِ النَّتَائِجِ الْجَاهِزَةِ.

نَصِيحَةٌ لِلْجِيلِ الْجَدِيدِ

يَنْصَحُ الشَّبَابَ بِالْقِرَاءَةِ الدَّائِمَةِ، وَمُتَابَعَةِ الْأَخْبَارِ وَالْأَحْدَاثِ الدُّوَلِيَّةِ، وَالِاهْتِمَامِ بِاللُّغَةِ وَالثَّقَافَةِ الْعَامَّةِ. أَمَّا الْعَمَلُ الْإِذَاعِيُّ وَالتِّلْفِزْيُونِيُّ فَيَحْتَاجُ، فَوْقَ ذَلِكَ، إِلَى تَدْرِيبٍ مُكَثَّفٍ عَلَى الْأَدَاءِ وَمَخَارِجِ الْأَلْفَاظِ وَالنُّطْقِ. فَالْمُذِيعُ لَا يَبْلُغُ نُضْجَهُ فِي الْيَوْمِ الْأَوَّلِ؛ إِنَّمَا تَصْقُلُهُ شُهُورُ التَّدْرِيبِ وَسَنَوَاتُ الْمُمَارَسَةِ.

وَعِنْدَمَا سَأَلَهُ الدُّكْتُورُ عَلِيٌّ الزُّهَيْرِيُّ عَنِ الْعَوَاصِمِ الثَّلَاثِ فِي كَلِمَاتٍ قَلِيلَةٍ، قَالَ إِنَّ الْقَاهِرَةَ هِيَ الْأُمُّ، وَإِنَّ طُوكْيُو تَعْنِي الْحَضَارَةَ وَالتَّقَدُّمَ، وَإِنَّ وَاشِنْطُنَ تَعْنِي الْحُرِّيَّةَ وَالْجَمَالَ. وَحِينَ سُئِلَ عَنْ أَكْبَرِ جَائِزَةٍ لِلْمُذِيعِ، أَجَابَ

«رِسَالَةُ الْمُسْتَمِعِ هِيَ الْجَائِزَةُ الْكُبْرَى؛ لِأَنَّهَا تَعْنِي أَنَّ الرِّسَالَةَ قَدْ وَصَلَتْ»

مُشَاهَدَةُ الْحَلْقَةِ

تَأْخُذُ الْحَلْقَةُ الْمُشَاهِدَ فِي رِحْلَةٍ تَقْرِيبًا مِنْ تِسْعٍ وَثَمَانِينَ دَقِيقَةً عَبْرَ ذِكْرَيَاتِ الْإِذَاعَةِ وَالتِّلْفِزْيُونِ وَكَوَالِيسِ الْعَمَلِ الدُّوَلِيِّ. شَاهِدِ الْحَلْقَةَ الْكَامِلَةَ عَلَى يُوتُيُوب https://youtu.be/Y10obahSjAE

English Edition

From Cairo to Tokyo and Washington

Forty Five Years Behind the Microphone with Mohamed Abdelkarim

Episode Overview

In this episode, Dr. Ali Zohery speaks with veteran Egyptian broadcaster Mohamed Abdelkarim about a career of more than forty five years in radio, television, translation, news, and documentary production. The conversation moves from his childhood in Shebin El Kom to Cairo, Tokyo, and Washington, offering a firsthand account of how international broadcasting changed across almost half a century.

Abdelkarim’s story shows that broadcasting depends on far more than a good voice. His career was built on reading, language, disciplined training, preparation, accuracy, and respect for the audience. Those principles connect every stage of the interview, from the Egyptian Radio examinations to Radio Japan and the Voice of America, and from traditional broadcasting to his careful view of artificial intelligence.

Shebin El Kom and the Road to Broadcasting

Mohamed Abdelkarim grew up in Shebin El Kom in Egypt’s Menoufia Governorate. He remembers a quieter city divided by a branch of the Nile, with trees, open green spaces, and a public garden. During childhood he developed interests in reading, music, and public speaking. He read major Egyptian writers including Naguib Mahfouz, Yusuf al Sibai, Taha Hussein, Abbas Mahmoud al Aqqad, and Ihsan Abdel Quddous. His father’s enthusiasm for radio also brought the medium into his daily life.

He studied Russian at the Faculty of Al Alsun at Ain Shams University and also pursued Arabic, English, and French. In the interview, he describes language as a key that opens other cultures. He argues that a broadcaster must master Arabic and at least one foreign language because clear language is necessary for delivering an accurate message.

A Difficult Examination and an Unforgettable Day

His professional career began in January 1977 after an Egyptian Radio competition that unfolded over roughly a year. He recalls that about four thousand people applied and approximately forty ultimately qualified as announcers, editors, or translators. When his result letter was delayed, he visited the Maspero broadcasting building and learned that he had passed. He was told to begin work and training that same day, which he remembers as one of the happiest days of his life.

New announcers did not go directly on air. Abdelkarim completed three or four months of general instruction, observed an experienced broadcaster in the studio, then began with a few lines before advancing to complete bulletins and full shifts. The process shaped a principle that stayed with him throughout his career.

The microphone carries awe and sanctity because you are speaking to the public and delivering a message.

For Abdelkarim, that reverence concerns the public responsibility attached to the microphone. A broadcaster must prepare thoroughly, speak truthfully, remain focused, and understand that every word reaches real people.

Youth Radio and the Making of a Broadcaster

In late 1977, he joined Youth Radio under pioneering broadcaster Ihab El Azhary. The station brought together young colleagues and encouraged them to propose programs and experiment within professional broadcasting rules. Abdelkarim became a senior announcer in 1980 and later led broadcast execution duties, overseeing live output, announcer schedules, and the preparation of new staff.

His account of the Radio and Television Training Institute illustrates the breadth of preparation expected at the time. His instructors included Farouk Shousha, Ihab El Azhary, Ali Eissa, and Amal Fahmy. Actor Abdel Wareth Assar taught delivery, while composer Abdel Hamid Tawfik Zaki taught musical appreciation. Abdelkarim identifies preparation, truthfulness, objectivity, and balance as the lasting lessons of this training.

Cairo Tokyo and Washington

An assignment to cover Egyptian German Friendship Week in 1981 gave him an early international reporting experience. He sent audio reports from Germany, visited studios, and returned with recordings for his program The World at Your Fingertips. The assignment also led to further work with Egyptian television.

In 1984, he moved to Tokyo as a senior announcer in the Arabic Service of Radio Japan. He edited and presented the daily news, produced programs, conducted interviews, and served as a correspondent for Egyptian Radio. He viewed Radio Japan as a bridge connecting Japan with Arab audiences through coverage of economic development, science, culture, and relations with the Middle East. His reporting included an exhibition of Egyptian antiquities and interviews with Egyptian and Arab visitors to Japan.

After passing the Voice of America competition, he arrived in Washington in October 1989 and began a chapter that lasted about thirty four years. He worked as an international broadcaster, editor, translator, producer, and director. Among his programs was New Horizons in Science, which covered medicine, technology, space, and scientific research. He also created Towards a Better Life.

In 1996, following an internal competition, he was selected to present Weekly Forum, the first television program produced by the Arabic Service. He later covered visits by heads of state at the White House and reported from several American states. One scene that stayed with him was Yasser Arafat leaving one of his final meetings with President Bill Clinton visibly somber and without speaking to waiting journalists, signaling that the meeting had not produced an agreement.

Three Media Traditions and One Professional Standard

Abdelkarim explains the contribution of the three capitals with striking clarity. Cairo was his first school, where he learned the principles of radio and how to deliver the words This is Cairo. Japan taught him precise administration, order, and disciplined work. Washington added greater editorial freedom and daily contact with people from many cultures.

Despite differences among media institutions, his professional standard remained consistent. A reporter should verify a story through at least two reliable sources and set aside personal preferences when presenting the facts. At Voice of America, he found those principles formalized in a charter requiring accurate, objective, comprehensive, and balanced reporting.

Voice Translation and Documentary Production

Abdelkarim later moved into production, direction, program translation, dubbing, voiceover, and documentary work. He eventually headed the program translation section. His experience as an announcer helped him guide performers and audio engineers, identify the correct pauses, and recognize passages that required editing.

He compares translation to mathematics because the translator must find an expression in the new language that produces the same meaning. Translation is not a mechanical exchange of words. It carries the spirit and substance of the source while maintaining particular accuracy in news. He stresses the need to reread and revise a translation before it is approved.

The Book On Air

After retiring in late 2023, Abdelkarim published On Air Cairo Tokyo Washington in July 2025. The book grew from notes and materials collected over many years, followed by concentrated writing after retirement. He describes it as a combination of broadcasting history, professional experience, and portraits of the people and institutions with whom he worked.

The book is also an expression of gratitude to the broadcasters who trained and supported him. Its purpose is practical as well as historical: to pass useful experience to younger women and men who hope to work in media.

Digital Media and Artificial Intelligence

Abdelkarim accepts that audiences have moved from scheduled radio and television to digital platforms, podcasts, and on demand viewing. Younger people can now choose what they want to watch on a phone rather than wait for a television schedule. His concern is the weakening of professional standards, the spread of serious language errors, and the tendency of some outlets to give secondary subjects more attention than important news.

He believes artificial intelligence should assist journalists by helping them locate information more quickly. It should not replace writing, analysis, or independent thought. Education, in his view, must continue to develop the ability to reason instead of training students to accept ready made answers.

Advice for the Next Generation

His advice to aspiring broadcasters is direct: read continually, follow national and international events, strengthen language, and build broad cultural knowledge. Radio and television also require intensive training in performance, pronunciation, and articulation. A broadcaster is not fully formed on the first day. Skill develops through months of training and years of work.

In a rapid final exchange, Abdelkarim described Cairo as our mother, Tokyo as civilization and progress, and Washington as freedom and beauty. Asked about the broadcaster’s greatest reward, he returned to the relationship at the center of his career.

A message from a listener is the greatest prize because it means the message has arrived.

Watch the Episode

The full conversation runs for approximately eighty nine minutes and includes additional memories from radio studios, international newsrooms, television production, and documentary work. Watch the complete episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/Y10obahSjAE

About the Guest

Mohamed Abdelkarim is an Egyptian broadcaster, editor, translator, producer, director, and documentary voice artist whose career spans Egyptian Radio, Radio Japan, and Voice of America. He retired in late 2023 and published On Air Cairo Tokyo Washington in July 2025.

About the Podcast

The Dr. Ali Zohery Podcast presents conversations with scholars, media professionals, authors, and people whose experience can inform an Arabic and international audience. The podcast is hosted from Washington DC by Dr. Ali Zohery, founder and owner of Zohery Tours International. Visit www.zohery.com for Washington sightseeing tours and cultural travel programs.

Episode Reference

Item: Information

Episode: From Cairo to Tokyo and Washington Forty Five Years Behind the Microphone with Mohamed Abdelkarim

Host: Dr. Ali Zohery

Guest: Mohamed Abdelkarim

Duration: Approximately 89 minutes

Languages: Arabic Bilingual article in Arabic and English

Main subjects: Egyptian Radio Radio Japan Voice of America television translation documentaries digital media artificial intelligence

Book: On Air Cairo Tokyo Washington published July 2025

YouTube episode: https://youtu.be/Y10obahSjAE

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حِوَارٌ مَعَ الْمُؤَرِّخِ وَخَبِيرِ الْآثَارِ وَالتُّرَاثِ الْأُسْتَاذِ الدُّكْتُورِ مُحَمَّدِ حَمْزَةَ إِسْمَاعِيلَ الْحَدَّادِ

Egyptology from Ancient to Modern Times

A Conversation with Professor Mohamed Hamza Ismail Al Haddad

The Dr. Ali Zohery Podcast Weekly

الْمَجَلَّةُ الرَّقْمِيَّةُ وَأَرْشِيفُ بُودْكَاسْتِ الدُّكْتُورِ عَلِيٍّ الزُّهَيْرِيِّ

الْعَدَدُ الثَّانِي

عِلْمُ الْمِصْرِيَّاتِ مِنَ الْعُصُورِ الْقَدِيمَةِ إِلَى الْحَدِيثَةِ

حِوَارٌ مَعَ الْمُؤَرِّخِ وَخَبِيرِ الْآثَارِ وَالتُّرَاثِ الْأُسْتَاذِ الدُّكْتُورِ مُحَمَّدِ حَمْزَةَ إِسْمَاعِيلَ الْحَدَّادِ

Egyptology from Ancient to Modern Times

A Conversation with Professor Mohamed Hamza Ismail Al Haddad

Watch the complete episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/fxYbG-x0pD4

إِعْدَادُ هَيْئَةِ تَحْرِيرِ بُودْكَاسْتِ الدُّكْتُورِ عَلِيٍّ الزُّهَيْرِيِّ

مُلَخَّصُ الْحَلْقَةِ

يَسْتَضِيفُ الدُّكْتُورُ عَلِيٌّ الزُّهَيْرِيُّ فِي الْعَدَدِ الثَّانِي مِنَ الْمَجَلَّةِ الرَّقْمِيَّةِ وَأَرْشِيفِ بُودْكَاسْتِ الدُّكْتُورِ عَلِيٍّ الزُّهَيْرِيِّ الْأُسْتَاذَ الدُّكْتُورَ مُحَمَّدَ حَمْزَةَ إِسْمَاعِيلَ الْحَدَّادَ، أُسْتَاذَ الْآثَارِ وَالْحَضَارَةِ الْإِسْلَامِيَّةِ وَالْعَمِيدَ الْأَسْبَقَ لِكُلِّيَّةِ الْآثَارِ بِجَامِعَةِ الْقَاهِرَةِ. وَيَقُودُ الْحِوَارُ الْمُشَاهِدَ فِي رِحْلَةٍ عَبْرَ تَارِيخِ مِصْرَ الْمُتَرَاكِمِ، مِنْ آثَارِهَا الْقَدِيمَةِ إِلَى تُرَاثِهَا الْقِبْطِيِّ وَالْإِسْلَامِيِّ وَالْحَدِيثِ.

لَا تَقِفُ الْحَلْقَةُ عِنْدَ وَصْفِ الْمَبَانِي وَالْمُقْتَنَيَاتِ، بَلْ تَسْأَلُ عَنْ مَعْنَى الْحَضَارَةِ، وَعَنْ عِلَاقَةِ الْأَثَرِ بِالْهُوِيَّةِ، وَعَنْ مَسْؤُولِيَّةِ الْجَامِعَاتِ وَالْمُؤَسَّسَاتِ وَالْمُجْتَمَعِ فِي حِفْظِ التُّرَاثِ. وَتُبَيِّنُ أَنَّ دِرَاسَةَ مِصْرَ تَحْتَاجُ إِلَى نَظْرَةٍ شَامِلَةٍ تَرَى التَّوَاصُلَ بَيْنَ الْعُصُورِ، وَلَا تَعْزِلُ مَرْحَلَةً عَمَّا سَبَقَهَا أَوْ لَحِقَهَا.

الضَّيْفُ وَمَسِيرَتُهُ الْعِلْمِيَّةُ

يَنْتَمِي الدُّكْتُورُ مُحَمَّدُ حَمْزَةَ الْحَدَّادُ إِلَى مَدْرَسَةٍ عِلْمِيَّةٍ تَجْمَعُ بَيْنَ الدِّرَاسَةِ الْأَكَادِيمِيَّةِ وَالْخِبْرَةِ الْمَيْدَانِيَّةِ وَالْعَمَلِ الْمُؤَسَّسِيِّ. فَقَدْ شَغَلَ مَوَاقِعَ عِلْمِيَّةً وَإِدَارِيَّةً فِي كُلِّيَّةِ الْآثَارِ بِجَامِعَةِ الْقَاهِرَةِ، وَشَارَكَ فِي الْبَحْثِ وَالتَّدْرِيسِ وَمُنَاقَشَةِ قَضَايَا الْحِفَاظِ عَلَى التُّرَاثِ. وَتُظْهِرُ الْحَلْقَةُ كَيْفَ يَتَكَوَّنُ الْعَالِمُ مِنْ قِرَاءَةٍ مُنَظَّمَةٍ، وَمُعَايَنَةٍ لِلْأَثَرِ، وَتَوَاصُلٍ مَعَ الْمُتَخَصِّصِينَ فِي مَجَالَاتٍ مُخْتَلِفَةٍ.

وَيَحْضُرُ فِي الْحِوَارِ أَثَرُ الْمُعَلِّمِ وَالْجَامِعَةِ وَالْمَكْتَبَةِ وَالْمَوْقِعِ الْأَثَرِيِّ فِي صُنْعِ الْبَاحِثِ. فَالْمَعْرِفَةُ الْأَثَرِيَّةُ لَا تُبْنَى عَلَى الِانْبِهَارِ وَحْدَهُ، بَلْ عَلَى التَّوْثِيقِ وَالْمُقَارَنَةِ وَفَهْمِ السِّيَاقِ التَّارِيخِيِّ وَالْمِعْمَارِيِّ. وَمِنْ هُنَا تَظْهَرُ قِيمَةُ الْمَسِيرَةِ الَّتِي تَجْمَعُ بَيْنَ التَّخَصُّصِ الدَّقِيقِ وَالرُّؤْيَةِ الْحَضَارِيَّةِ الْوَاسِعَةِ.

مِصْرُ حَضَارَةٌ مُتَّصِلَةٌ لَا جُزُرٌ مُنْفَصِلَةٌ

مِنْ أَهَمِّ أَفْكَارِ الْحَلْقَةِ أَنَّ تَارِيخَ مِصْرَ لَا يَنْبَغِي أَنْ يُقْرَأَ عَلَى أَنَّهُ مَجْمُوعَةٌ مِنَ الْجُزُرِ الْمُنْفَصِلَةِ. فَالْمِصْرِيُّ الَّذِي بَنَى وَأَبْدَعَ فِي الْعَصْرِ الْقَدِيمِ هُوَ امْتِدَادٌ لِمُجْتَمَعٍ وَاصَلَ الْحَيَاةَ وَالْإِنْتَاجَ فِي الْعُصُورِ الْيُونَانِيَّةِ وَالرُّومَانِيَّةِ وَالْقِبْطِيَّةِ وَالْإِسْلَامِيَّةِ وَالْحَدِيثَةِ. وَقَدْ تَغَيَّرَتِ اللُّغَاتُ وَالْأَدْيَانُ وَأَشْكَالُ السُّلْطَةِ، وَلَكِنَّ الْإِنْسَانَ وَالْمَكَانَ وَالذَّاكِرَةَ ظَلَّتْ تَنْسُجُ خَيْطًا مُتَّصِلًا.

هَذِهِ النَّظْرَةُ لَا تُذِيبُ خُصُوصِيَّةَ كُلِّ عَصْرٍ، بَلْ تَضَعُهَا دَاخِلَ صُورَةٍ أَكْبَرَ. فَالْعِمَارَةُ الْإِسْلَامِيَّةُ فِي مِصْرَ، عَلَى سَبِيلِ الْمِثَالِ، لَهَا نُظُمُهَا وَمُفْرَدَاتُهَا وَوَظَائِفُهَا، وَلَكِنَّهَا نَشَأَتْ فِي بِيئَةٍ مِصْرِيَّةٍ لَهَا مَوَارِدُهَا وَحِرَفُهَا وَذَوْقُهَا وَتَجْرِبَتُهَا الْمُتَرَاكِمَةُ. وَفَهْمُ هَذَا التَّدَاخُلِ يُحَرِّرُ دِرَاسَةَ التَّارِيخِ مِنَ التَّبْسِيطِ، وَيَجْعَلُ التُّرَاثَ جُزْءًا مِنْ سِيرَةِ مُجْتَمَعٍ حَيٍّ.

مَاذَا نَعْنِي بِعِلْمِ الْمِصْرِيَّاتِ

يَطْرَحُ عُنْوَانُ الْحَلْقَةِ سُؤَالًا مُهِمًّا حَوْلَ حُدُودِ عِلْمِ الْمِصْرِيَّاتِ. فِي الِاسْتِخْدَامِ الْأَكَادِيمِيِّ الشَّائِعِ، يَرْتَبِطُ الْمُصْطَلَحُ فِي الْغَالِبِ بِدِرَاسَةِ مِصْرَ الْقَدِيمَةِ وَلُغَاتِهَا وَآثَارِهَا. غَيْرَ أَنَّ فَهْمَ مِصْرَ كَوَطَنٍ وَحَضَارَةٍ يَفْرِضُ حِوَارًا بَيْنَ تَخَصُّصَاتِ الْآثَارِ الْمِصْرِيَّةِ وَالْيُونَانِيَّةِ وَالرُّومَانِيَّةِ وَالْقِبْطِيَّةِ وَالْإِسْلَامِيَّةِ، إِلَى جَانِبِ التَّارِيخِ وَالْعِمَارَةِ وَالْفُنُونِ وَالْأَنْثُرُوبُولُوجِيَا.

وَالْمَقْصُودُ لَيْسَ إِلْغَاءَ الْحُدُودِ الْعِلْمِيَّةِ بَيْنَ التَّخَصُّصَاتِ، بَلْ بِنَاءُ جُسُورٍ بَيْنَهَا. فَقَدْ تَكْشِفُ دِرَاسَةُ مَدِينَةٍ وَاحِدَةٍ عَنْ طَبَقَاتٍ مُتَعَاقِبَةٍ مِنَ الِاسْتِخْدَامِ وَالْعِمَارَةِ وَالذَّاكِرَةِ. وَحِينَ يَتَعَاوَنُ الْمُتَخَصِّصُونَ، يُصْبِحُ بِالْإِمْكَانِ تَقْدِيمُ تَفْسِيرٍ أَدَقَّ لِلْمَوْقِعِ، وَوَضْعُ خُطَّةٍ أَفْضَلَ لِحِفْظِهِ وَتَقْدِيمِهِ لِلْجُمْهُورِ.

الْقَاهِرَةُ الْإِسْلَامِيَّةُ كِتَابٌ مَفْتُوحٌ

تَحْتَلُّ الْقَاهِرَةُ مَكَانًا مَرْكَزِيًّا فِي الْحِوَارِ؛ فَهِيَ مَدِينَةٌ تَحْمِلُ فِي شَوَارِعِهَا وَمَسَاجِدِهَا وَمَدَارِسِهَا وَأَسْوَاقِهَا وَبُيُوتِهَا شَهَادَاتٍ عَلَى قُرُونٍ مِنَ الْحَيَاةِ. وَالْمَبْنَى الْأَثَرِيُّ فِيهَا لَيْسَ وَاجِهَةً جَمِيلَةً فَقَطْ؛ إِنَّهُ وَثِيقَةٌ تَكْشِفُ عَنِ الْعَقِيدَةِ وَالْوَظِيفَةِ وَالْفَنِّ وَالِاقْتِصَادِ وَعَلَاقَاتِ السُّلْطَةِ وَالْمُجْتَمَعِ فِي زَمَنِهِ.

وَتَدْعُو الْحَلْقَةُ إِلَى قِرَاءَةِ الْمَدِينَةِ مِنَ الدَّاخِلِ: كَيْفَ كَانَ النَّاسُ يَتَحَرَّكُونَ فِي شَوَارِعِهَا؟ وَكَيْفَ خَدَمَتِ الْمَدْرَسَةُ وَالسَّبِيلُ وَالْوِكَالَةُ وَالْحَمَّامُ وَالْمَسْجِدُ حَيَاةَ الْمُجْتَمَعِ؟ وَكَيْفَ تَفَاعَلَتِ الْعِمَارَةُ مَعَ الْمُنَاخِ وَالْمَوَادِّ الْمَحَلِّيَّةِ؟ إِنَّ هَذِهِ الْأَسْئِلَةَ تَنْقُلُ الزَّائِرَ مِنَ الْمُشَاهَدَةِ السَّرِيعَةِ إِلَى الْفَهْمِ، وَتُحَوِّلُ الْجَوْلَةَ السِّيَاحِيَّةَ إِلَى تَجْرِبَةٍ تَعْلِيمِيَّةٍ.

الْعِمَارَةُ وَالْهُوِيَّةُ

تَحْفَظُ الْعِمَارَةُ مَا قَدْ لَا تَحْفَظُهُ النُّصُوصُ وَحْدَهَا. فِي تَخْطِيطِ الْمَبْنَى وَمَدْخَلِهِ وَفِنَائِهِ وَزَخَارِفِهِ وَكِتَابَاتِهِ نَقْرَأُ طَرِيقَةَ الْمُجْتَمَعِ فِي التَّعْبِيرِ عَنْ قِيَمِهِ وَاحْتِيَاجَاتِهِ. وَعِنْدَمَا تُفْقَدُ هَذِهِ الْمَبَانِي أَوْ تُشَوَّهُ، لَا نَفْقِدُ حَجَرًا فَقَطْ؛ بَلْ نَفْقِدُ جُزْءًا مِنَ الذَّاكِرَةِ الَّتِي تُسَاعِدُ الْأَجْيَالَ عَلَى فَهْمِ نَفْسِهَا.

وَلِذَلِكَ يَرْتَبِطُ الْحِفَاظُ عَلَى الْعِمَارَةِ بِالْهُوِيَّةِ مِنْ غَيْرِ أَنْ يَتَحَوَّلَ إِلَى انْغِلَاقٍ عَلَى الْمَاضِي. فَالْمَدِينَةُ لَا تَتَوَقَّفُ عَنِ النُّمُوِّ، وَالسُّكَّانُ يَحْتَاجُونَ إِلَى السَّكَنِ وَالْعَمَلِ وَالْمَوَاصَلَاتِ وَالْخَدَمَاتِ. وَالتَّحَدِّي الْحَقِيقِيُّ هُوَ إِدَارَةُ التَّغْيِيرِ بِوَعْيٍ، بِحَيْثُ تَسْتَمِرُّ الْحَيَاةُ مِنْ دُونِ مَحْوِ الشَّخْصِيَّةِ التَّارِيخِيَّةِ لِلْمَكَانِ.

تَحَدِّيَاتُ الْحِفَاظِ عَلَى التُّرَاثِ

يُوَاجِهُ التُّرَاثُ الْمِعْمَارِيُّ تَحَدِّيَاتٍ مُتَعَدِّدَةً، مِنْهَا الزَّمَنُ وَالرُّطُوبَةُ وَالتَّلَوُّثُ وَالِاهْتِزَازَاتُ وَالضَّغْطُ الْعُمْرَانِيُّ وَسُوءُ الِاسْتِخْدَامِ. وَقَدْ يَكُونُ التَّرْمِيمُ غَيْرُ الْمَدْرُوسِ خَطَرًا آخَرَ إِذَا مَحَا دَلَائِلَ الْمَبْنَى أَوِ اسْتَبْدَلَ مَوَادَّهُ الْأَصْلِيَّةَ بِمَا لَا يَنْسَجِمُ مَعَهَا. لِذَلِكَ يَبْدَأُ الْحِفَاظُ الصَّحِيحُ بِالتَّوْثِيقِ، وَفَهْمِ تَارِيخِ الْمَبْنَى، وَتَشْخِيصِ سَبَبِ التَّلَفِ قَبْلَ اخْتِيَارِ الْعِلَاجِ.

وَالْحِفَاظُ لَيْسَ مَهَمَّةَ الْأَثَرِيِّ أَوِ الْمُرَمِّمِ وَحْدَهُ. إِنَّهُ يَحْتَاجُ إِلَى تَعَاوُنِ الْمُهَنْدِسِ وَالْمُعَمَارِيِّ وَالْمُؤَرِّخِ وَالْكِيمِيَائِيِّ وَخَبِيرِ الْبِيئَةِ وَالْإِدَارِيِّ، إِلَى جَانِبِ السُّكَّانِ الَّذِينَ يَعِيشُونَ حَوْلَ الْأَثَرِ. وَمِنْ دُونِ مُشَارَكَةِ الْمُجْتَمَعِ، قَدْ يَبْقَى الْمَشْرُوعُ جَمِيلًا عَلَى الْوَرَقِ وَلَكِنَّهُ لَا يَسْتَمِرُّ فِي الْوَاقِعِ.

الْجَامِعَةُ وَالْمُؤَسَّسَاتُ وَبِنَاءُ الْخِبْرَةِ

تُبْرِزُ الْحَلْقَةُ دَوْرَ كُلِّيَّاتِ الْآثَارِ فِي إِعْدَادِ جِيلٍ يَجْمَعُ بَيْنَ الْمَعْرِفَةِ النَّظَرِيَّةِ وَالْمَهَارَةِ الْعَمَلِيَّةِ. فَالطَّالِبُ يَحْتَاجُ إِلَى اللُّغَاتِ وَقِرَاءَةِ الْمَصَادِرِ وَالرَّسْمِ وَالتَّصْوِيرِ وَالتَّوْثِيقِ الرَّقْمِيِّ، كَمَا يَحْتَاجُ إِلَى التَّدْرِيبِ فِي الْمَوَاقِعِ وَالْمَتَاحِفِ وَمَعَامِلِ التَّرْمِيمِ. وَحِينَ تَنْفَصِلُ الدِّرَاسَةُ عَنِ الْمَيْدَانِ، يَفْقِدُ التَّخَصُّصُ جُزْءًا كَبِيرًا مِنْ قُدْرَتِهِ عَلَى الْخِدْمَةِ وَالْحِمَايَةِ.

كَمَا أَنَّ التَّعَاوُنَ بَيْنَ الْجَامِعَةِ وَالْجِهَاتِ الْمَسْؤُولَةِ عَنِ الْآثَارِ وَالْمَتَاحِفِ وَالْمُنَظَّمَاتِ الْإِقْلِيمِيَّةِ وَالدَّوْلِيَّةِ يُوَسِّعُ دَائِرَةَ الْخِبْرَةِ. وَالْهَدَفُ لَيْسَ نَقْلَ نَمُوذَجٍ جَاهِزٍ مِنْ مَكَانٍ إِلَى آخَرَ، بَلِ الِاسْتِفَادَةُ مِنَ الْمَعَايِيرِ وَالتَّجَارِبِ مَعَ احْتِرَامِ خُصُوصِيَّةِ الْمَوْقِعِ وَالْمُجْتَمَعِ الْمَحَلِّيِّ.

التُّرَاثُ وَالسِّيَاحَةُ الْمُسْتَدَامَةُ

يُمْكِنُ لِلسِّيَاحَةِ أَنْ تَكُونَ قُوَّةً لِحِمَايَةِ التُّرَاثِ عِنْدَمَا تُوَفِّرُ مَوَارِدَ لِلصِّيَانَةِ وَفُرَصًا لِلْعَمَلِ وَحَافِزًا لِلْمُجْتَمَعِ لِلْمُحَافَظَةِ عَلَى مَوَاقِعِهِ. وَلَكِنَّهَا قَدْ تَتَحَوَّلُ إِلَى ضَغْطٍ إِذَا زَادَتِ الْأَعْدَادُ مِنْ دُونِ إِدَارَةٍ، أَوْ إِذَا تَحَوَّلَ الْمَكَانُ إِلَى مَشْهَدٍ مُنْفَصِلٍ عَنْ سُكَّانِهِ وَوَظَائِفِهِ الْأَصْلِيَّةِ.

وَالسِّيَاحَةُ الْمُسْتَدَامَةُ تَبْدَأُ بِقِصَّةٍ صَحِيحَةٍ تُقَدَّمُ لِلزَّائِرِ، وَمَسَارٍ يَحْمِي الْمَبْنَى، وَخَدَمَاتٍ تَحْتَرِمُ الْمَكَانَ، وَنَصِيبٍ عَادِلٍ لِلْمُجْتَمَعِ الْمَحَلِّيِّ مِنَ الْفَوَائِدِ. وَهُنَا يَلْتَقِي عَمَلُ الْبَاحِثِ وَالْمُرْشِدِ السِّيَاحِيِّ وَالْمُخَطِّطِ؛ لِأَنَّ كُلَّ وَاحِدٍ مِنْهُمْ يُسْهِمُ فِي الطَّرِيقَةِ الَّتِي يَفْهَمُ بِهَا الزَّائِرُ الْمَكَانَ وَيَتَعَامَلُ مَعَهُ.

رِسَالَةٌ إِلَى الشَّبَابِ

تُقَدِّمُ مَسِيرَةُ الدُّكْتُورِ مُحَمَّدِ حَمْزَةَ دَرْسًا لِلطُّلَّابِ وَالْبَاحِثِينَ: التَّخَصُّصُ يَحْتَاجُ إِلَى صَبْرٍ وَتَرَاكُمٍ، وَالْخِبْرَةُ لَا تُخْتَصَرُ فِي شَهَادَةٍ وَاحِدَةٍ. وَعَلَى الْبَاحِثِ أَنْ يَعْرِفَ أَدَوَاتِهِ، وَأَنْ يَرْجِعَ إِلَى الْمَصَادِرِ، وَأَنْ يَكُونَ مُسْتَعِدًّا لِتَصْحِيحِ رَأْيِهِ عِنْدَمَا يَظْهَرُ دَلِيلٌ أَقْوَى.

وَفِي زَمَنِ الصُّوَرِ السَّرِيعَةِ وَالْمَعْلُومَاتِ الْمُخْتَصَرَةِ، تَبْقَى الْقِرَاءَةُ الْعَمِيقَةُ وَالزِّيَارَةُ الْمَيْدَانِيَّةُ وَالْحِوَارُ مَعَ الْخُبَرَاءِ أَدَوَاتٍ لَا غِنَى عَنْهَا. وَحِينَ يَتَعَلَّمُ الشَّابُّ أَنْ يَرَى فِي الْأَثَرِ وَثِيقَةً وَمَسْؤُولِيَّةً، لَا مُجَرَّدَ خَلْفِيَّةٍ لِصُورَةٍ، يَصْبِحُ شَرِيكًا فِي حِمَايَةِ التُّرَاثِ.

خُلَاصَةُ الْعَدَدِ الثَّانِي

تَخْرُجُ الْحَلْقَةُ بِرِسَالَةٍ وَاضِحَةٍ: التُّرَاثُ لَيْسَ شَيْئًا نَحْفَظُهُ لِنَنْظُرَ إِلَيْهِ مِنْ بَعِيدٍ، بَلْ مَعْرِفَةٌ تَدْخُلُ فِي التَّعْلِيمِ وَالْهُوِيَّةِ وَالِاقْتِصَادِ وَجَوْدَةِ الْحَيَاةِ. وَحِمَايَتُهُ تَبْدَأُ بِفَهْمِهِ، ثُمَّ تَوْثِيقِهِ، ثُمَّ إِدَارَتِهِ بِمُشَارَكَةِ الْمُتَخَصِّينَ وَالسُّكَّانِ.

وَعِنْدَمَا نَقْرَأُ مِصْرَ مِنْ عُصُورِهَا الْقَدِيمَةِ إِلَى الْحَدِيثَةِ، نُدْرِكُ أَنَّ قُوَّتَهَا لَا تَكْمُنُ فِي عَصْرٍ وَاحِدٍ، بَلْ فِي قُدْرَتِهَا عَلَى الِاسْتِمْرَارِ وَإِعَادَةِ تَشْكِيلِ ذَاتِهَا. وَهَذَا هُوَ الْمَعْنَى الَّذِي يَجْعَلُ الْحِوَارَ مَعَ عَالِمٍ مُتَخَصِّصٍ فِي الْآثَارِ وَالْحَضَارَةِ الْإِسْلَامِيَّةِ جُزْءًا أَصِيلًا مِنْ حِوَارٍ أَوْسَعَ عَنْ مِصْرَ وَحَضَارَتِهَا.

مُشَاهَدَةُ الْحَلْقَةِ

لِمُشَاهَدَةِ الْحِوَارِ الْكَامِلِ عَلَى يُوتُيُوب: https://youtu.be/fxYbG-x0pD4

هَذَا الْمَقَالُ صِيَاغَةٌ تَحْرِيرِيَّةٌ لِلْمَوْضُوعَاتِ وَالْأَفْكَارِ الرَّئِيسَةِ الَّتِي تَطْرَحُهَا الْحَلْقَةُ، وَلَيْسَ تَفْرِيغًا حَرْفِيًّا لِلْحِوَارِ.

English Edition

Egyptology from Ancient to Modern Times

A Conversation with Professor Mohamed Hamza Ismail Al Haddad

Episode Overview

In the second issue of The Digital Magazine and Archive of The Dr. Ali Zohery Podcast, Dr. Ali Zohery welcomes Professor Mohamed Hamza Ismail Al Haddad, Professor of Islamic Archaeology and Civilization and former Dean of the Faculty of Archaeology at Cairo University. The conversation explores Egypt as a civilization whose historical layers extend from antiquity through the Coptic, Islamic, and modern periods.

The episode goes beyond monuments as beautiful objects. It examines the meaning of civilization, the relationship between heritage and identity, and the responsibility shared by universities, cultural institutions, professionals, and communities. Its central message is that Egypt is best understood through both careful specialization and a broad awareness of continuity across time.

The Guest and His Scholarly Journey

Professor Mohamed Hamza Al Haddad represents a scholarly tradition that connects academic research, field experience, teaching, and institutional leadership. His work in Islamic archaeology and architecture approaches the monument as evidence: a source that must be documented, compared, dated, interpreted, and placed within its religious, social, artistic, and economic context.

The discussion also highlights how scholars are formed. Libraries, teachers, university training, archaeological sites, museums, and collaboration with other specialists all contribute to professional judgment. Knowledge of heritage cannot rest on admiration alone. It requires method, close observation, disciplined use of sources, and a willingness to revise conclusions when stronger evidence appears.

Egypt as a Continuous Civilization

One of the episode’s most important ideas is that Egyptian history should not be treated as a series of isolated islands. Egypt changed through the ancient, Greek, Roman, Coptic, Islamic, and modern periods, yet its people, landscape, cities, crafts, and collective memory created many lines of continuity. Recognizing that continuity does not erase the distinctive character of any period. It allows each period to be studied within a larger national and human story.

Islamic architecture in Egypt offers a clear example. Its religious functions, architectural vocabulary, and artistic traditions belong to the wider history of Islamic civilization, but the buildings were also shaped by Egyptian materials, climate, craftsmen, urban patterns, and accumulated local experience. Studying both connections produces a richer understanding than placing the monument inside a single narrow category.

What Egyptology Means

In conventional academic use, Egyptology usually refers to the study of ancient Egypt, including its languages, texts, material culture, religion, art, and archaeology. The episode’s broad historical perspective, however, raises a productive question: how can specialists in ancient Egyptian, Greco Roman, Coptic, Islamic, and modern heritage work together to explain Egypt’s long civilizational experience?

The answer is not to eliminate disciplinary boundaries. Specialized knowledge remains essential. The goal is to build bridges among disciplines, especially when one city or site contains several layers of occupation, reuse, memory, and meaning. Cooperation helps researchers interpret those layers more accurately and helps heritage managers develop conservation plans that respect the full history of a place.

Islamic Cairo as an Open Book

Cairo occupies a central place in the conversation. Its mosques, madrasas, houses, markets, fountains, caravanserais, streets, and defensive structures preserve evidence of many centuries of life. A historic building is not merely an attractive facade. Its plan, materials, inscriptions, decoration, and location reveal information about worship, education, charity, trade, government, family life, and the organization of the city.

Reading the city from within changes the visitor’s experience. How did people move through its streets? How did a mosque, school, public fountain, market building, or bath serve the surrounding community? How did builders respond to climate and available materials? Questions like these transform sightseeing into learning and help the public understand why the protection of historic neighborhoods matters.

Architecture Identity and Living Memory

Architecture preserves forms of evidence that written sources cannot preserve by themselves. The entrance, courtyard, windows, circulation, inscriptions, and decorative choices of a building record social values and practical needs. When a historic structure is lost or severely altered, society loses more than stone and ornament. It loses a part of the memory through which later generations understand their city and themselves.

Protecting identity does not mean freezing a city in the past. Residents need housing, transportation, employment, safety, and public services. The real challenge is to manage change intelligently so that development can continue without erasing the historic character of the place. Conservation is therefore a form of responsible planning, not an obstacle to modern life.

The Challenges of Heritage Conservation

Historic architecture faces damage from time, moisture, pollution, vibration, traffic, urban pressure, neglect, and incompatible uses. Inappropriate restoration can create another form of loss when it removes historical evidence or replaces original materials without understanding how the structure was built. Sound conservation begins with documentation, research into the building’s history, and a careful diagnosis of deterioration before treatment begins.

No single profession can complete this work alone. Archaeologists, conservators, architects, engineers, historians, chemists, environmental specialists, administrators, and local residents must contribute their knowledge. Community participation is particularly important because a technically impressive project will not remain successful if the people who live around a monument are excluded from its future.

Universities Institutions and Professional Training

Faculties of archaeology have a major responsibility to prepare students for both research and practical service. Students need languages, source criticism, architectural drawing, photography, digital documentation, museum knowledge, and supervised field training. When classroom study is separated from sites, collections, and conservation laboratories, graduates lose part of the experience required to protect heritage effectively.

Cooperation among universities, antiquities authorities, museums, research centers, and regional and international organizations broadens access to expertise. Such cooperation should not impose one formula on every place. It should apply sound standards while respecting the materials, history, needs, and communities of each site.

Heritage and Sustainable Tourism

Tourism can support heritage when it creates resources for maintenance, employment for local residents, and public reasons to value historic places. It can also become a source of pressure when visitor numbers are unmanaged or when a living neighborhood is reduced to a stage set separated from its residents and original functions.

Sustainable cultural tourism begins with an accurate story, a visitor route that protects vulnerable fabric, services that respect the setting, and a fair local share of the benefits. Researchers, guides, planners, and community members all influence how visitors understand and treat a place. Interpretation is therefore part of conservation: people are more likely to protect what they have learned to understand.

A Message for Students and Young Researchers

Professor Al Haddad’s career offers a practical lesson for younger generations. Expertise grows through patience and accumulation; it cannot be reduced to one degree or one publication. Researchers must know their tools, return to primary evidence, read beyond their immediate specialty, and remain ready to correct an interpretation when new evidence requires it.

In an age of rapid images and shortened information, deep reading, field observation, and conversation with experienced specialists remain indispensable. A young person who sees a monument as evidence and responsibility, rather than merely as a background for a photograph, becomes a partner in protecting heritage.

Conclusion

The episode leaves the audience with a clear conclusion: heritage is not an object preserved only for distant admiration. It is knowledge that influences education, identity, economic opportunity, urban quality, and cultural dialogue. Protecting it begins with understanding, continues through documentation and conservation, and succeeds through long term management shared by professionals and communities.

Reading Egypt from ancient to modern times reveals that the country’s strength does not belong to one period alone. It lies in the capacity of Egyptian society to continue, adapt, create, and add new layers to an exceptionally rich human record. This is why a conversation with a scholar of Islamic archaeology and civilization belongs at the heart of a wider discussion about Egypt and its enduring civilizational identity.

Watch the Episode

Watch the complete conversation on YouTube: https://youtu.be/fxYbG-x0pD4

About the Guest

Professor Mohamed Hamza Ismail Al Haddad is a scholar of Islamic archaeology, architecture, and civilization and a former Dean of the Faculty of Archaeology at Cairo University. His work contributes to education and the protection of cultural heritage. The Dr. Ali Zohery Podcast is hosted from Washington DC by Dr. Ali Zohery, founder and owner of Zohery Tours International. Visit www.zohery.com.

الأَلْفِيَّةُ المَفْقُودَةُ

EGYPTOLOGY BEFORE CHAMPOLLION

THE MISSING MILLENNIUM

حِوَارٌ مَعَ الأُسْتَاذِ الدُّكْتُور عُكَاشَة الدَّالِي

A conversation with Prof. Dr. Okasha El Daly

THE DR. ALI ZOHERY PODCAST WEEKLY

المَجَلَّةُ الرَّقْمِيَّةُ وَأَرْشِيفُ بُودْكَاسْت الدُّكْتُور عَلِي زُهَيْرِي

العَدَدُ الثَّالِثُ

ISSUE THREE

عِلْمُ المِصْرِيَّاتِ قَبْلَ شَامْبِلْيُون

الأَلْفِيَّةُ المَفْقُودَةُ

EGYPTOLOGY BEFORE CHAMPOLLION

THE MISSING MILLENNIUM

حِوَارٌ مَعَ الأُسْتَاذِ الدُّكْتُور عُكَاشَة الدَّالِي

A conversation with Prof. Dr. Okasha El Daly

إِعْدَادٌ تَحْرِيرِيٌّ مُسْتَنِدٌ إِلَى الحَلْقَةِ الكَامِلَةِ مِنْ بُودْكَاسْت الدُّكْتُور عَلِي زُهَيْرِي

An editorial feature based on the complete podcast episode

مُلَخَّصُ الحَلْقَةِ

تَفْتَحُ هٰذِهِ الحَلْقَةُ بَابًا وَاسِعًا لإِعَادَةِ النَّظَرِ فِي تَارِيخِ عِلْمِ المِصْرِيَّاتِ. فَالسَّرْدِيَّةُ الشَّائِعَةُ تَرْبِطُ بَدَايَةَ هٰذَا العِلْمِ بِالحَمْلَةِ الفَرَنْسِيَّةِ وَنَجَاحِ شَامْبِلْيُون فِي فَكِّ رُمُوزِ حَجَرِ رَشِيد. أَمَّا الأُسْتَاذُ الدُّكْتُور عُكَاشَة الدَّالِي فَيُقَدِّمُ صُورَةً أَوْسَعَ: فَقَدْ دَرَسَ العُلَمَاءُ العَرَبُ وَالمُسْلِمُون مِصْرَ القَدِيمَةَ عَلَى مَدَى قُرُونٍ، وَحَفِظُوا أَخْبَارَهَا، وَوَصَفُوا آثَارَهَا، وَحَاوَلَ بَعْضُهُمْ فَهْمَ كِتَابَاتِهَا.

وَيَصِفُ الضَّيْفُ هٰذِهِ القُرُونَ بِـ«الأَلْفِيَّةِ المَفْقُودَةِ»؛ أَيْ تِلْكَ الفَتْرَةِ التِي تَمْتَدُّ، تَقْرِيبًا، مِنَ القَرْنِ السَّابِعِ إِلَى القَرْنِ السَّادِسِ عَشَرَ، وَالتِي غَابَتْ عَنْ كَثِيرٍ مِنْ كُتُبِ تَارِيخِ المِصْرِيَّاتِ. وَلا يَعْنِي هٰذَا إِلْغَاءَ إِنْجَازَاتِ العُلَمَاءِ الأُورُوبِّيِّينَ، بَلْ وَضْعَهَا فِي سِيَاقٍ إِنْسَانِيٍّ أَشْمَلَ، تَرَاكَمَتْ فِيهِ المَعْرِفَةُ عَبْرَ حَضَارَاتٍ وَلُغَاتٍ مُتَعَدِّدَةٍ.

مَنْ هُوَ الأُسْتَاذُ الدُّكْتُور عُكَاشَة الدَّالِي؟

هُوَ مُؤَرِّخٌ وَعَالِمُ مِصْرِيَّاتٍ مِصْرِيٌّ، دَرَسَ عِلْمَ المِصْرِيَّاتِ فِي كُلِّيَّةِ الآثَارِ بِجَامِعَةِ القَاهِرَةِ، ثُمَّ وَاصَلَ دِرَاسَاتِهِ العُلْيَا فِي بَرِيطَانِيَا وَحَصَلَ عَلَى الدُّكْتُورَاه مِنْ كُلِّيَّةِ جَامِعَةِ لَنْدَن. وَتَمْتَدُّ اهْتِمَامَاتُهُ إِلَى تَارِيخِ مِصْرَ وَفُنُونِهَا وَأَدْيَانِهَا وَلُغَاتِهَا، وَإِلَى التَّفَاعُلِ بَيْنَ الثَّقَافَاتِ فِي وَادِي النِّيل.

دَرَّسَ فِي مِصْرَ وَبَرِيطَانِيَا وَقَطَر، وَعَمِلَ فِي مَجَالَاتِ البَحْثِ وَالنَّشْرِ وَإِدَارَةِ المَشْرُوعَاتِ الثَّقَافِيَّةِ وَالأَثَرِيَّةِ. وَتُعَدُّ دِرَاسَتُهُ الصَّادِرَةُ عَنْ UCL Press سَنَةَ 2005، بِعُنْوَان Egyptology: The Missing Millennium، مِنْ أَهَمِّ الأَعْمَالِ التِي أَعَادَتْ إِبْرَازَ الإِسْهَامِ العَرَبِيِّ وَالإِسْلَامِيِّ فِي دِرَاسَةِ مِصْرَ القَدِيمَةِ.

سُؤَالُ الحَلْقَةِ المَرْكَزِيُّ

مَاذَا حَدَثَ لِمَعْرِفَةِ مِصْرَ القَدِيمَةِ بَيْنَ نِهَايَةِ العَصْرِ القَدِيمِ وَنُشُوءِ المِصْرِيَّاتِ الأُورُوبِّيَّةِ الحَدِيثَةِ؟ وَهَلْ كَانَتْ هٰذِهِ الفَتْرَةُ فَرَاغًا حَقِيقِيًّا، أَمْ أَنَّنَا لَمْ نَبْحَثْ فِي مَصَادِرِهَا بِالقَدْرِ الكَافِي؟

الأَلْفِيَّةُ المَفْقُودَةُ: مَكْتَبَةٌ تَنْتَظِرُ مَنْ يَقْرَؤُهَا

يَذْكُرُ الدُّكْتُور عُكَاشَة أَنَّ هُنَاكَ مِئَاتٍ، بَلْ آلافًا، مِنَ المَخْطُوطَاتِ العَرَبِيَّةِ التِي تَحْمِلُ مَوَادَّ عَنْ مِصْرَ القَدِيمَةِ؛ مِنْهَا مَا هُوَ مَحْفُوظٌ فِي مَكْتَبَاتِ الشَّرْقِ وَالغَرْبِ، وَمِنْهَا مَا لَمْ يُحَقَّقْ بَعْدُ تَحْقِيقًا عِلْمِيًّا. وَقَدْ أَمْضَى نَحْوَ عَشْرِ سَنَوَاتٍ فِي بَحْثِهِ، وَمَعَ ذٰلِكَ يَرَى أَنَّهُ لَمْ يَفْعَلْ سِوَى خَدْشِ سَطْحِ مَوْضُوعٍ شَدِيدِ الاتِّسَاعِ.

تَكْمُنُ قِيمَةُ هٰذِهِ النُّصُوصِ فِي أَنَّهَا لا تَنْظُرُ إِلَى الأَهْرَامَاتِ وَالمَعَابِدِ وَحْدَهَا، بَلْ تَسْتَعِيدُ المَجْتَمَعَ وَالبِيئَةَ وَالنِّيلَ وَالطَّعَامَ وَالزِّرَاعَةَ وَالمَدُنَ وَالعَادَاتِ. وَمِنْ هُنَا تَبْدُو دِرَاسَةُ المَاضِي مَشْرُوعًا مُتَعَدِّدَ التَّخَصُّصَاتِ، لا وَصْفًا لِلآثَارِ فَقَطْ.

عَبْدُ اللَّطِيفِ البَغْدَادِيُّ: مِثَالُ العَالِمِ المُشَاهِدِ

يَتَوَقَّفُ الحِوَارُ عِنْدَ الطَّبِيبِ وَالعَالِمِ عَبْدِ اللَّطِيفِ البَغْدَادِيِّ، الَّذِي أَقَامَ فِي مِصْرَ وَسَجَّلَ مُشَاهَدَاتٍ دَقِيقَةً عَنْهَا. وَقَدْ وَصَفَ تِمْثَالَ رَمْسِيسَ الثَّانِي الضَّخْمَ فِي مَمْفِيس، وَتَأَمَّلَ أَبَا الهَوْل، وَكَتَبَ عَنِ النِّيلِ وَالمَحَاصِيلِ وَالأَغْذِيَةِ وَالمَجَاعَةِ وَأَحْوَالِ النَّاسِ. وَتُظْهِرُ كِتَابَتُهُ أَنَّ فَهْمَ الحَضَارَةِ يَتَطَلَّبُ الجَمْعَ بَيْنَ الأَثَرِ وَالطَّبِيعَةِ وَالحَيَاةِ اليَوْمِيَّةِ.

لِمَاذَا اهْتَمَّ عُلَمَاءُ العُصُورِ الوُسْطَى بِمِصْرَ؟

لَمْ يَكُنِ الدَّافِعُ وَاحِدًا. فَبَعْضُهُمْ بَحَثَ عَنِ الحِكْمَةِ وَالعُلُومِ وَالكِيمْيَاءِ، وَبَعْضُهُمْ أُعْجِبَ بِجَمَالِ الفَنِّ وَدِقَّةِ البِنَاءِ، وَاهْتَمَّ آخَرُونَ بِالرُّمُوزِ وَالشِّفْرَاتِ أَوْ بِالرَّوَابِطِ الدِّينِيَّةِ وَالتَّارِيخِيَّةِ. وَكَانَ هُنَاكَ أَيْضًا بَاحِثُونَ عَنِ الكُنُوزِ، حَتَّى إِنَّ بَعْضَ السُّلْطَاتِ نَظَّمَتْ أَعْمَالَهُمْ وَفَرَضَتْ عَلَيْهَا رِقَابَةً وَنَصِيبًا لِلدَّوْلَةِ.

هٰذَا التَّنَوُّعُ يَكْشِفُ أَنَّ العَلَاقَةَ بِمِصْرَ القَدِيمَةِ كَانَتْ حَيَّةً وَمُرَكَّبَةً: فِيهَا الفُضُولُ العِلْمِيُّ، وَالإِعْجَابُ، وَالتَّأْوِيلُ الرُّوحِيُّ، وَالمَصْلَحَةُ المَادِّيَّةُ أَحْيَانًا.

الأَقْبَاطُ وَاسْتِمْرَارُ الذَّاكِرَةِ المِصْرِيَّةِ

تُبَيِّنُ الحَلْقَةُ أَنَّ التَّوَاصُلَ مَعَ المَاضِي لَمْ يَنْقَطِعْ فَجْأَةً. فَقَدْ ظَلَّتِ الآثَارُ حَاضِرَةً فِي القُرَى وَالمُدُن، وَتَحَوَّلَ بَعْضُ المَعَابِدِ إِلَى كَنَائِسَ أَوْ أَمَاكِنَ مَعِيشَةٍ وَعِبَادَةٍ. كَمَا اسْتَضَافَ رُهْبَانٌ أَقْبَاطٌ رُحَّلًا وَعُلَمَاءَ مُسْلِمِينَ، وَيُرَجَّحُ أَنَّ مَعَارِفَ وَكُتُبًا قِبْطِيَّةً أَسْهَمَتْ فِي مَا وَصَلَ إِلَيْنَا مِنْ كِتَابَاتٍ عَرَبِيَّةٍ عَنْ مِصْرَ القَدِيمَةِ.

وَيَسْتَشْهِدُ الضَّيْفُ بِقَرَارِ شَنُودَة رَئِيسِ المُتَوَحِّدِينَ فِي القَرْنِ الخَامِسِ بِمَنْعِ دِرَاسَةِ الهِيرُوغْلِيفِيَّةِ؛ فَوُجُودُ المَنْعِ نَفْسِهِ يُوحِي بِأَنَّ مَعْرِفَتَهَا أَوِ الاهْتِمَامَ بِهَا كَانَ لا يَزَالُ مَوْجُودًا فِي بَعْضِ الأَوْسَاطِ.

الدِّينُ وَدِرَاسَةُ مَصَائِرِ الأُمَم

شَجَّعَتِ الآيَاتُ القُرْآنِيَّةُ الدَّاعِيَةُ إِلَى السَّيْرِ فِي الأَرْضِ وَالنَّظَرِ فِي عَوَاقِبِ الأُمَمِ السَّابِقَةِ جِيلًا مِنَ العُلَمَاءِ عَلَى التَّأَمُّلِ فِي الآثَارِ وَالتَّارِيخ. وَأَثَارَتْ قِصَصُ مُوسَى وَفِرْعَوْنَ وَيُوسُفَ وَقَارُونَ أَسْئِلَةً عَنْ مِصْرَ وَحُكَّامِهَا وَمُجْتَمَعِهَا.

وَمَعَ ذٰلِكَ، يَنْقُلُ الحِوَارُ مَوْقِفًا عِلْمِيًّا نَاضِجًا لَدَى بَعْضِ المُؤَلِّفِينَ القُدَمَاءِ: فَالكُتُبُ المُقَدَّسَةُ مَصْدَرٌ لِلهِدَايَةِ الأَخْلَاقِيَّةِ وَالرُّوحِيَّةِ، وَلَيْسَتْ كُتُبًا مَدْرَسِيَّةً فِي التَّارِيخِ أَوِ الآثَار. أَمَّا التَّحْقِيقُ التَّارِيخِيُّ فَيَحْتَاجُ إِلَى شَوَاهِدَ وَمُقَارَنَةٍ وَمُعَايَنَةٍ.

مُحَاوَلَاتُ فَهْمِ الهِيرُوغْلِيفِيَّةِ قَبْلَ شَامْبِلْيُون

يَعْرِضُ الدُّكْتُور عُكَاشَة نَمَاذِجَ لِعُلَمَاءَ سَعَوْا إِلَى فَهْمِ الرُّمُوزِ المِصْرِيَّةِ، مِثْلِ ذِي النُّونِ المِصْرِيِّ وَابْنِ وَحْشِيَّة وَغَيْرِهِمَا. لَمْ تَكُنْ نَتَائِجُهُمْ كُلُّهَا صَحِيحَةً، لٰكِنَّ بَعْضَهَا تَضَمَّنَ قِيَمًا صَوْتِيَّةً مُقَارِبَةً، وَتَمْيِيزًا بَيْنَ رُمُوزٍ تُقْرَأُ وَعَلَامَاتٍ تُوَضِّحُ المَعْنَى. كَمَا حَفِظَ بَعْضُهُمْ رُسُومًا لِنُقُوشٍ وَشَوَاهِدَ فُقِدَتْ أُصُولُهَا لَاحِقًا.

الخُلَاصَةُ: تَارِيخٌ تَرَاكُمِيٌّ لا قِصَّةُ بَطَلٍ وَاحِد

تَدْعُونَا الحَلْقَةُ إِلَى تَارِيخٍ أَكْثَرَ تَوَازُنًا: نُقَدِّرُ فِيهِ إِنْجَازَ شَامْبِلْيُون وَالمِصْرِيِّينَ وَالأُورُوبِّيِّينَ الَّذِينَ طَوَّرُوا العِلْمَ الحَدِيثَ، وَنَسْتَعِيدُ فِي الوَقْتِ نَفْسِهِ جُهُودَ أَجْيَالٍ سَابِقَةٍ مِنَ العَرَبِ وَالمُسْلِمِينَ وَالأَقْبَاط. وَأَهَمُّ رِسَالَةٍ لِلشَّبَابِ هِيَ أَنَّ المَخْطُوطَاتِ لَيْسَتْ مَاضِيًا صَامِتًا؛ بَلْ مَشْرُوعُ بَحْثٍ ضَخْمٌ يَنْتَظِرُ مَنْ يَقْرَؤُهُ بِاللُّغَةِ وَالمَنْهَجِ وَالشَّغَف.

الحَلْقَةُ بِاللُّغَةِ الإِنْجِلِيزِيَّةِ

Episode Overview

This episode challenges the familiar story that Egyptology began suddenly with the French expedition and Champollion’s decipherment of the Rosetta Stone. Prof. Dr. Okasha El Daly presents a wider and more continuous history. For centuries, Arabic-speaking scholars observed Egypt’s monuments, recorded traditions, studied its environment and society, and in some cases attempted to understand its ancient scripts.

El Daly calls the long period between late antiquity and early modern European Egyptology “the missing millennium.” Roughly spanning the seventh to the sixteenth centuries, it is missing not because nothing happened, but because historians of the discipline often overlooked Arabic manuscripts and the intellectual worlds that produced them.

The Guest: Prof. Dr. Okasha El Daly

Okasha El Daly is an Egyptian historian and Egyptologist whose work crosses ancient, medieval, and modern history. He studied Egyptology at Cairo University’s Faculty of Archaeology and later completed his doctorate at University College London. His interests include Egyptian art, religion, languages, the historical geography of the Nile Valley, and cross-cultural encounters.

Across appointments in Egypt, Britain, and Qatar, he has taught, researched, managed cultural and archaeological projects, and worked in publishing. His 2005 UCL Press book, Egyptology: The Missing Millennium, brought sustained attention to medieval Arabic engagement with ancient Egypt.

A Different Historical Question

The episode asks a deceptively simple question: what happened to knowledge of ancient Egypt between the last phases of the ancient scripts and the rise of modern European Egyptology? Was there truly an intellectual void, or have later scholars simply failed to read the surviving evidence in the languages in which it was written?

El Daly’s answer is not a nationalist replacement of one hero with another. It is an argument for a cumulative history of knowledge—one in which Egyptians, Copts, Arabic-speaking scholars, European travelers, collectors, linguists, and archaeologists all occupy their proper place.

مَاذَا تَكْشِفُ المَصَادِرُ؟

What the Sources Reveal

Hundreds—and potentially thousands—of Arabic manuscripts contain material relevant to ancient Egypt. Many remain insufficiently edited or studied. El Daly spent about a decade developing his doctoral research, yet describes the result as only a first exploration of a very large field. The scale of the archive is therefore both a discovery and a challenge to future scholars.

These writings are valuable because their authors did not isolate monuments from the living country. They wrote about the Nile, agriculture, food, clothing, cities, famine, local customs, religious communities, statues, temples, pyramids, and inscriptions. Their Egypt was simultaneously ancient and contemporary.

Abd al-Latif al-Baghdadi: Observation as Method

The physician and scholar Abd al-Latif al-Baghdadi offers a striking example. During his years in Egypt, he recorded careful observations of the colossal statue of Ramesses II at Memphis, the Sphinx, the natural environment, crops, food, and the effects of famine. His work demonstrates an approach that combines material evidence, human life, and direct observation.

Many Motives, One Enduring Fascination

Medieval engagement with ancient Egypt had no single motive. Some scholars pursued medicine, alchemy, mathematics, or the sciences; some admired proportion, architecture, and beauty; some were interested in spiritual harmony, cryptography, and symbolic systems; others investigated religious history. Treasure seeking also existed and was at times regulated by rulers, showing that ancient remains were entangled with administration and economics as well as learning.

Coptic Memory and Living Landscapes

Ancient sites did not disappear from Egyptian life. Temples were reused as churches, dwellings, or community spaces, while monuments remained visible in towns and villages. Coptic monks hosted Muslim travelers and may have transmitted books and knowledge that later entered Arabic accounts. The episode therefore presents continuity not as a perfect, unbroken chain, but as a network of people, places, languages, and reused spaces.

قِرَاءَةُ الرُّمُوزِ وَقِرَاءَةُ التَّارِيخ

Reading Signs—and Reading History

El Daly discusses pre-Champollion attempts to interpret hieroglyphs by figures including Dhul-Nun al-Misri and Ibn Wahshiyya. Their readings were not uniformly correct, but some proposed plausible phonetic values and distinguished signs carrying sound from signs that clarified meaning. Other writers copied monuments or inscriptions whose originals later disappeared, unintentionally becoming custodians of lost evidence.

This does not mean that medieval scholars achieved Champollion’s systematic decipherment. It means that serious curiosity, experimentation, classification, and partial insight preceded him. Historical accuracy requires us to recognize both the limitations of those attempts and their real intellectual significance.

Faith, History, and Evidence

Qur’anic invitations to travel through the earth and reflect on the fate of earlier peoples encouraged historical curiosity. Narratives involving Moses, Pharaoh, Joseph, and Qarun also raised questions about Egypt and its past. Yet the episode highlights an important methodological distinction found among medieval writers: sacred texts offer moral and spiritual guidance; they are not substitutes for evidence-based textbooks of history or archaeology.

From Arabic Books to European Egyptomania

The circulation of Arabic accounts in European translation helped shape early modern fascination with Egypt. The episode points to Akhbar al-Zaman, a medieval Arabic work whose authorship has been debated, and to seventeenth-century French and English translations. Such transmission reminds us that ideas moved across political and religious borders long before Egyptology became a formal academic discipline.

A More Complete Canon

The recovery of this history also creates room for modern Egyptian pioneers such as Ahmed Kamal Pasha and Selim Hassan, alongside later generations of Egyptian scholars. El Daly argues that Arabic is not an obstacle to Egyptology but an important intellectual resource, with linguistic and cultural connections that can enrich research and teaching.

The strongest conclusion of the conversation is balance: recovering overlooked Arabic, Islamic, and Coptic contributions does not diminish European achievement. It replaces an incomplete origin story with a richer account of shared, cumulative human inquiry.

أَبْرَزُ مَا نَتَعَلَّمُهُ مِنَ الحَلْقَةِ

Key Takeaways

١. عِلْمُ المِصْرِيَّاتِ الحَدِيثُ لَهُ مُنْجَزَاتٌ كَبِيرَةٌ، لٰكِنَّ تَارِيخَ الاهْتِمَامِ بِمِصْرَ القَدِيمَةِ أَقْدَمُ وَأَوْسَعُ مِنْهُ.

٢. المَخْطُوطَاتُ العَرَبِيَّةُ تَحْفَظُ مَادَّةً ضَخْمَةً تَحْتَاجُ إِلَى التَّحْقِيقِ وَالتَّرْجَمَةِ وَالدِّرَاسَةِ.

٣. عُلَمَاءُ العُصُورِ الوُسْطَى جَمَعُوا بَيْنَ المَشَاهَدَةِ وَالنَّقْلِ وَالمُقَارَنَةِ، مَعَ اخْتِلَافِ مَنَاهِجِهِمْ وَدِقَّةِ نَتَائِجِهِمْ.

٤. اسْتِمْرَارُ الوُجُودِ القِبْطِيِّ وَإِعَادَةُ اسْتِخْدَامِ المَعَابِدِ سَاعَدَا عَلَى بَقَاءِ الذَّاكِرَةِ المِصْرِيَّةِ حَيَّةً.

٥. إِنْصَافُ الإِسْهَامَاتِ المَنْسِيَّةِ لا يَتَطَلَّبُ التَّقْلِيلَ مِنْ إِنْجَازَاتِ الآخَرِينَ؛ فَالمَعْرِفَةُ مَشْرُوعٌ إِنْسَانِيٌّ تَرَاكُمِيٌّ.

1. Modern Egyptology achieved major breakthroughs, but engagement with ancient Egypt has a much longer and broader history.

2. Arabic manuscripts preserve a vast research archive that still requires editing, translation, and interdisciplinary study.

3. Medieval scholars used transmission, comparison, observation, and measurement—with varying levels of accuracy.

4. Coptic communities and the continued use of ancient places helped keep Egyptian memory alive.

5. Restoring overlooked contributions strengthens the history of knowledge; it does not weaken anyone else’s achievement.

شَاهِدُوا الحَلْقَةَ الكَامِلَةَ

Watch the Complete Episode

Prof. Dr. Okasha El Daly: Egyptology Before Champollion — علم المصريات قبل شامبليون: الألفية المفقودة

هٰذَا المَقَالُ خُلَاصَةٌ تَحْرِيرِيَّةٌ لِأَفْكَارِ الحَلْقَةِ، وَلَيْسَ تَفْرِيغًا حَرْفِيًّا لِلحِوَار.

This article is an editorial synthesis of the episode, not a verbatim transcript.

المَجَلَّةُ الرَّقْمِيَّةُ وَالأَرْشِيفُ يَحْفَظَانِ أَفْكَارَ حَلَقَاتِ بُودْكَاسْت الدُّكْتُور عَلِي زُهَيْرِي فِي صِيغَةٍ سَهْلَةِ القِرَاءَةِ وَالمُشَارَكَةِ، وَيَرْبِطَانِ بَيْنَ المَعْرِفَةِ وَالثَّقَافَةِ وَالحِوَارِ بَيْنَ مِصْرَ وَالعَالَم.

The Digital Magazine and Archive preserves each podcast conversation in a readable, shareable form—connecting knowledge, culture, and dialogue between Egypt and the world.

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Ali Zohery

Admin ·4d ·

The Dr. Ali Zohery Podcast Weekly

الْمَجَلَّةُ الرَّقْمِيَّةُ وَأَرْشِيفُ بُودْكَاسْتِ الدُّكْتُورِ عَلِيٍّ الزُّهَيْرِيِّ

الْعَدَدُ الثَّانِي

عِلْمُ الْمِصْرِيَّاتِ مِنَ الْعُصُورِ الْقَدِيمَةِ إِلَى الْحَدِيثَةِ

حِوَارٌ مَعَ الْمُؤَرِّخِ وَخَبِيرِ الْآثَارِ وَالتُّرَاثِ الْأُسْتَاذِ الدُّكْتُورِ مُحَمَّدِ حَمْزَةَ إِسْمَاعِيلَ الْحَدَّادِ

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المَجَلَّةُ الرَّقْمِيَّةُ وَأَرْشِيفُ بُودْكَاسْت الدُّكْتُور عَلِي زُهَيْرِي

العَدَدُ الرَّابِعُ

ISSUE FOUR

الإِعْلَامُ وَالثَّقَافَةُ وَالصَّوْتُ الأَفْرِيقِيُّ

MEDIA CULTURE AND THE AFRICAN VOICE

حِوَارٌ مَعَ الأُسْتَاذِ الدُّكْتُور كِهْبُومَا لَانْغْمِيَا

A conversation with Prof. Dr. Kehbuma Langmia

إِعْدَادٌ تَحْرِيرِيٌّ مُسْتَنِدٌ إِلَى الحَلْقَةِ الكَامِلَةِ مِنْ بُودْكَاسْت الدُّكْتُور عَلِي زُهَيْرِي

An editorial feature based on the complete podcast episode

مُلَخَّصُ الحَلْقَةِ

تَأْخُذُنَا هٰذِهِ الحَلْقَةُ فِي رِحْلَةٍ فِكْرِيَّةٍ وَإِنْسَانِيَّةٍ تَبْدَأُ مِنْ قَرْيَةٍ فِي الكَامِيرُون، وَتَمْتَدُّ إِلَى أَلْمَانِيَا وَالوِلَايَاتِ المُتَّحِدَةِ وَجَامِعَةِ هَاوَرْد، ثُمَّ إِلَى جَامِعَاتٍ وَمُجْتَمَعَاتٍ فِي أَفْرِيقِيَا وَأُورُوبَّا وَمَنَاطِقَ أُخْرَى مِنَ العَالَم. وَفِي قَلْبِ هٰذِهِ الرِّحْلَةِ يَطْرَحُ الأُسْتَاذُ الدُّكْتُور كِهْبُومَا لَانْغْمِيَا سُؤَالًا مُهِمًّا: كَيْفَ تَرْوِي أَفْرِيقِيَا قِصَّتَهَا بِصَوْتِهَا، وَكَيْفَ تُسْهِمُ فِي بِنَاءِ نَظَرِيَّاتِ الإِعْلَامِ وَالتَّوَاصُلِ بَدَلًا مِنَ الاكْتِفَاءِ بِاسْتِهْلَاكِ نَمَاذِجَ صُنِعَتْ خَارِجَ تَجْرِبَتِهَا؟

يَجْمَعُ الحِوَارُ بَيْنَ السِّيرَةِ الذَّاتِيَّةِ وَالنَّقَاشِ الأَكَادِيمِيِّ، وَيَتَنَاوَلُ التَّرْبِيَةَ وَالقِيَادَةَ وَالهُوِيَّةَ السَّوْدَاءَ وَالمَرْكَزِيَّةَ الأَفْرِيقِيَّةَ وَتَفْكِيكَ الاسْتِعْمَارِ فِي دِرَاسَاتِ الاتِّصَال. كَمَا يَنْتَقِلُ إِلَى قَضَايَا الذَّكَاءِ الاصْطِنَاعِيِّ وَالتَّضْلِيلِ وَالتَّزْيِيفِ العَمِيقِ وَتَحَيُّزِ الخَوَارِزْمِيَّاتِ وَمَسْؤُولِيَّةِ الجَامِعَاتِ وَالإِعْلَامِيِّينَ وَالمُسْتَخْدِمِينَ.

الضَّيْفُ وَمَسِيرَتُهُ العِلْمِيَّةُ

الأُسْتَاذُ الدُّكْتُور كِهْبُومَا لَانْغْمِيَا أُسْتَاذٌ وَرَئِيسُ قِسْمِ دِرَاسَاتِ الاتِّصَالِ فِي كُلِّيَّةِ كَاثِي هِيُوز لِلِاتِّصَالِ بِجَامِعَةِ هَاوَرْد. وَهُوَ بَاحِثُ فُولْبْرَايْت مَرَّتَيْنِ، وَمِنْ أَبْرَزِ مَجَالَاتِهِ تِكْنُولُوجِيَا المَعْلُومَاتِ وَالاتِّصَال، وَالاتِّصَالُ الدَّوْلِيُّ وَبَيْنَ الثَّقَافَات، وَالإِعْلَامُ وَالثَّقَافَةُ السَّوْدَاءُ، وَوَسَائِلُ التَّوَاصُلِ الاجْتِمَاعِيِّ، وَالمَرْكَزِيَّةُ الأَفْرِيقِيَّةُ، وَتَحْرِيرُ دِرَاسَاتِ الاتِّصَالِ مِنَ الهَيْمَنَةِ الاسْتِعْمَارِيَّةِ.

نَشَرَ أَكْثَرَ مِنْ عِشْرِينَ كِتَابًا، إِلَى جَانِبِ فُصُولٍ وَدِرَاسَاتٍ عِلْمِيَّةٍ مُحَكَّمَةٍ. وَتَشْمَلُ أَعْمَالُهُ مَوْضُوعَاتِ العَوْلَمَةِ وَالثَّقَافَةِ السَّيْبَرَانِيَّةِ، وَنَظَرِيَّةِ الاتِّصَالِ الأَفْرِيقِيِّ وَالأَسْوَدِ، وَالتَّضْلِيلِ وَالتَّزْيِيفِ العَمِيقِ وَالإِعْلَامِ الاصْطِنَاعِيِّ، وَدَوْرِ الإِعْلَامِ فِي التَّغْيِيرِ الاجْتِمَاعِيِّ فِي الجَنُوبِ العَالَمِيِّ.

مِنَ القَرْيَةِ إِلَى جَامِعَةِ هَاوَرْد

يَرْوِي الضَّيْفُ أَنَّهُ نَشَأَ فِي بِيئَةٍ رِيفِيَّةٍ، وَأَنَّ وَالِدَيْهِ لَمْ يَتَلَقَّيَا تَعْلِيمًا غَرْبِيًّا، لٰكِنَّهُمَا غَرَسَا فِيهِ قِيَمَ الشَّرَفِ وَالسَّلَامِ وَالمَحَبَّةِ وَالطُّمُوح. وَكَانَتْ حِكَايَاتُ الأُسْرَةِ فِي المَسَاءِ، قَبْلَ الكَهْرَبَاءِ وَالهَوَاتِفِ، مَدْرَسَتَهُ الأُولَى فِي قُوَّةِ القِصَّةِ وَالتَّوَاصُل.

التَّعْلِيمُ طَرِيقٌ إِلَى العَالَم

كَانَ رُؤْيَةُ الطَّائِرَاتِ فِي سَمَاءِ القَرْيَةِ تُوَلِّدُ فِي نَفْسِهِ سُؤَالًا عَمَّا يُوجَدُ خَلْفَ الأُفُق. وَشَجَّعَتْهُ وَالِدَتُهُ عَلَى الاجْتِهَادِ، فَصَارَ النَّجَاحُ فِي التَّعْلِيمِ عِنْدَهُ جَوَازَ مُرُورٍ مِنَ القَرْيَةِ إِلَى المَدِينَةِ، وَمِنْهَا إِلَى أَلْمَانِيَا، ثُمَّ إِلَى الوِلَايَاتِ المُتَّحِدَة. وَاخْتَارَ جَامِعَةَ هَاوَرْد بَعْدَ أَنْ تَعَرَّفَ إِلَى إِرْثِهَا وَعُلَمَائِهَا السُّود، فَوَجَدَ فِيهَا مَكَانًا يَرَى فِيهِ ذَاتَهُ وَطُمُوحَهُ العِلْمِيَّ.

يُشِيرُ إِلَى أَثَرِ أَسَاتِذَتِهِ فِي تَحْدِي مَسَلَّمَاتِهِ. فَسُؤَالٌ نَقْدِيٌّ عَنْ مُلَاءَمَةِ نَظَرِيَّةٍ أُورُوبِّيَّةٍ لِتَجْرِبَةِ المُهَاجِرِينَ الأَفَارِقَةِ دَفَعَهُ إِلَى البَحْثِ عَنْ نَظَرِيَّاتٍ تَنْطَلِقُ مِنَ الوَاقِعِ الأَفْرِيقِيِّ. وَهٰكَذَا تَحَوَّلَ التَّحَدِّي فِي قَاعَةِ الدِّرَاسَةِ إِلَى مَشْرُوعٍ فِكْرِيٍّ وَمَسَارٍ فِي التَّأْلِيف.

قِيَادَةٌ قَائِمَةٌ عَلَى الرِّعَايَةِ وَالتَّوْجِيه

يَرَى الدُّكْتُور لَانْغْمِيَا أَنَّ رِئَاسَةَ القِسْمِ لَيْسَتْ مَنْصِبًا إِدَارِيًّا فَقَطْ، بَلْ مَسْؤُولِيَّةٌ تَجَاهَ نُمُوِّ أَعْضَاءِ هَيْئَةِ التَّدْرِيسِ وَالطُّلَّاب. وَيُؤَكِّدُ أَنَّهُ يَتَعَامَلُ مَعَ الزُّمَلَاءِ بِالمَحَبَّةِ وَالإِرْشَادِ، وَيَعْمَلُ عَلَى تَهْيِئَةِ الفُرَصِ لِتَقَدُّمِهِمْ، لا عَلَى العِقَابِ أَوِ الإِقْصَاءِ.

أَمَّا طُلَّابُهُ فَيَدْعُوهُمْ إِلَى تَجَاوُزِ الكُتُبِ وَالدَّرَجَاتِ، وَإِلَى سُؤَالِ أَنْفُسِهِمْ: مَاذَا سَنُقَدِّمُ لِأُسَرِنَا وَمُجْتَمَعَاتِنَا وَلِلْعَالَم؟ فَالتَّعْلِيمُ، فِي رُؤْيَتِهِ، أَمَانَةٌ تَحْمِلُ صَاحِبَهَا مَسْؤُولِيَّةَ فَتْحِ الطَّرِيقِ لِمَنْ لَمْ تَتَحْ لَهُمُ الفُرْصَةُ نَفْسُهَا.

السَّفَرُ وَالتَّعَلُّمُ عَبْرَ الحُدُود

كَشَفَتْ لَهُ خِبْرَاتُ فُولْبْرَايْت وَالتَّدْرِيسُ فِي بِلَادٍ مُتَعَدِّدَةٍ أَنَّ السَّفَرَ يُوَسِّعُ العَقْلَ وَيُصَحِّحُ الأَحْكَامَ السَّابِقَة. وَمِنْ كُوسُوفُو إِلَى كِينْيَا وَأُوغَنْدَا وَغَانَا وَالكَامِيرُون، رَأَى أَنَّ الطُّلَّابَ يَشْتَرِكُونَ فِي طُمُوحِهِمْ وَقَلَقِهِمْ مِنَ العَمَلِ وَالتَّكَيُّفِ وَالحُصُولِ عَلَى الكُتُبِ وَالتَّخَرُّجِ فِي الوَقْتِ المُنَاسِب. وَكَانَتْ تَجْرِبَةُ التَّدْرِيسِ خِلَالَ رِحْلَةٍ بَحْرِيَّةٍ تَعْبُرُ عِدَّةَ دُوَلٍ مِثَالًا عَلَى تَعْلِيمٍ يَرْبِطُ المُحَاضَرَةَ بِالمُشَاهَدَةِ المَيْدَانِيَّةِ.

المَرْكَزِيَّةُ الأَفْرِيقِيَّةُ وَتَحْرِيرُ المَعْرِفَة

يَشْرَحُ الضَّيْفُ أَنَّ المَرْكَزِيَّةَ الأَفْرِيقِيَّةَ تَعْنِي دِرَاسَةَ القَضَايَا المُتَّصِلَةِ بِأَفْرِيقِيَا مِنْ دَاخِلِ تَجْرِبَتِهَا وَتَارِيخِهَا وَقِيَمِهَا، وَوَضْعَ الإِنْسَانِ الأَفْرِيقِيِّ فِي مَرْكَزِ التَّحْلِيلِ بَدَلًا مِنْ تَقْدِيمِهِ هَامِشًا فِي نَمَاذِجَ صُنِعَتْ لِمُجْتَمَعَاتٍ أُخْرَى. وَلا يَعْنِي ذٰلِكَ رَفْضَ المَعْرِفَةِ الغَرْبِيَّةِ، بَلْ تَوْسِيعَ الحَقْلِ لِيَكُونَ أَكْثَرَ شُمُولًا وَعَدْلًا.

وَأَمَّا تَفْكِيكُ الاسْتِعْمَارِ فِي دِرَاسَاتِ الاتِّصَالِ فَيَبْدَأُ بِمُرَاجَعَةِ الصُّوَرِ المُشَوَّهَةِ وَالأَفْكَارِ المَوْرُوثَةِ، وَبِاسْتِعَادَةِ اللُّغَاتِ وَالمَفَاهِيمِ وَطُرُقِ المَعْرِفَةِ الأَفْرِيقِيَّةِ. وَيُشَدِّدُ عَلَى أَنَّ التَّحَرُّرَ لَيْسَ عَدَاءً لِلغَرْب، بَلْ عَوْدَةٌ نَقْدِيَّةٌ إِلَى الذَّاتِ وَالمَصَادِرِ، مَعَ الانْفِتَاحِ عَلَى الآخَر.

مِصْرُ القَدِيمَةُ فِي التَّارِيخِ الفِكْرِيِّ الأَفْرِيقِيِّ

يُعْطِي الحِوَارُ مِصْرَ القَدِيمَةَ مَكَانَةً مَرْكَزِيَّةً فِي الحَدِيثِ عَنْ الهُوِيَّةِ الأَفْرِيقِيَّةِ وَتَارِيخِ المَعْرِفَة. فَالإِنْجَازَاتُ فِي العِمَارَةِ وَالطِّبِّ وَالأَخْلَاقِ وَالتَّنْظِيمِ وَالكِتَابَةِ تَدُلُّ عَلَى تَرَاكُمٍ عِلْمِيٍّ وَنُظُمٍ لِلتَّوَاصُل. وَيَدْعُو الضَّيْفُ الجَامِعَاتِ الأَفْرِيقِيَّةَ إِلَى إِدْمَاجِ هٰذَا التُّرَاثِ فِي مَنَاهِجِهَا، مَعَ تَأْكِيدِ أَنَّ الحَضَارَةَ المِصْرِيَّةَ تُرَاثٌ مِصْرِيٌّ وَأَفْرِيقِيٌّ وَإِنْسَانِيٌّ فِي آنٍ وَاحِد.

التِّكْنُولُوجِيَا وَمَنْ يَمْلِكُ القِصَّة

يَرَى الدُّكْتُور لَانْغْمِيَا أَنَّ الاسْتِفَادَةَ مِنَ التِّكْنُولُوجِيَا لا تَكْتَمِلُ مِنْ دُونِ مُشَارَكَةٍ حَقِيقِيَّةٍ فِي المِلْكِيَّةِ وَالتَّصْمِيمِ وَإِنْتَاجِ البَيَانَات. فَحِينَ تَغِيبُ اللُّغَاتُ الأَفْرِيقِيَّةُ وَالتَّجَارِبُ المَحَلِّيَّةُ عَنِ المَنْصَّاتِ وَمَرَاكِزِ البَيَانَاتِ، تُصْبِحُ التَّرْجَمَةُ أَضْعَفَ وَالتَّمْثِيلُ أَقَلَّ دِقَّةً. وَلِذٰلِكَ يَدْعُو إِلَى بِنَاءِ مَنْصَّاتٍ وَمُبَادَرَاتٍ أَفْرِيقِيَّةٍ تَحْفَظُ اللُّغَاتِ وَتُوَسِّعُ الحُضُورَ الرَّقْمِيَّ.

الذَّكَاءُ الاصْطِنَاعِيُّ شَرِيكٌ مُسَاعِدٌ لا قَائِدٌ

يُقَدِّمُ الضَّيْفُ تَشْبِيهًا وَاضِحًا: الذَّكَاءُ الاصْطِنَاعِيُّ مُسَاعِدُ طَيَّار، أَمَّا الإِنْسَانُ فَهُوَ الطَّيَّار. وَهٰذَا يَفْرِضُ عَلَى الجَامِعَاتِ تَعْلِيمَ الاسْتِخْدَامِ المَسْؤُولِ، وَوَضْعَ ضَوَابِطَ لِلنَّزَاهَةِ الأَكَادِيمِيَّةِ، وَتَدْرِيبَ الطُّلَّابِ عَلَى النَّقْدِ وَالتَّحَقُّقِ بَدَلًا مِنَ التَّسْلِيمِ بِمَا تُنْتِجُهُ الآلَة.

القِسْمُ الإِنْجِلِيزِيُّ

Episode Overview

This episode follows an intellectual and human journey from a village in Cameroon to Germany, the United States, Howard University, and classrooms across Africa, Europe, and beyond. At its center is a defining question: how can Africa tell its own story and contribute its own theories of media and communication rather than remain only a consumer of frameworks developed elsewhere?

Prof. Dr. Kehbuma Langmia connects personal experience with scholarship. The conversation covers education, leadership, Black identity, Afrocentricity, decolonizing communication studies, digital ownership, artificial intelligence, disinformation, deepfakes, algorithmic bias, and the responsibility of universities and media professionals.

The Guest

Kehbuma Langmia is Professor and Chair of the Department of Communication Studies at Howard University’s Cathy Hughes School of Communications. A two-time Fulbright scholar, his expertise includes information and communication technology, international and intercultural communication, Black and diaspora communication, social media, Afrocentricity, and the decolonization of media and communication studies.

He has published more than twenty books as well as numerous chapters and scholarly articles. His work addresses globalization and cyberculture, Black and Africana communication theory, disinformation, deepfakes and synthetic media, and media-driven social change across the Global South.

From Storytelling to Scholarship

Langmia describes a rural childhood shaped by farming, oral storytelling, and parents who had not received Western schooling but taught him honor, peace, love, ambition, and the duty to seek good. Evening stories, told without electricity or mobile phones, became his first lesson in the power of narrative.

Education opened the road from village to city, then to study in Germany and the United States. Howard University became especially significant because he encountered Black scholars and professors whose example made advanced scholarship feel both visible and attainable. He later earned his doctorate there, taught elsewhere, and returned to serve the institution.

التَّعْلِيمُ وَالقِيَادَةُ

Education and Leadership

Langmia presents leadership as mentorship rather than control. As department chair, he focuses on faculty development, promotion, honest conversation, and a culture of care. With students, he emphasizes that education is not confined to books and grades. It creates an obligation to serve families, communities, and future generations.

His international teaching reinforced the value of exchange. Work in Cameroon, Kosovo, Kenya, Uganda, Ghana, and other countries showed him that students often share the same concerns: access to books, timely graduation, employment, language, and belonging. His experience teaching during a semester-long global voyage joined classroom ideas to field observation in multiple societies.

Afrocentricity as a Point of View

In the episode, Afrocentricity means approaching African questions from African histories, cultures, values, and lived experience. Africa is not treated as an appendix to someone else’s framework but as an intellectual center capable of producing concepts, theories, and research methods.

Decolonizing communication studies, in this account, does not require hostility toward European or American scholarship. It requires identifying inherited distortions, recovering suppressed knowledge, taking African languages seriously, and placing multiple traditions in a genuinely inclusive field.

Ancient Egypt and African Intellectual History

The conversation places ancient Egypt within the broader intellectual history of Africa. Architecture, writing, medicine, ethics, administration, and monumental construction all presuppose systems of knowledge and communication. Langmia argues that African universities should engage this inheritance in their curricula while recognizing ancient Egyptian civilization as Egyptian, African, and part of humanity’s shared heritage.

Connecting Africa and the Diaspora

Communication can also build stronger links between Africans on the continent and communities throughout the diaspora. The episode proposes deeper student and faculty exchanges among universities in Africa, the Caribbean, and other diaspora societies. Such relationships would allow Pan-Africanism to operate through sustained learning, collaboration, and shared institutions rather than remain only an aspiration.

العَصْرُ الرَّقْمِيُّ وَمَسْؤُولِيَّةُ الحَقِيقَة

The Digital Age and the Responsibility for Truth

Langmia warns that access to technology is not the same as ownership or fair representation. When African languages, cultural symbols, and local knowledge are missing from datasets and platforms, translations become weaker and digital portrayals less accurate. He calls for greater African participation in platform design, data creation, search, and digital infrastructure.

Artificial Intelligence as Copilot

One of the episode’s clearest formulations is that artificial intelligence should function as a copilot while the human being remains the pilot. Universities should neither ignore AI nor surrender judgment to it. They need policies, workshops, ethical guardrails, and assignments that teach students to use these tools responsibly while preserving authorship and critical thinking.

Deepfakes Disinformation and Algorithmic Bias

Synthetic media makes the boundary between authentic and fabricated content increasingly difficult to see. Deepfakes can manufacture events, imitate public figures, and exploit the speed with which users react and share. The problem becomes more serious when biased datasets affect facial recognition and other automated systems, producing unequal risks for Black individuals and communities.

The practical response offered in the conversation is disciplined verification. Pause before sharing. Read the full claim rather than reacting to a headline or image. Consult official and trusted sources. Compare several independent reports. Revisit the evidence when wording is ambiguous. Technology companies, governments, universities, journalists, and users all share responsibility, but individual media literacy remains indispensable.

The Global South and Media Dependency

A recurring challenge across Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, and Latin America is dependence on large external media organizations to narrate local realities. This can marginalize local outlets and detach stories from the languages and perspectives of the people concerned. Strengthening local journalism and making it globally visible are therefore matters of both communication capacity and intellectual sovereignty.

The Human Message

Despite the urgency of these problems, the episode ends with a universal ethical appeal: reject hypocrisy, meet cultural difference with curiosity, and recognize the dignity and potential of every human being. For Langmia, the guiding principle remains the lesson of his childhood—do good, avoid harm, and use knowledge to improve the human condition.

أَبْرَزُ مَا نَتَعَلَّمُهُ مِنَ الحَلْقَةِ

Key Takeaways

١. التَّعْلِيمُ لَيْسَ امْتِيَازًا شَخْصِيًّا؛ بَلْ مَسْؤُولِيَّةٌ لِخِدْمَةِ المُجْتَمَعِ وَفَتْحِ الطَّرِيقِ لِلْأَجْيَالِ القَادِمَة.

٢. تَحْتَاجُ دِرَاسَاتُ الاتِّصَالِ إِلَى نَظَرِيَّاتٍ تَعْكِسُ تَجَارِبَ أَفْرِيقِيَا وَلُغَاتِهَا وَقِيَمِهَا.

٣. تَحْرِيرُ المَعْرِفَةِ مِنَ الاسْتِعْمَارِ لا يَعْنِي رَفْضَ الآخَر، بَلْ اسْتِعَادَةَ الصَّوْتِ وَتَحْقِيقَ التَّوَازُنِ وَالشُّمُول.

٤. الذَّكَاءُ الاصْطِنَاعِيُّ أَدَاةٌ مُسَاعِدَةٌ، وَيَجِبُ أَنْ يَبْقَى الإِنْسَانُ صَاحِبَ القَرَارِ وَالمَسْؤُولِيَّة.

٥. مُوَاجَهَةُ التَّضْلِيلِ تَبْدَأُ بِالتَّوَقُّفِ وَالتَّحَقُّقِ وَمُقَارَنَةِ المَصَادِرِ قَبْلَ المُشَارَكَة.

٦. الشَّبَابُ الأَفْرِيقِيُّ بِفُضُولِهِ وَطُمُوحِهِ وَمَرُونَتِهِ هُوَ أَكْبَرُ مَصْدَرٍ لِلأَمَلِ فِي المُسْتَقْبَل.

1. Education carries a duty to serve communities and future generations.

2. Communication theory must include African histories, languages, and lived experience.

3. Decolonization seeks balance and restored voice, not intellectual isolation.

4. AI should assist human judgment, not replace human responsibility.

5. Verification, source comparison, and media literacy are essential defenses against disinformation.

6. The creativity and resilience of African youth offer strong grounds for hope.

شَاهِدُوا الحَلْقَةَ الكَامِلَةَ

Watch the Complete Episode

Media Culture and the African Voice الإعلام والثقافة والصوت الأفريقي

هٰذَا المَقَالُ خُلَاصَةٌ تَحْرِيرِيَّةٌ لِأَفْكَارِ الحَلْقَةِ، وَلَيْسَ تَفْرِيغًا حَرْفِيًّا لِلحِوَار.

This article is an editorial synthesis of the episode, not a verbatim transcript.

تَحْفَظُ المَجَلَّةُ الرَّقْمِيَّةُ وَالأَرْشِيفُ أَفْكَارَ حَلَقَاتِ بُودْكَاسْت الدُّكْتُور عَلِي زُهَيْرِي فِي صِيغَةٍ سَهْلَةِ القِرَاءَةِ وَالمُشَارَكَة.

The Digital Magazine and Archive preserves each podcast conversation in a readable and shareable form.

THE DR ALI ZOHERY PODCAST WEEKLY

المَجَلَّةُ الرَّقْمِيَّةُ وَأَرْشِيفُ بُودْكَاسْت الدُّكْتُور عَلِي زُهَيْرِي

العَدَدُ الرَّابِعُ

ISSUE FOUR

الإِعْلَامُ وَالثَّقَافَةُ وَالصَّوْتُ الأَفْرِيقِيُّ

MEDIA CULTURE AND THE AFRICAN VOICE

حِوَارٌ مَعَ الأُسْتَاذِ الدُّكْتُور كِهْبُومَا لَانْغْمِيَا

A conversation with Prof. Dr. Kehbuma Langmia

إِعْدَادٌ تَحْرِيرِيٌّ مُسْتَنِدٌ إِلَى الحَلْقَةِ الكَامِلَةِ مِنْ بُودْكَاسْت الدُّكْتُور عَلِي زُهَيْرِي

An editorial feature based on the complete podcast episode

مُلَخَّصُ الحَلْقَةِ

تَأْخُذُنَا هٰذِهِ الحَلْقَةُ فِي رِحْلَةٍ فِكْرِيَّةٍ وَإِنْسَانِيَّةٍ تَبْدَأُ مِنْ قَرْيَةٍ فِي الكَامِيرُون، وَتَمْتَدُّ إِلَى أَلْمَانِيَا وَالوِلَايَاتِ المُتَّحِدَةِ وَجَامِعَةِ هَاوَرْد، ثُمَّ إِلَى جَامِعَاتٍ وَمُجْتَمَعَاتٍ فِي أَفْرِيقِيَا وَأُورُوبَّا وَمَنَاطِقَ أُخْرَى مِنَ العَالَم. وَفِي قَلْبِ هٰذِهِ الرِّحْلَةِ يَطْرَحُ الأُسْتَاذُ الدُّكْتُور كِهْبُومَا لَانْغْمِيَا سُؤَالًا مُهِمًّا: كَيْفَ تَرْوِي أَفْرِيقِيَا قِصَّتَهَا بِصَوْتِهَا، وَكَيْفَ تُسْهِمُ فِي بِنَاءِ نَظَرِيَّاتِ الإِعْلَامِ وَالتَّوَاصُلِ بَدَلًا مِنَ الاكْتِفَاءِ بِاسْتِهْلَاكِ نَمَاذِجَ صُنِعَتْ خَارِجَ تَجْرِبَتِهَا؟

يَجْمَعُ الحِوَارُ بَيْنَ السِّيرَةِ الذَّاتِيَّةِ وَالنَّقَاشِ الأَكَادِيمِيِّ، وَيَتَنَاوَلُ التَّرْبِيَةَ وَالقِيَادَةَ وَالهُوِيَّةَ السَّوْدَاءَ وَالمَرْكَزِيَّةَ الأَفْرِيقِيَّةَ وَتَفْكِيكَ الاسْتِعْمَارِ فِي دِرَاسَاتِ الاتِّصَال. كَمَا يَنْتَقِلُ إِلَى قَضَايَا الذَّكَاءِ الاصْطِنَاعِيِّ وَالتَّضْلِيلِ وَالتَّزْيِيفِ العَمِيقِ وَتَحَيُّزِ الخَوَارِزْمِيَّاتِ وَمَسْؤُولِيَّةِ الجَامِعَاتِ وَالإِعْلَامِيِّينَ وَالمُسْتَخْدِمِينَ.

الضَّيْفُ وَمَسِيرَتُهُ العِلْمِيَّةُ

الأُسْتَاذُ الدُّكْتُور كِهْبُومَا لَانْغْمِيَا أُسْتَاذٌ وَرَئِيسُ قِسْمِ دِرَاسَاتِ الاتِّصَالِ فِي كُلِّيَّةِ كَاثِي هِيُوز لِلِاتِّصَالِ بِجَامِعَةِ هَاوَرْد. وَهُوَ بَاحِثُ فُولْبْرَايْت مَرَّتَيْنِ، وَمِنْ أَبْرَزِ مَجَالَاتِهِ تِكْنُولُوجِيَا المَعْلُومَاتِ وَالاتِّصَال، وَالاتِّصَالُ الدَّوْلِيُّ وَبَيْنَ الثَّقَافَات، وَالإِعْلَامُ وَالثَّقَافَةُ السَّوْدَاءُ، وَوَسَائِلُ التَّوَاصُلِ الاجْتِمَاعِيِّ، وَالمَرْكَزِيَّةُ الأَفْرِيقِيَّةُ، وَتَحْرِيرُ دِرَاسَاتِ الاتِّصَالِ مِنَ الهَيْمَنَةِ الاسْتِعْمَارِيَّةِ.

نَشَرَ أَكْثَرَ مِنْ عِشْرِينَ كِتَابًا، إِلَى جَانِبِ فُصُولٍ وَدِرَاسَاتٍ عِلْمِيَّةٍ مُحَكَّمَةٍ. وَتَشْمَلُ أَعْمَالُهُ مَوْضُوعَاتِ العَوْلَمَةِ وَالثَّقَافَةِ السَّيْبَرَانِيَّةِ، وَنَظَرِيَّةِ الاتِّصَالِ الأَفْرِيقِيِّ وَالأَسْوَدِ، وَالتَّضْلِيلِ وَالتَّزْيِيفِ العَمِيقِ وَالإِعْلَامِ الاصْطِنَاعِيِّ، وَدَوْرِ الإِعْلَامِ فِي التَّغْيِيرِ الاجْتِمَاعِيِّ فِي الجَنُوبِ العَالَمِيِّ.

مِنَ القَرْيَةِ إِلَى جَامِعَةِ هَاوَرْد

يَرْوِي الضَّيْفُ أَنَّهُ نَشَأَ فِي بِيئَةٍ رِيفِيَّةٍ، وَأَنَّ وَالِدَيْهِ لَمْ يَتَلَقَّيَا تَعْلِيمًا غَرْبِيًّا، لٰكِنَّهُمَا غَرَسَا فِيهِ قِيَمَ الشَّرَفِ وَالسَّلَامِ وَالمَحَبَّةِ وَالطُّمُوح. وَكَانَتْ حِكَايَاتُ الأُسْرَةِ فِي المَسَاءِ، قَبْلَ الكَهْرَبَاءِ وَالهَوَاتِفِ، مَدْرَسَتَهُ الأُولَى فِي قُوَّةِ القِصَّةِ وَالتَّوَاصُل.

التَّعْلِيمُ طَرِيقٌ إِلَى العَالَم

كَانَ رُؤْيَةُ الطَّائِرَاتِ فِي سَمَاءِ القَرْيَةِ تُوَلِّدُ فِي نَفْسِهِ سُؤَالًا عَمَّا يُوجَدُ خَلْفَ الأُفُق. وَشَجَّعَتْهُ وَالِدَتُهُ عَلَى الاجْتِهَادِ، فَصَارَ النَّجَاحُ فِي التَّعْلِيمِ عِنْدَهُ جَوَازَ مُرُورٍ مِنَ القَرْيَةِ إِلَى المَدِينَةِ، وَمِنْهَا إِلَى أَلْمَانِيَا، ثُمَّ إِلَى الوِلَايَاتِ المُتَّحِدَة. وَاخْتَارَ جَامِعَةَ هَاوَرْد بَعْدَ أَنْ تَعَرَّفَ إِلَى إِرْثِهَا وَعُلَمَائِهَا السُّود، فَوَجَدَ فِيهَا مَكَانًا يَرَى فِيهِ ذَاتَهُ وَطُمُوحَهُ العِلْمِيَّ.

يُشِيرُ إِلَى أَثَرِ أَسَاتِذَتِهِ فِي تَحْدِي مَسَلَّمَاتِهِ. فَسُؤَالٌ نَقْدِيٌّ عَنْ مُلَاءَمَةِ نَظَرِيَّةٍ أُورُوبِّيَّةٍ لِتَجْرِبَةِ المُهَاجِرِينَ الأَفَارِقَةِ دَفَعَهُ إِلَى البَحْثِ عَنْ نَظَرِيَّاتٍ تَنْطَلِقُ مِنَ الوَاقِعِ الأَفْرِيقِيِّ. وَهٰكَذَا تَحَوَّلَ التَّحَدِّي فِي قَاعَةِ الدِّرَاسَةِ إِلَى مَشْرُوعٍ فِكْرِيٍّ وَمَسَارٍ فِي التَّأْلِيف.

قِيَادَةٌ قَائِمَةٌ عَلَى الرِّعَايَةِ وَالتَّوْجِيه

يَرَى الدُّكْتُور لَانْغْمِيَا أَنَّ رِئَاسَةَ القِسْمِ لَيْسَتْ مَنْصِبًا إِدَارِيًّا فَقَطْ، بَلْ مَسْؤُولِيَّةٌ تَجَاهَ نُمُوِّ أَعْضَاءِ هَيْئَةِ التَّدْرِيسِ وَالطُّلَّاب. وَيُؤَكِّدُ أَنَّهُ يَتَعَامَلُ مَعَ الزُّمَلَاءِ بِالمَحَبَّةِ وَالإِرْشَادِ، وَيَعْمَلُ عَلَى تَهْيِئَةِ الفُرَصِ لِتَقَدُّمِهِمْ، لا عَلَى العِقَابِ أَوِ الإِقْصَاءِ.

أَمَّا طُلَّابُهُ فَيَدْعُوهُمْ إِلَى تَجَاوُزِ الكُتُبِ وَالدَّرَجَاتِ، وَإِلَى سُؤَالِ أَنْفُسِهِمْ: مَاذَا سَنُقَدِّمُ لِأُسَرِنَا وَمُجْتَمَعَاتِنَا وَلِلْعَالَم؟ فَالتَّعْلِيمُ، فِي رُؤْيَتِهِ، أَمَانَةٌ تَحْمِلُ صَاحِبَهَا مَسْؤُولِيَّةَ فَتْحِ الطَّرِيقِ لِمَنْ لَمْ تَتَحْ لَهُمُ الفُرْصَةُ نَفْسُهَا.

السَّفَرُ وَالتَّعَلُّمُ عَبْرَ الحُدُود

كَشَفَتْ لَهُ خِبْرَاتُ فُولْبْرَايْت وَالتَّدْرِيسُ فِي بِلَادٍ مُتَعَدِّدَةٍ أَنَّ السَّفَرَ يُوَسِّعُ العَقْلَ وَيُصَحِّحُ الأَحْكَامَ السَّابِقَة. وَمِنْ كُوسُوفُو إِلَى كِينْيَا وَأُوغَنْدَا وَغَانَا وَالكَامِيرُون، رَأَى أَنَّ الطُّلَّابَ يَشْتَرِكُونَ فِي طُمُوحِهِمْ وَقَلَقِهِمْ مِنَ العَمَلِ وَالتَّكَيُّفِ وَالحُصُولِ عَلَى الكُتُبِ وَالتَّخَرُّجِ فِي الوَقْتِ المُنَاسِب. وَكَانَتْ تَجْرِبَةُ التَّدْرِيسِ خِلَالَ رِحْلَةٍ بَحْرِيَّةٍ تَعْبُرُ عِدَّةَ دُوَلٍ مِثَالًا عَلَى تَعْلِيمٍ يَرْبِطُ المُحَاضَرَةَ بِالمُشَاهَدَةِ المَيْدَانِيَّةِ.

المَرْكَزِيَّةُ الأَفْرِيقِيَّةُ وَتَحْرِيرُ المَعْرِفَة

يَشْرَحُ الضَّيْفُ أَنَّ المَرْكَزِيَّةَ الأَفْرِيقِيَّةَ تَعْنِي دِرَاسَةَ القَضَايَا المُتَّصِلَةِ بِأَفْرِيقِيَا مِنْ دَاخِلِ تَجْرِبَتِهَا وَتَارِيخِهَا وَقِيَمِهَا، وَوَضْعَ الإِنْسَانِ الأَفْرِيقِيِّ فِي مَرْكَزِ التَّحْلِيلِ بَدَلًا مِنْ تَقْدِيمِهِ هَامِشًا فِي نَمَاذِجَ صُنِعَتْ لِمُجْتَمَعَاتٍ أُخْرَى. وَلا يَعْنِي ذٰلِكَ رَفْضَ المَعْرِفَةِ الغَرْبِيَّةِ، بَلْ تَوْسِيعَ الحَقْلِ لِيَكُونَ أَكْثَرَ شُمُولًا وَعَدْلًا.

وَأَمَّا تَفْكِيكُ الاسْتِعْمَارِ فِي دِرَاسَاتِ الاتِّصَالِ فَيَبْدَأُ بِمُرَاجَعَةِ الصُّوَرِ المُشَوَّهَةِ وَالأَفْكَارِ المَوْرُوثَةِ، وَبِاسْتِعَادَةِ اللُّغَاتِ وَالمَفَاهِيمِ وَطُرُقِ المَعْرِفَةِ الأَفْرِيقِيَّةِ. وَيُشَدِّدُ عَلَى أَنَّ التَّحَرُّرَ لَيْسَ عَدَاءً لِلغَرْب، بَلْ عَوْدَةٌ نَقْدِيَّةٌ إِلَى الذَّاتِ وَالمَصَادِرِ، مَعَ الانْفِتَاحِ عَلَى الآخَر.

مِصْرُ القَدِيمَةُ فِي التَّارِيخِ الفِكْرِيِّ الأَفْرِيقِيِّ

يُعْطِي الحِوَارُ مِصْرَ القَدِيمَةَ مَكَانَةً مَرْكَزِيَّةً فِي الحَدِيثِ عَنْ الهُوِيَّةِ الأَفْرِيقِيَّةِ وَتَارِيخِ المَعْرِفَة. فَالإِنْجَازَاتُ فِي العِمَارَةِ وَالطِّبِّ وَالأَخْلَاقِ وَالتَّنْظِيمِ وَالكِتَابَةِ تَدُلُّ عَلَى تَرَاكُمٍ عِلْمِيٍّ وَنُظُمٍ لِلتَّوَاصُل. وَيَدْعُو الضَّيْفُ الجَامِعَاتِ الأَفْرِيقِيَّةَ إِلَى إِدْمَاجِ هٰذَا التُّرَاثِ فِي مَنَاهِجِهَا، مَعَ تَأْكِيدِ أَنَّ الحَضَارَةَ المِصْرِيَّةَ تُرَاثٌ مِصْرِيٌّ وَأَفْرِيقِيٌّ وَإِنْسَانِيٌّ فِي آنٍ وَاحِد.

التِّكْنُولُوجِيَا وَمَنْ يَمْلِكُ القِصَّة

يَرَى الدُّكْتُور لَانْغْمِيَا أَنَّ الاسْتِفَادَةَ مِنَ التِّكْنُولُوجِيَا لا تَكْتَمِلُ مِنْ دُونِ مُشَارَكَةٍ حَقِيقِيَّةٍ فِي المِلْكِيَّةِ وَالتَّصْمِيمِ وَإِنْتَاجِ البَيَانَات. فَحِينَ تَغِيبُ اللُّغَاتُ الأَفْرِيقِيَّةُ وَالتَّجَارِبُ المَحَلِّيَّةُ عَنِ المَنْصَّاتِ وَمَرَاكِزِ البَيَانَاتِ، تُصْبِحُ التَّرْجَمَةُ أَضْعَفَ وَالتَّمْثِيلُ أَقَلَّ دِقَّةً. وَلِذٰلِكَ يَدْعُو إِلَى بِنَاءِ مَنْصَّاتٍ وَمُبَادَرَاتٍ أَفْرِيقِيَّةٍ تَحْفَظُ اللُّغَاتِ وَتُوَسِّعُ الحُضُورَ الرَّقْمِيَّ.

الذَّكَاءُ الاصْطِنَاعِيُّ شَرِيكٌ مُسَاعِدٌ لا قَائِدٌ

يُقَدِّمُ الضَّيْفُ تَشْبِيهًا وَاضِحًا: الذَّكَاءُ الاصْطِنَاعِيُّ مُسَاعِدُ طَيَّار، أَمَّا الإِنْسَانُ فَهُوَ الطَّيَّار. وَهٰذَا يَفْرِضُ عَلَى الجَامِعَاتِ تَعْلِيمَ الاسْتِخْدَامِ المَسْؤُولِ، وَوَضْعَ ضَوَابِطَ لِلنَّزَاهَةِ الأَكَادِيمِيَّةِ، وَتَدْرِيبَ الطُّلَّابِ عَلَى النَّقْدِ وَالتَّحَقُّقِ بَدَلًا مِنَ التَّسْلِيمِ بِمَا تُنْتِجُهُ الآلَة.

القِسْمُ الإِنْجِلِيزِيُّ

Episode Overview

This episode follows an intellectual and human journey from a village in Cameroon to Germany, the United States, Howard University, and classrooms across Africa, Europe, and beyond. At its center is a defining question: how can Africa tell its own story and contribute its own theories of media and communication rather than remain only a consumer of frameworks developed elsewhere?

Prof. Dr. Kehbuma Langmia connects personal experience with scholarship. The conversation covers education, leadership, Black identity, Afrocentricity, decolonizing communication studies, digital ownership, artificial intelligence, disinformation, deepfakes, algorithmic bias, and the responsibility of universities and media professionals.

The Guest

Kehbuma Langmia is Professor and Chair of the Department of Communication Studies at Howard University’s Cathy Hughes School of Communications. A two-time Fulbright scholar, his expertise includes information and communication technology, international and intercultural communication, Black and diaspora communication, social media, Afrocentricity, and the decolonization of media and communication studies.

He has published more than twenty books as well as numerous chapters and scholarly articles. His work addresses globalization and cyberculture, Black and Africana communication theory, disinformation, deepfakes and synthetic media, and media-driven social change across the Global South.

From Storytelling to Scholarship

Langmia describes a rural childhood shaped by farming, oral storytelling, and parents who had not received Western schooling but taught him honor, peace, love, ambition, and the duty to seek good. Evening stories, told without electricity or mobile phones, became his first lesson in the power of narrative.

Education opened the road from village to city, then to study in Germany and the United States. Howard University became especially significant because he encountered Black scholars and professors whose example made advanced scholarship feel both visible and attainable. He later earned his doctorate there, taught elsewhere, and returned to serve the institution.

التَّعْلِيمُ وَالقِيَادَةُ

Education and Leadership

Langmia presents leadership as mentorship rather than control. As department chair, he focuses on faculty development, promotion, honest conversation, and a culture of care. With students, he emphasizes that education is not confined to books and grades. It creates an obligation to serve families, communities, and future generations.

His international teaching reinforced the value of exchange. Work in Cameroon, Kosovo, Kenya, Uganda, Ghana, and other countries showed him that students often share the same concerns: access to books, timely graduation, employment, language, and belonging. His experience teaching during a semester-long global voyage joined classroom ideas to field observation in multiple societies.

Afrocentricity as a Point of View

In the episode, Afrocentricity means approaching African questions from African histories, cultures, values, and lived experience. Africa is not treated as an appendix to someone else’s framework but as an intellectual center capable of producing concepts, theories, and research methods.

Decolonizing communication studies, in this account, does not require hostility toward European or American scholarship. It requires identifying inherited distortions, recovering suppressed knowledge, taking African languages seriously, and placing multiple traditions in a genuinely inclusive field.

Ancient Egypt and African Intellectual History

The conversation places ancient Egypt within the broader intellectual history of Africa. Architecture, writing, medicine, ethics, administration, and monumental construction all presuppose systems of knowledge and communication. Langmia argues that African universities should engage this inheritance in their curricula while recognizing ancient Egyptian civilization as Egyptian, African, and part of humanity’s shared heritage.

Connecting Africa and the Diaspora

Communication can also build stronger links between Africans on the continent and communities throughout the diaspora. The episode proposes deeper student and faculty exchanges among universities in Africa, the Caribbean, and other diaspora societies. Such relationships would allow Pan-Africanism to operate through sustained learning, collaboration, and shared institutions rather than remain only an aspiration.

العَصْرُ الرَّقْمِيُّ وَمَسْؤُولِيَّةُ الحَقِيقَة

The Digital Age and the Responsibility for Truth

Langmia warns that access to technology is not the same as ownership or fair representation. When African languages, cultural symbols, and local knowledge are missing from datasets and platforms, translations become weaker and digital portrayals less accurate. He calls for greater African participation in platform design, data creation, search, and digital infrastructure.

Artificial Intelligence as Copilot

One of the episode’s clearest formulations is that artificial intelligence should function as a copilot while the human being remains the pilot. Universities should neither ignore AI nor surrender judgment to it. They need policies, workshops, ethical guardrails, and assignments that teach students to use these tools responsibly while preserving authorship and critical thinking.

Deepfakes Disinformation and Algorithmic Bias

Synthetic media makes the boundary between authentic and fabricated content increasingly difficult to see. Deepfakes can manufacture events, imitate public figures, and exploit the speed with which users react and share. The problem becomes more serious when biased datasets affect facial recognition and other automated systems, producing unequal risks for Black individuals and communities.

The practical response offered in the conversation is disciplined verification. Pause before sharing. Read the full claim rather than reacting to a headline or image. Consult official and trusted sources. Compare several independent reports. Revisit the evidence when wording is ambiguous. Technology companies, governments, universities, journalists, and users all share responsibility, but individual media literacy remains indispensable.

The Global South and Media Dependency

A recurring challenge across Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, and Latin America is dependence on large external media organizations to narrate local realities. This can marginalize local outlets and detach stories from the languages and perspectives of the people concerned. Strengthening local journalism and making it globally visible are therefore matters of both communication capacity and intellectual sovereignty.

The Human Message

Despite the urgency of these problems, the episode ends with a universal ethical appeal: reject hypocrisy, meet cultural difference with curiosity, and recognize the dignity and potential of every human being. For Langmia, the guiding principle remains the lesson of his childhood—do good, avoid harm, and use knowledge to improve the human condition.

أَبْرَزُ مَا نَتَعَلَّمُهُ مِنَ الحَلْقَةِ

Key Takeaways

١. التَّعْلِيمُ لَيْسَ امْتِيَازًا شَخْصِيًّا؛ بَلْ مَسْؤُولِيَّةٌ لِخِدْمَةِ المُجْتَمَعِ وَفَتْحِ الطَّرِيقِ لِلْأَجْيَالِ القَادِمَة.

٢. تَحْتَاجُ دِرَاسَاتُ الاتِّصَالِ إِلَى نَظَرِيَّاتٍ تَعْكِسُ تَجَارِبَ أَفْرِيقِيَا وَلُغَاتِهَا وَقِيَمِهَا.

٣. تَحْرِيرُ المَعْرِفَةِ مِنَ الاسْتِعْمَارِ لا يَعْنِي رَفْضَ الآخَر، بَلْ اسْتِعَادَةَ الصَّوْتِ وَتَحْقِيقَ التَّوَازُنِ وَالشُّمُول.

٤. الذَّكَاءُ الاصْطِنَاعِيُّ أَدَاةٌ مُسَاعِدَةٌ، وَيَجِبُ أَنْ يَبْقَى الإِنْسَانُ صَاحِبَ القَرَارِ وَالمَسْؤُولِيَّة.

٥. مُوَاجَهَةُ التَّضْلِيلِ تَبْدَأُ بِالتَّوَقُّفِ وَالتَّحَقُّقِ وَمُقَارَنَةِ المَصَادِرِ قَبْلَ المُشَارَكَة.

٦. الشَّبَابُ الأَفْرِيقِيُّ بِفُضُولِهِ وَطُمُوحِهِ وَمَرُونَتِهِ هُوَ أَكْبَرُ مَصْدَرٍ لِلأَمَلِ فِي المُسْتَقْبَل.

1. Education carries a duty to serve communities and future generations.

2. Communication theory must include African histories, languages, and lived experience.

3. Decolonization seeks balance and restored voice, not intellectual isolation.

4. AI should assist human judgment, not replace human responsibility.

5. Verification, source comparison, and media literacy are essential defenses against disinformation.

6. The creativity and resilience of African youth offer strong grounds for hope.

شَاهِدُوا الحَلْقَةَ الكَامِلَةَ

Watch the Complete Episode

Media Culture and the African Voice الإعلام والثقافة والصوت الأفريقي

هٰذَا المَقَالُ خُلَاصَةٌ تَحْرِيرِيَّةٌ لِأَفْكَارِ الحَلْقَةِ، وَلَيْسَ تَفْرِيغًا حَرْفِيًّا لِلحِوَار.

This article is an editorial synthesis of the episode, not a verbatim transcript.

تَحْفَظُ المَجَلَّةُ الرَّقْمِيَّةُ وَالأَرْشِيفُ أَفْكَارَ حَلَقَاتِ بُودْكَاسْت الدُّكْتُور عَلِي زُهَيْرِي فِي صِيغَةٍ سَهْلَةِ القِرَاءَةِ وَالمُشَارَكَة.

The Digital Magazine and Archive preserves each podcast conversation in a readable and shareable form.