Tribal Traditions and Modern Culture:  A Review of The Belt
By Isabel Cutler

One often hears these days about the clash of civilizations and the culture gap between east and west.  What often goes unappreciated is the vast distance certain countries have had to traverse in order to adapt to modern times and the emotional ties which have been ignored in the frantic pace which they have had to maintain to keep up with the rest of the world.  One also fails to recognize the great loss which accompanies this leap into cyberspace and how many traditions, human values, and close ties to community and family are lost in the process.

Ahmed Abodehman in his remarkable mini book The Belt has woven a poetic elegy to the ancient traditions and legends of a small village in Saudi Arabia.  Through the adventures of his early years he describes his village’s struggle to maintain ties to the past against the inevitable forces of modernization—forces of modernization as elemental as wearing shoes and underwear or going to school.

In recounting his own childhood, the author brilliantly portrays the sanctity of village customs where the village elder believes illness is a lie—a mere excuse for shirking work, and proclaims proudly that he has never put a piece of leather between his feet and the ground; where a man without a beard was by definition a liar; where the village women forage for dry wood at night, returning home at dawn only to tend the fields, the children and the animals; and where every village activity had its special song.

Abodehman brings the reader in as a live witness to traditional ceremonies such as the rite of circumcision—the transition into manhood of 15-year-old village boys, an event that involves the whole village.  The reader watches as the crowd parts with the arrival of the renowned circumcision master and feels the pride and bravery of the 15-year-old boys who never flinch as the surgery is performed.  He also describes a village where marriage is a duty, not a personal gratification as “some rich people do” and subtly portrays a father who wants his son to have a better life.  He describes the three lessons of the cat taught to him by his mother:  “eat all your food, know you enemies and hide you excrement” and the three lessons of the donkey: always drink your fill but never guzzle, carry your load, and know the way.

One watches as the villagers broaden their identity from belonging only to the village to slowly being part of the country as shown with the advent of a school where the country’s flag is now flown instead of the tribal one.  And one sees the dropping of some of the tribal traditions and many other changes with the coming of the school.

The interplay of ancient legends determining village behavior combined with modern day incursions makes for fascinating reading when one realizes how fast the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has been brought into the 21st century as seen through the eyes of a simple village boy who came of age as his country was metamorphosing into modern times.  It is clear, however, that the legends of the past, and the love for his village remain a vivid part of the author, although he is now married to a French wife and resides in Paris.  The poetic simplicity of his words conveys the depth of his feelings.

The Belt is a simple book that tells a simple story.  Yet its message is touchingly profound as we see the dilemma of the struggle of one small village to maintain its identity through traditions which have little place in a modern world.  The reader can only be amazed at the rapidity with which this change has taken place, as it was only 54 years ago that Abodehman was born.  

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