Unfelled: A Naxal Encounter

A forest in India. (Photo by Richard A. Johnson / 2011)

The creative non-fiction short story "Unfelled: A Naxal Encounter" by Richard A. Johnson (me) appears in the online edition of THIS Magazine for November/December 2012. It is the second-prize winner in the magazine's annual Great Canadian Literary Hunt.

The story traces the contours of a man called Sudhir in a place called Kandhamal in southeastern India; a rough etching of the confluence of grassroots development work, aboriginal communalism and anarchistic violence set at a roadblock in the forest.

Excerpt from "Unfelled: A Naxal Encounter" (THIS Magazine):

On a mountain road deep in the Indian jungle, a pair of tree trunks blocks the passage of a jeep. Inside, a wary driver and a terrified cameraman, both town dwellers hired by a local non-governmental organization to ferry us into the district of Kandhamal—the Kashmir of southern India, for its verdant highlands swathed in misty luminance—and shoot footage of a development project. 

Behind them sits Sudhir, whose restless eyes appraise the scene, darting into the thick forest all around us, then back to the roadblock. In each man’s mind a common fear unfolds: at any moment cadres of armed Maoist rebels—Naxals—will emerge to rob them or worse, alleging them to be spies or profiteers or corrupt bureaucrats, kidnap or even kill them. 

The Kandhamal forests—lush with teak, cashew, mango, bamboo, neem, jackfruit and the wizened banyan—emit a foreboding coolness, shrouding sunlight and vision. They hide well those who would gladly withdraw from the world.

Read the complete article at this.org.

I am grateful to the judges of the Great Canadian Literary Hunt for their mention of this story, as I am grateful to my various hosts in India who made it possible. Congrats to the other winners of the Great Canadian Literary Hunt.

Also by Richard A. Johnson in THIS Magazine: "A Dramatic Revival"

Magazine Week in Canada

What's better than a warm spring afternoon in the park? How about a warm spring afternoon in the park with a large stack of magazines that has been quietly, patiently yet doubtless eagerly awaiting my return from India.

And what beats the heck out of that? Having a [part-time*] job that encourages one to spend his afternoon in the park reading a large stack of magazines.

Jenin's Freedom Theatre defies critics, arsonists

"Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy."
-- First Commandment of the society in George Orwell's Animal Farm.

On the night of April 15, a few weeks after the final performance of a Palestinianized version of Orwell's classic upon the stage of the Freedom Theatre in Jenin Refugee Camp, an unidentified two-legged arsonist set fire to the theatre's main door.

Motives may be many, suspects are yet nil, and thankfully the damage was confined to the exterior of the theatre complex as the fire was extinguished before drafting inwards toward the stage, classrooms and computer lab.

At a press conference the next day, the Freedom Theatre's general manager, Juliano Mer Khamis (pictured), who re-founded the theatre in 2004, called on the Palestinian Authority security services to bring the culprit(s) to justice.

Somewhere in the vicinity of Juliano was a man named Zakariya Zubeidi, a man who is sometimes referred to in the Israeli press as a "reformed terrorist."

Zubeidi might be better called a "redeemed child" rather than a reformed terrorist. As a lad, he was active in the original Freedom Theatre started by Juliano's late mother, Arna. [Shameless plug: for more background, see an article by the Tuque Souq's alter ego published in This Magazine about the Freedom Theatre.]

In 2002, a child no longer--whose home and family were threatened by an Israeli military onslaught known as Operation Defensive Shield--Zubeidi joined the al-Aqsa Martyr's Brigade and fought for the defence of the camp. Shortly thereafter, when the senior leaders of the Brigade were dead or captured, Zubeidi reluctantly became its new commander in the camp, which put him at the top of Israel's most wanted list (for assassination) for a time.

But, accruing wisdom and stoicism with age, Zubeidi, now 33, left the militant group for the Palestinian Authority security services. He also has a few ambiguous civic titles in the refugee camp. [That's Zubeidi, pictured, inside the Freedom Theatre.]

Nowadays around Jenin he's mainly known as the one guy who survived it all.

[For even more, see this recent Globe & Mail article by Patrick Martin about the Freedom Theatre and Mr. Zubeidi.]

When the story of the fire hit the Israeli press a few days later, leading daily Ha'aretz published an article claiming that, apparently for security's sake after the fire, the Freedom Theatre had named Zubeidi as its new director.

Juliano Mer Khamis vigorously denied this in an email sent to the Theatre's email list, implying that it is within Zubeidi's role as a member of the security services in Jenin to help bring the arsonists to justice, and to help protect the theatre.

"The Freedom Theatre called upon Zacharia Zubeidi and all supporters of the organisation to take clear action to protect it from these forces," read the letter.

Whether via bad journalism or bad translation, neither of which are usually attributed to Ha'aretz, the media got this one wrong.

But at least Ha'aretz gave us some gossip: rekindling the rumour that Zubeidi is romantically linked with Tali Fahima, the Israeli activist who, five years ago, went to live with Zubeidi in Jenin as a human shield when she learned that the Israeli military was planning to assassinate him. Both she and Zubeidi have denied the rumours.

Jenin's Freedom Theatre opens new production on a new stage

Opening tonight at the Freedom Theatre in Jenin Refugee Camp, West Bank, Palestine - "Atsi" by Anton Chekhov, directed by Amir Nizar Zuabi.

Why bring this up? Well, I've been following the story of the theatre for some time now. [Moderately shameless plug alert] I wrote a short feature in This Magazine last year about the theatre.

Though flush with energy, inspiration and dedication, the theatre's Israeli and Palestinian organizers and volunteers have been making due with ad hoc performance space in an old UN warehouse and other imperfect structures. The performance of "Atsi" will officially inaugurate their new Main Stage theatre space, no small accomplishment for such a place and such an endeavor.

Tuque Souq Autumn (Magazine) Reading List

The Tuque Souq is on a mini-holiday until November 3, at which time we'll return - 24 hours before the polls close in the western U.S. - to call the election for Barack Obama well ahead of the liberal elite media as well as the liberal regular media, and Fox News.

In the meantime, we present for your diversion the first-annual Tuque Souq Autumn (Magazine) Reading List: 6 articles from 6 great Canadian magazines to tickle your long-form-journalism fancy. Enjoy.

"Iran's Quiet Revolution," by Deborah Campbell, The Walrus, September 2006.

"Tear Down That Wall," by Sue Ferguson, This Magazine, September-October 2007.

"The Persian Dub," by Abou Farman, Maisonneuve, December 2006.

"Prop Afghanda," by Anthony Fenton, Briarpatch, June-July 2007.

"The Great Game," by Stephen Osborne and Christopher Grabowski, Geist, Spring 2007.

"Jazz and Jihad," by Gilad Atzmon, Adbusters, July 2007.

Happy reading. And support Canadian magazines by buying them, then surreptitiously leaving them behind the next time Stephen Harper invites you over for tea and biscuits and arts bashing.