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The new dark age
The looting and burning
of Iraq's museums and
libraries has left us
all losers
Ben Okri
Saturday April 19, 2003
The Guardian
We are now at the epicentre
of a shift in the history
of the world. The war
against Iraq has unleashed
unsuspected forces. The
first signs are twofold.
The need of the Americans
to protect oil fields,
but not hospitals, museums
and libraries. This is
a catastrophic failure
of imagination and a signal
absence of a sense of
the true values of civilisation.
It does not bode well
for the future.
The second sign is in
the Iraqi people. We ask
why have they turned on
themselves, looted their
own museums, and burnt
their priceless National
Library. The answer is
simple. Some have been
dehumanised. They have
been broken by sanctions,
crushed by tyranny and
annihilated by the doctrine
of overwhelming force.
The Aztecs never recovered
when Hernan Cortez and
the conquistadores broke
the faith of that ancient
civilisation. Persia never
recovered after its destruction
by Alexander the Great.
The war against Iraq
was won in the wrong way.
There is a way to win
that does not destroy
the ancient mythic pathways
of a people. And there
is a way to win that destroys
the meaning and value
of their past. The worst
way to win is when a de
feated people turn on
their ancient gods, and
tear themdown, when a
people turn on their past
and burn it. And they
don't know why
and yet they do. If the
past had power and value
why has it brought us
to this, is what their
actions say. The past
has made us powerless.
We need a new kind of
power, so that we too
can stand proud and with
dignity under the sun.
In this the war alliance
failed them.
It turns out that we
didn't believe truly in
the values of civilisation
either, or else we would
have found a wiser way
to win. A way in which
we all were winners. Now,
with the looting of the
museums, and the burning
of the National Library,
with its inestimable manuscripts
and books, the whole of
humanity is the loser.
We have lost great swathes
of our past.
This is why more than
ever the value of existing
museums is raised to the
highest pitch. The importance
of the work being done
at the British Museum
is more urgent and luminous
than ever. We may well
be on the verge of a new
dark age, when even the
so-called highly civilised
nations no longer know
what the most enduring
things are. And stand
by and watch as darkness
creeps upon us, unsuspected.
The real war always has
been to keep alive the
light of civilisation
everywhere. It is to keep
culture and art at the
forefront of our national
and international endeavours.
The end of the world
begins not with the barbarians
at the gate, but with
the barbarians at the
highest levels of the
state. All the states
in the world.
We need a new kind of
sustained and passionate
and enlightened action
in the world of the arts
and the spirit.
Guardian Newspapers Limited
2003
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