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02/14/2006:

"Iraq in Black"

Thawra Youssef is familiar with this aspect of Iraqi history. She grew up in a Basra neighborhood called Hakaka, where many of the dark-skinned people lived at the time of the rebellion. Her mother, who worked as a maid in the homes of one of the wealthiest lightskinned families in Basra, told her that her family came from Kenya and that their family had arrived in Iraq through slavery.

"Our whole family used to talk about how our roots are from Africa," says Youssef, who straightens her tightly curled hair and wears it in a soft bouffant. Sometimes she will drape a see through black scarf over her head when she steps out into town.

Youssef, a graduate student at Baghdad University's College of Fine Arts, is writing a dissertation about African-inspired healing ceremonies that she says are held exclusively within the Black community where she grew up.

For the past two years she has researched the ceremonies, which were orally passed down and are held to cure the sick, the shtanga, and one called Nouba, which takes its name from the Nubian region in the Sudan. There are also ceremonies for happy occasions, such as weddings, and to remember the dead.
24hourscholar.com