A Time in Hadhramaut
The Source: hadhramaut.info/Yemen Today - 04/015/2010
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The British Council teams up with the National Museum to present a spectacular photo exhibition.
In the 1930s, Harold and Doreen Ingrams became the first Europeans to
settle in Hadhramaut. Harold, a British political officer based in Aden,
worked along with his wife to secure peace among the tribes there.
During that time, they also took thousands of photographs, which
comprise an invaluable and unique record of the region. The couple’s
daughter, Leila Ingrams (pictured left, cutting the ribbon), has herself
spent a great deal of time in Hadhramaut, and has carefully chosen the
best photos to be a part of the British Council-sponsored exhibition, “A
Time in Hadhramaut.” The exhbition opened at the National Museum in
Sana’a on December 9, and will remain open there until January 27,
before moving to Hadhramaut.The Ingrams’ story is truly remarkable. Unhappy with his tedious work in Aden, to which he was posted in the spring of 1934, Harold convinced his superiors of the importance of his visiting Hadhramaut. The couple made a nine-week journey at the end of that year, during which Doreen Ingrams became the first European woman to visit the cities of Seiyoun and Tarim.
In 1936-7, the couple became intimately involved in forging a lasting peace amongst the warring tribes of Hadhramaut. They traveled all over the region to effect a truce, which was successfully completed in 1937. Later that year, a treaty was signed with the British government with Aden. The Ingrams then began strong educational initiatives, many of which focused on women. The implications of their experience for today’s Yemen are both obvious and important. Michael White, director of the British Council, said that the exhibition “helps us understand that the world is richer, more complex and more rewarding than we might imagine. It helps us appreciate that sometimes the contact between two cultures, handled sympathetically, can result in lasting benefit to both.”
The exhibition of photographs on display record the landscapes and architecture of the day, but focus primarily on the people whom the Ingrams encountered. After January 27, it will be moved to its new, permanent home in the museum at Seiyoun Palace. It may also be exhibited for a time in nearby Tarim.
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