Zinda 17 December 2005

An Interview with Nineb Lamassu

Ninos Warda
United Kingdom

As a full-time student at University, a full-time employee at a TV station, an active Assyrian, and a caring father and husband, Nineb Lamassu is no stranger to hard work and determination. I think that at this moment in time in our Assyrian nation’s history, these two characteristics in any Assyrian are of prime importance to its general survival. As such, I thought Nineb Lamassu would be a great individual to conduct an interview with. With the hope of enlightening readers around the world not only about Nineb’s personal thoughts on matters important to him, and Assyrians generally, but also to encourage other Assyrians, particularly the youth, to work hard and be determined enough to sacrifice in any way they can for the good of our Assyrian nation and people.

Knowing that Nineb feels very passionately about his studies, I thought to start off the interview with him giving a brief explanation of the subjects he studies at University. He is currently doing a BA in Ancient Near Eastern Studies at SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies), which is part of University of London. It is a multi disciplinary degree with language at its centre. For example: Nineb has a few units of ancient history and archaeology of the Near East which cover Egypt, the Levant, Anatolia and of course Mesopotamia. His core subject though is Akkadian, and he is also studying Assyrian of Edessa which is often referred to as Syriac; next year he will even start with Sumerian too! Talk about finding and going back to your roots!

It becomes clear then from his chosen studies that Nineb finds language both fascinating and alluring. Nineb mentioned during the interview that there are many factors which encouraged him to pursue this field of study, but the two main ones he mentioned were very personal and touching experiences, probably felt by many Assyrians also! His first main reason was:

“1- When I was a young kid back home I was always told about my dad’s uncle - Shamasha Shawil D’Baz - being very good at our language. And this language they used to refer to as Lishana Atiqa. So one summer day my late father and mother took the whole family for a trip to Khorsabad, which is ancient Nimrud. There my mum and dad were showing us around and telling us that this was the work of our ancestors. As they were doing this, my father pointed to cuneiform writing on the wall reliefs and told us that this is our ancient language (Lishanan Atiqa), and that is when me, a typically excited kid who thought he knew it all, said: “yes, this is the language that uncle Shawil reads, if he was here he would read it all.” Much to my surprise my dad said: “No, he will not be able to, this is even more ancient than what he is able to read.

So this created some form of curiosity in me as to why do we have a language which is older than what we speak and one which is even older than that. It did not make sense so this curiosity has always driven me to pursue this matter further, and the more I learned the more I felt my knowledge resembles a little drop in this bottomless ocean.”

He then continued with his second reason:

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“2- I remember once back home, my dad and his friend had managed to take my oldest brother with them to the library and had taught him how to sneak a book called “The Assyrian Revolt” (this was Iraq’s official and biased version of the 1933 Semele Massacre), and that was the only official book that I had seen written about the Assyrians in Iraq. So when I first got to New Zealand, I was at the library and I was surprised to see books about Assyrians which I could borrow without any fear of persecution. I still remember the first books that I borrowed. One was “Assyrians and Their Neighbours” which had Assyrian writing on its front cover, and the other one was “The Might That Was Assyria” written by H.W.F. Saggs (which passed away just recently). The latter had a big impact on me and I had no idea that fate would have it for me to end up studying at the same university which the author had graduated from. Nevertheless, Saggs’s book re-kindled that passion in me to find out more about our past.”

Probably as a result of these experiences, Nineb thinks it is of pivotal importance for fellow Assyrians to study this subject. As he accurately opined: “Up until now all of our history has been written from a non-Assyrian perspective, with the exemption of some Assyrians like: Fredrick Aprim’s recent book. So we always lament the fact that we are being maligned by these non-Assyrian writers but never actually doing something about it. It is high time that zealous Assyrian youth with the support of Assyrian institutions take an action and change the current statues quo.”

Given the fact that we are now living in an increasingly technological and multimedia world making it a much smaller place as a result, I posed the question to Nineb as to whether he thinks Assyrians generally are doing enough with the technology and multimedia capabilities we have access to today to raise Assyrian awareness and enrich and enliven Assyrian culture and language, and if not, what changes or recommendations would he like to see to better help fulfil this goal? Nineb noted that the progress made in these last years in multimedia communications has changed our life tremendously and that we no longer live in isolation in our part of the planet; the world has become a global village. He continued, “A few Assyrian websites have seized this opportunity to humbly serve our culture; Zinda Magazine, AINA and learnassyrian.com are great examples of this pioneering step. And some of these websites also publish in Assyrian like Nohadra.com and Ankawa.com. But there is an urgent need for an Assyrian only website to serve as a platform for the many Assyrian writers to publish their works.”

We also briefly discussed Assyrian Press Day and the publication it commemorates, i.e. Zahrire d’Bahra. Nineb thought that the commemoration of Assyrian Press Day is a great idea, but in his personal opinion, Zahrire d’Bahra should not be considered the first Assyrian publication, because although it was written in Assyrian, it was not Assyrian in the full sense of the word, i.e. it was purely an American Missionary publication predominantly covering ecclesiastical matters. Nineb went on to compare this with the ‘Khokhwa’ magazine which in his opinion was Assyrian ‘pure and simple’ and represented the true voice of the Assyrians aspirations; with great writers such as: Praydoon Athuraya and Rabi Benyamin Arsanis as contributors.

I felt the need to ask Lamassu who he would consider as his greatest inspiration(s) with regards to his love for the Assyrian language and why? Furthermore, I asked who he hopes to inspire through his poems, articles and other works in the Assyrian language. His reply was both in itself inspiring to others and filled with the names of great Assyrians writers, past and present:

“Inspiration and not imitation is very important. Every individual is inspired by someone or something. However, as that individual grows so this inspiration changes, not by losing respect to ones earlier inspirers but by finding others far beyond ones intellectual reach as a new source of inspiration.

I personally am always inspired by my personal love for my people, language and culture. Doctors tell us that there are two forms of cholesterol: that which is negative and that which is positive. Thus my love for our people, language and culture can be termed as positive addiction, the more I get the more doses of it I need, and this to me is an endless source of inspiration. Luckily I have a wife that understand and shares the addiction.

No doubt though, I am also inspired by great Assyrian individuals such as: the assertiveness of Enheduanna, the great contributions of Odisho D’Sowa, Thoma Audo, Qasha Yosip D’Qillayta, Qasha Paulos Bidaro, Na’um Faiq, Mor. Youhanan Dolabani, Abdil Masih Qarabashi, Odisho Malko Ashitha, Daniel Dawed D’Bet Benyamin, and of course Gabriel Afram.

I would like to inspire you and other Assyrian youth like you but more importantly my son who is three years old. If we are unable to have today’s children inspired and absorb our language and culture like a sponge, and treasure it with their life, then our survival in the future looks very bleak to me.”

It is unfortunate that Nineb’s last sentence is a grim reality, and this led appropriately to the next question concerning the Assyrian youth itself. I thought it appropriate to ask Nineb to draw on some of his experiences of working with the Assyrian youth. His answer put a secret smile on my face and assured me of the fact that it is not just the Assyrian youth of London which has these problems and weaknesses:

“The youth carry the seeds of continuity: more importantly though, they are a natural current of change and progress, and in that lays their most salient factor of strength. Their primary weakness is their sheer love and passion which lacks maturity (in the form of what to do and how to do it) which leads to no sense of direction.

According to a certain school of philosophy it is possible to change society for the better as history clearly demonstrates that but not without a struggle. This is due to the fact that there must be something existing there, something old. Before there could be something better; something new: that is come to change society. Because of this a conflict always arises between these two factions of society. The old: in our community’s case the church, clubs, political parties, and institutions always strive to keep everything as it is and will use any tactic to deter the youth’s resolve and determination. Most often they will penetrate the youth and dilute their thoughts and ideas, and convert them into petty committees that assure their survival up in the hierarchy.

It is important for the youth to be conscious of this weakness, recognise their strength, and know; they are the most important element of our community and a mechanism of pivotal importance: then they need to organise, educate themselves and serve the people not as elitists but as equal pillars that hold this nation together and carrying the heaviest share of the burden.”

Before concluding the interview, I thought that no interview with Lamassu would be complete without talking about Assyrian poetry. In Nineb’s poetry one finds many powerful allegories which possess a different meaning from that which a reader might initially construe. One such example is his poem “Khuba d’La Methpakham”, “Unequivocal Love”. I asked Nineb how important it is for him, as an Assyrian, to write prose and poetry allegorically, and how he thinks this adds to the depth and flavour of the work and stimulates the reader’s understanding of the author’s intended meanings.

Nineb was indisputable in his view that a poet always tries to say something in a way in which it has never been said before, and that this element is what makes writing, poetry. Because anybody can tell his beloved ‘I love you’ but a poet always says it differently. He admitted also that there are other elements involved like rhythm and the ability to play with language ‘as if it was dough or paste in ones hand’, but no doubt allegories play a vital part in Nineb’s works:

“You are right, allegory does play an essential part in most of my poetry, and this is a natural manifestation of various influences, like García Lorca and Pablo Neruda, and Khuba D’La Mithpakham is one of these manifestations. But I also write in a more direct and straight to the point style, although I am careful not to undermine the poetic value of my work, such as: “Ama La Mtaksa”, “Khokhtha D’Ganawe” and “ ‘Pata’e Khmare”, and these could be traced to the influence of other poets, like Mdhafar Nawab for example, or even Mar. Narsai and Rabi Benyamin Arsanis for that matter.

I think the idea or more precisely the intended message of the poem determines the style of the poem. And if the writer is successful in saying something new, something important and something creative, I think it will stimulate the reader regardless of its style of expression.”

Upon reading some of Nineb’s works, the attentive reader is left in no doubt that his allegorical writings, his insatiable passion for the Assyrian language, and his incessant love for his people, all combine to make reading his works enjoyable, thought-provoking, and just as importantly, in my personal opinion, teeming with an abundance of accurate Assyrian words and phrases.