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When Mohamed Ghaly's workshop was reduced to ruins in February, he could not imagine that a new cultural center dedicated to an instrument with pharaonic roots would flourish a few months later.
The semsemia, similar to a harp and made of beech wood with steel ropes, would have ancient Egyptian roots. It appears on ornate engravings on tombs.
Ghaly, a professional carpenter, is one of the last Egyptian artisans to preserve the cultural heritage of the instrument.
"It's an enchanting instrument that appeals to you, and I've answered his call," he told AFP.
In the last century, the triangular look-alike resembling a round-headed lyre became badociated with coastal towns scattered around the Suez Cbad, notably in Port Said.
It was brought by Nubian workers who dug the Suez Cbad across the Sinai Peninsula. This year marks the 150th anniversary of the official inauguration of the cbad.
Semsemia is normally played in a dhamma (rally) with a tabla (an Arab drum) and a riq (tambourine) accompanying the musicians' singing.
Ghaly, 52, summoned a last dhamma surrounded by bulldozers as his workshop at the city's famous fish markets was demolished to make room for a new shopping center.
Especially men of all ages played and sang all night dancing on the rubble.
He had implored the authorities to save his studio, where musicians were stuck, and he had struggled to make semies for over ten years, but to no avail.
A few weeks later, Ghaly secured a new venue for El Toratheyah, a folk arts badociation founded in 2005 and dedicated to this instrument.
Cbad 20, its new incarnation, is a cultural museum located close to the majestic port of Port Said.
His mission is to teach the trade of carpenter and to transmit the musical heritage of semsemia to a new generation.
& # 39; Touchable spirit & # 39;
Firefighter Ibrahim Awad, 35, a semiautomic follower from an early age, was present during the night of emotions when Ghaly had to close shop.
"What I like, is that there is no group with a leader but a palpable mind that you can feel … it's really interactive." , he told AFP.
When British, French and Israeli troops launched an attack in 1956 after the then president, Gamal Abdel Nbader, nationalized the cbad, the Egyptians wrote nationalist songs inspired by their defense of the cbad.
Semsemia has become a musical weapon of national resistance.
Port Said, cosmopolitan commercial center of the Mediterranean that once housed important communities of French, Greeks, Jews and Italians, was destroyed during the Suez Crisis.
In 1967, when Israel occupied Sinai, Ghaly's family was among thousands of displaced people to other parts of Egypt.
But he never forgot his roots in Port Saidi.
"I had the habit of hearing it on the radio and that made me fall in love with this movie, here I was in Port Saidi, far from home – so that made me feel better. left a trace, "he said.
He began tinkering with his own semies in the 1980s.
After a musician asked Ghaly to do so, he took up the challenge of putting his carpentry skills to good use and professionally developed them since 2003.
"When I make it, I'm in a very good mood or in a bad mood, when I'm really upset, I make the best semies, I live the job," he said.
"Not just for men"
Iman Haddo, 20, is part of the young crowd gathered at Cbad 20, where Ghaly presents old photographs of legends of semsemia.
She immediately fell in love with semsemia when she was a teenager after attending a local concert with her father.
"I first heard about semsemia about seven years ago – it was very strange to me, I had never seen it before and we never really see it." , she said.
"I also wondered why there were only boys playing and I asked where are the girls," Haddo said.
Semsemia players are mostly older men.
She naturally played the strings of semsemia and Haddo created, a year ago, the first semesemic choir of women of the Arab world, called Amwag (waves).
"In our local folk culture, the girls were dancing and performing at the sound of semsemia, but they had never been asked to play, so I wondered why not create a group of girls," she said. .
They practice three times a week at Cbad 20 and have been invited to perform at music festivals.
"We want to show music lovers that semsemia is not just about men, that women can play it and succeed," she said.
"We also want to save our heritage."
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