In Conversation with Mohammed Moussa
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Hello and welcome to this interview here with Mohamed Moussa, Palestinian poet from Gaza. I'm Kevin Williamson, I work at the Scottish Poetry Library and I'd just like to welcome Mo to discuss his work, his poetry and the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Before we start, Mo, tell us a little bit about growing up in Gaza, what it was like.
What was it like growing up in Gaza for Mohammed Moussa?
Thank you for having me here at the Scottish Poetry Library for the second time. First of all, growing up in Gaza is actually interesting because from a very young age you are exposed to so many different realities and your memory as a child or your memory as a grown-up man right now is always connected or linked to so many beautiful and ugly things like the wars, the continuous wars that you live as a child and you recall the first time, for example, you saw a tank, a soldier, the first time the war happened And as a grown-up man also it's difficult because the childhood place that you planted and nurtured is no longer there. The faces that you grew up with, some of them are no longer there. But there were so many beautiful things to recall.
Your love for the sea, for example, and how your soul as a Gazan is connected to what the sea is. I remember being a child and walking to the sea early in the morning with my friends. whom half of them has been killed in this genocide and enjoy the sea in the early days of summer and I remember also so many beautiful things about the food the taste of the food in Palestine and in Gaza we cook the best food and the smell of there are certain herbs that remind us what home really is So the relationship you built with Gaza from a very young age is really beautiful and it's really unique. Somehow the place you grew up in or built your memories in shape who you are. So you look like the place you grew up in most of the time as you look in the mirror and see the features of the place you grew up in and who you are.
What sort of things did your family do work-wise?
My father worked with the Red Cross. My mother was a housewife. And he was a lovely man.
How did Mohammed's family influence his upbringing?
He speaks three languages. He speaks Hebrew, speaks Arabic for sure, and speaks English. And there were times he was working with the Red Cross and translating from Arabic into English to the Palestinian prisoners inside the occupied territories. And he spent half of his life working with the Red Cross. And he's a hard-working man, you know, and a lovely man, you know, very sociable. And my mother, the same, too. You know, she is a wonderful woman. my brothers and sisters. We were a small family and compared to families in Gaza, we are a very small family. They enjoy their time with their grandkids. And yeah, they were a simple family as everybody else in Gaza. And I remember my mother and I remember my father.
how all they care about is to build for their kids, invested in the house they built all their lives for their children, you know. But the house is no longer there. My family is no longer there. So it is strange, you know, how no matter who you are as a cousin or what you dream of or what you work for will be taken from you if it is a place, if it is a family.
Does your sense of roots in Gaza, do you feel this has been damaged in your memory? Or is your memory still very strong of all the places and the streets, the beach, the people round about you?
I feel like my memory has been threatened in this genocide. Because the places I recall in my mind, in my head, they exist. The people who I miss, they exist in me, right? And the places too. But if I want to go back to that person, to that place, it's no longer So there is something incomplete, there is something missing in your relationship with memory and it is hard to fathom sometimes because it leaves a void inside of who you are and you need to carry that void with you wherever you go. It's really difficult to fill that void, I think. The void of absence and the void of memory.
And this is something almost unutterable that an entire people are going through.
What role does education play for Palestinians in Gaza?
Most of the cousins have family members that are no longer there and people that they cherish and love are no longer there.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:16–0:39
2
What was it like growing up in Gaza for Mohammed Moussa?
0:39–3:23
3
How did Mohammed's family influence his upbringing?
3:23–6:26
4
What role does education play for Palestinians in Gaza?
6:26–8:21
5
How does isolation impact the creativity of Gazan poets?
8:21–10:30
6
What led Mohammed Moussa to pursue journalism?
10:30–15:19
7
What is the significance of the Gaza Poets Society?
15:19–20:12
8
How has the act of writing poetry changed for Mohammed during the genocide?
20:12–43:49