My original story in January 2022 on Mo’min Swaitat, a Palestinian actor and film-maker living in London, originally from the occupied West Bank city of Jenin, described how he was stranded there when the pandemic began. It was during that time that he found himself drawn to a closed-down music shop he remembered from childhood. The former owner let him while away the lockdown days searching through the archive of tape cassettes on the second floor.
Swaitat uncovered thousands of hours of long-forgotten music that animated Palestinian life during the 1980s, when the first Palestinian uprising broke out. Synth, funk, disco, Bedouin and revolutionary tracks inspired by the intifada were among the treasure trove.
When restrictions eased, Swaitat bought thousands of the tapes and brought five suitcases of them back to London, making it his mission to digitise and rerelease this window into the past. Funding from Jerwood Arts allowed him to start the Majazz Project, a new archival Palestinian label, and the Palestinian Sound Archive, an online database dedicated to restoring Palestinian musical heritage. The story, A Journey Through the Past, went viral, sparking dozens of follow-up pieces and a documentary which will be released next year.
“The exposure we got from the Guardian story was amazing. I have been so surprised and touched by the reception from audiences, particularly Palestinians in the diaspora who were not really exposed to this stuff before and are interested to know and hear more,” Swaitat said. Majazz has now rereleased seven albums and is working on another five. The latest is by Al Fajer, or the Dawn, a Palestinian band formed in Kuwait in the 1980s who became known for their transparent style and the use of acoustic oud, guitar and percussion in patriotic and liberation songs, and the unusual presence of a female band member.
The Palestinian Sound Archive is not finished yet: Swaitat estimates it will take another three years to go through all the material rescued from Jenin. He plans to work with young musicians and poets exploring the database, and is now applying for a PhD at the National Archives in London, which he hopes will help him expand his research with access to documentary and visual evidence dating back to British control of the region in the first half of the 20th century. “I never thought my life would go in this direction,” he said. “The lockdown stopped all my playwright and acting work, but opened this door to the past and the future.”
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