10 - 16 January 2002
Issue No.568
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 10 - 16 January 2002 Issue No.568 |
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Freeing the imagination
Rania Khallaf looks for the perfect children's magazine
It was a sunny winter morning -- a perfect day for a family outing at the 18th International Children's Book Fair. The Exhibitions Compound in Nasr City, where the fair is being held from 3 to 11 January was bubbling with parents and their children, but not all were satisfied with what was on offer.
From top: discerning young readers at the Exhibit (photo: Khaled El-Fiqi); the cover of Alaaeddin; the cover of Al-Arabi Al-Saghir; Egypt's first children magazine Al-Samir Al-Saghir published in 1894; the first Arabic picture book published by Dar Al-Maaref in 1912; the cover of the children's writers magazine Waw
A mother and her children were on their way out of the compound, and I noticed they were leaving empty- handed. "I couldn't buy any books or magazines for my kids," she told me. "The prices are too high." Tugging her children with her, she shouted, "The government should do something about this!"
Inside the exhibition halls, mothers with babies on their shoulders were struggling through the crowded corridors. Mona Gamal and her five- year-old daughter Sara were taking a break before continuing their tour of the exhibition. "There is a conspicuous lack of magazines for young children like my daughter," Gamal said, noting that it is important to read her daughter a story before she sleeps. "You cannot depend on books every night," she added.
"I used to buy Alaaeddin magazine, but I don't like to read it because the printed letters are so small," squealed nine-year-old Injy Ahmed over the din. "The letters in the magazine are smaller than those in my schoolbooks, so I had to ask my mum to read the magazine for me," she added. Those who think children are not discerning when it came to reading material, should do a tour of the fair. Injy told me that she would prefer a magazine that "discusses special girl's issues."
At the Dar Al-Helal publishing house booth, a big banner on the wall announced proudly: "Dar Al- Helal, established in 1892." But the shelves were devoid of a single national children's magazine -- only the pervasive Mickey and Samir comic books, both translated from foreign originals, were available. Dar Al-Helal's distribution administrator, Saeed Soliman, told Al- Ahram Weekly that the weekly distribution of the two magazines has amounted to 150,000 copies per week, a phenomenally high figure when compared to national counterparts like Al-Ahram's Alaaeddin.
In her inaugural speech at the book fair, Mrs Suzanne Mubarak underlined the need to re-evaluate the children's magazines available, saying that she had commissioned the Egyptian Council for Children's Books to start planning a new children's magazine. "Our next challenge is to work together to improve children's magazines," she told an audience of specialists and dignitaries. "Seminars should be held to discuss ways of improving the existing [magazines]."
Renown cartoonist Mohieddin El- Labbad suggests that what counts is the ability to stir children's imagination. Because periodicals appear weekly or monthly, he said, they are naturally more influential than books and various sections provide a wide range of fresh information. Five children's magazines are currently published in Egypt: Alaaeddin (published by the Al-Ahram organisation), Bolbol, Samir, Mickey (published by Dar Al-Helal) and Qatr Al-Nada, a small magazine published by the Ministry of Culture.
"The number is reasonable," insists El-Labbad. "What matters is the quality. The problem here is that all children's magazines are similar, to the extent that you can hardly distinguish one from another." El- Labbad thinks the time has come for a powerful, pan-Arab children's publication. He notes that by the year 2025, it is projected that there will be some 127 million Arab children. It seems unlikely that this audience will be satiated by the small number of Arab children's publications on offer.
The first Egyptian children's magazine, Al-Samir Al-Saghir, was published in 1893, ushering in the "boom years" for children's magazines. The 1940 witnessed the proliferation of a considerable number of children's magazines, such as Al- Katkut, sponsored by prominent feminist Durriya Shafiq, and Bulbul, edited by political activist Iglal Hafez. The next landmark, however, came in January 1952, when Dar Al- Maaref released Al-Sinbad. "It was an ideal magazine, preserving a unique Egyptian identity," recalls El- Labbad, one of the key founders of the magazine. The great painter Hussein Bikar was the magazine's main cartoonist and the publication's influence went beyond Egypt's borders into the Arab world.
In 1955 Samir -- based on French and Belgian comic books like Spirou and Tin-Tin -- was released, its pages full of thieves, gangsters and killers. In 1964, El-Labbad, along with the well-known theatrical writer No'man Ashour, co-edited a magazine called Al-Karawan. Published by Al-Gumhuriya and sold to its readers as "one hundred per cent Egyptian," El-Labbad says the aim of the magazine was to counter Western magazines and superheroes like Tin Tin and Batman while still emulating the Western comic strip style. "The aim of this magazine was to preserve the Egyptian identity," recounts El-Labbad. "Inside, you found poems by [poets] Saeed Hejab and Abdel-Rahman El-Abnoudi, written especially for children."
With the expansion of the middle class in the 1960s and early 1970s, the market in children's literature expanded. El-Labbad saw the chance to found another children's magazine. The monthly Al-Arabi Al-Saghir came out in the early 1980s, published in Egypt by Kuwait. "When I was assigned to lay out the zero issue of the magazine, I thought it should reflect the wealth of ideas in the Arab world," said El-Labbad, noting that there was soon a parting of minds on the content. "The stories and materials I selected at that time reflected Arab traditions. Now the magazine is full of rabbits and fluffy characters." When the publishers refused to abide by his editorial policy, El-Labbad quit the magazine.
But Saeed El-Kafrawi, director of Al-Arabi Al-Saghir's office told the Weekly that the magazine is still committed to Egyptian and Arab issues. "We are keen to convey a message, an authentic message, about Arab identity, through portraying the lives of national leaders like Gamal Abdel-Nasser and the symbols of Arab and Islamic civilisation."
But kids do not seem very impressed either way and the niche for a more entertaining children's magazine remains open. Eight years ago, Al-Ahram decided to step into the market with the weekly Alaaeddin. Clasping a few copies in her small hands, 11-year-old Awadallah confided that he prefers Alaaeddin to Mickey, "because it has real heroes, not just rabbits, rats and cats."
Egyptian novelist Sona'alla Ibrahim, who has written a number of children books, has nonetheless criticised Alaaeddin as "repetitive and a mere reproduction of old articles." He notes that the graphic design has "no distinguishing character" and that "the link between the material and the graphics is missing." This also applies to Al-Arabi Al-Saghir, which Ibrahim dismisses as "an accumulation of unrelated material and comic strips."
Distribution seems to be a key problem in the world of children's magazine publishing, and as with any publication, this is tied to a lack of advertising. For example, the distribution of Al-Arabi Al-Saghir throughout the Arab world does not exceed 50,000 -- a number that El- Kafrawi admits "relatively low" -- but the price is only LE1.
Engineer Ayman Khairi, a parent who accompanied his two young daughters to the book fair offered his theory on why children's magazines are not properly distributed: "The comic strips in children's magazines actually address pre-school children. When children get a little older and can read on their own, they find the stories very naive."
"Advertisers are not convinced that children are the decision-makers when it comes to certain valuable goods," El-Labbad notes. Abroad, all manner of private and public institutions, from political, to commercial to religious organisations, support the publishing of children's magazines -- a trend badly needed in the Arab world, El-Labbad said.
In the age of computer games and the Internet, magazines should reflect the spirit of the times in order to attract more readers, says Abul-Ma'ati Abul-Naga, editor of Al-Arabi Al- Saghir. With the swift development of the IT sector in the developed world, a number of online children's magazines are now providing quality content for children on the Web. The examples are various: Potluck, a children's literary magazine and Girls Life are some examples. The Singapore-based Heritage Kids is targeted at kids from 7 to 12 years old, while National Geographic World has an online version for kids.
Arab and Egyptian magazines lack the reader age classifications. "Defining the age of the target reader is very important," argues El-Labbad. "There should be a magazine for pre- school children that is different than the one targeting primary school children. The same goes for older children."
Ezzat El-Saadani, editor-in-chief of Alaaeddin, explained to the Weekly that the magazine is tailored for children aged nine to 13. "Theoretically speaking, I am totally behind the idea of classifying children's magazines by age," said El-Saadani. But the Egyptian market cannot withstand this kind of classification, El-Saadani said, arguing that a magazine targeting young children simply would not sell.
"Before we head for the future, we have to ask ourselves, who are our target readers? Who are we? Which way should we take?" says El- Kafrawi, who also singles out the necessity of defining the philosophy of the publication and criterion for its evaluation. "We are planning to publish on a bi-monthly base, and to develop the content of the magazine" he added. "All Arab magazines, including ours, need some radical changes in order to liberate the minds of our children from traditional ways of thinking," he concluded frankly.
The silly chicken: when I was eight years old, there was one amazing children's magazine being published. On the night before it came out, we wouldn't be able to sleep, just wishing that morning would come ... and when it finally came we -- the children -- would wake up earlier than usual.
My sister would wait on the balcony watching for when I would return carrying breakfast, my father's paper and that amazing magazine. She would keep asking me what was in the new issue until I read to her everything aloud. I remember that one day there was a story entitled "The Silly Chicken." I liked that title a lot, and even before I read it my mind was filled with ways to draw that chicken.
I try to remember them now to draw them for you, but I find that the chicken I draw today is different from that of my childhood --- thinner and with a longer neck. And you: do you also await stories like "The Silly Chicken" in your magazines and books?
-- Mohieddin El-Labbad
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