São Paulo – The Federal University of the State of Pará (UFPA) in Brazil is working on establishing a Chair of Arab Studies (CEÁrabes). The object is to encourage students and the general population to study Arab-related subjects and enable cultural and scientific exchange with universities in the Middle East and North Africa.
“This year we were visited by the Palestinian ambassador [in Brasília, Ibrahim Alzeben] and the idea came up of having an exchange and cooperation project [with Arab universities], so we decided to create a chair for Arab studies,” explains Morocco’s Mounsif Said, the director of the UFPA’s Faculty of Naval Engineering and coordinator of the new Chair project.
Said hopes the chair will be in place by the second half of this year. “It is an academic project involving the community. We are looking to connect with Arab clubs and associations in the city [in Belém], so that people engage in the project actively,” the professor says.
The Chair’s activities will include an Arabic course; a library and a media library with books and audio/video material in Portuguese and Arabic; cultural events, such as exhibitions; and scientific events, among other actions.
“We are aware that the literature available on Arab culture written in Portuguese is scarce. We also intend to have weeks focusing on Arab culture-related themes in Belém,” Said asserts.
For Said, however, one of the most important parts of the project is cooperation with foreign universities. “The purpose of the Chair is to enable exchange projects with Arab countries,” the professor notes. According to Said, the UFPA is already discussing partnerships with one Palestinian and one Saudi university.
The first activity will be the Arabic course, which is already being structured out within the university. The course will have four modules and up to 80 students per semester.
Classes will be open to UFPA students and professors and to the general public. Said, who also chairs the Islamic Culture Center in Pará, will be one of the teachers, alongside Syrian, Egyptian and Tunisian colleagues.
Arabs in the Amazon
The Chair will also focus on the presence of Arabs in the Amazonian region. José Cauby, a UFPA Social Sciences professor and the co-founder of the Chair, explains that the late 19th century witnessed a strong influx of Arabs to the region.
“In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the primary destination of Syrian-Lebanese immigrants was the Amazon, because of rubber production. At that time, wealth in Brazil was associated with this region. During that time, over half the [Arab] immigrants who came to [Brazil] came to the Amazon,” he says.
According to Cauby, there are still large numbers of Arabs and Arab descendants in capital cities in the region. “There are approximately 200,000 Arab descendants in Pará, and at least half of them are in Belém. Next come Manaus, Macapá, and Rio Branco,” he says.
The professor points out that apart from the capitals, immigrants also settled in the countryside. “Perhaps [Arab immigrants] scattered across a larger area in the Amazon than they did in São Paulo, because of trade activity. When they [the Arabs] would arrive, they would spread to small and medium cities in the inland by boat,” he explains.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
