Constructions of Masculinity in the Middle East and North Africa by Mohja Kahf;Nadine Sinno;

Constructions of Masculinity in the Middle East and North Africa by Mohja Kahf;Nadine Sinno;

Author:Mohja Kahf;Nadine Sinno;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lightning Source Inc. (Tier 3)
Published: 2021-11-15T00:00:00+00:00


Virtuous Virility: seu Nacib as the ‘Civilized Man’ in Bahia

Unlike his peddling counterpart who is forced to settle down as a store owner in the U.S., seu Nacib makes his appearance in Jorge Amado’s novel as the already established proprietor of a small bar named Vesúvio in the Bahian town of Ilhéus. His father, Aziz Saad, had been a peddler, and made the necessary bribes to a local official to naturalize his son when he arrived as a toddler from Ottoman-governed Syria. In the many years that have since passed, Nacib recalls not even distant memories of his Syrian home-land. Acquaintances and best friends nonetheless call him turco (Turk), but more as an “expression of caring, of intimacy,” Amado qualifies (Amado, Gabriela, 61). Indeed, Amado notes in a later novel that the unflattering label of ‘Turk’ is used “without the intention to offend” because it is “part of the squabble, of the bargaining, of the pleasure of buying and selling” (Amado, Tocaia Grande, 39–40). Nonetheless, Nacib takes offense at the label and retorts, “Brasileiro” (Brazilian) . . . “filho de sírios, graças a Deus” (son of Syrians, thank God). To a degree of contrast with Ali Hakim’s foreign status, seu Nacib’s naturalization and national self-declaration introduces Middle Eastern difference within the Brazilian nationalist narrative.

In his younger days, Nacib worked alongside his father and uncle in what presumably was the family-owned textile shop, “measuring cloth” (Amado, Gabriela, 73). After the death of his father, Nacib grew impatient with his lazy uncle and sold his own share of the business. Using the profits to buy and sell cacao with volatile price fluctuations, Nacib equally tired of the wheeling and dealing. He eventually acquires the Vesúvio bar, some blocks away from the town’s main commercial thoroughfare. Nacib attracts an increasing number of patrons with his easygoing demeanor and intriguing stories from “Syria, the land of my father.” What also helps business, Amado notes, is watering down drinks and slightly inflating the monthly bar tabs of certain customers (Amado, Gabriela, 163). Though portrayed as an honest bar owner, seu Nacib exercises the shrewd bargaining sense imputed to so-called turcos as well.

Unlike Ali Hakim, who caters to female clients in the U.S., seu Nacib serves men who are thirsty for shots of cachaça (sugarcane rum), hungry for salgadinhos (finger foods) made by the cook Filomena, and who gamble at poker and darts. In this hypermasculine space, gossip about marital infidelity and sexual acts proves even more satisfying and entertaining than bar drinks and foods. Attracting much interest are stories of coronéis (political bosses) who massacre adulterous wives along with their lovers and, as a rule, are absolved by local officials. Upon hearing a very brutal tale, Nacib voices his own shock as orientalist hyperbole: “na Síria, terra de meus pais, era ainda mais terrível” (in Syria, land of my parents, it was even more terrible). If found to be unfaithful in Syria, Nacib explained, the wife was cut into little pieces and her lover, castrated. Brazilian men who condone local misogyny are horrified by such “strange customs.



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