Preserving Afghanistan's heritage becomes life-long mission for US woman

• Report rights infringement
• published: 03 Aug 2015
• views: 27

Walking the corridors of Kabul University, Nancy Hatch Dupree cuts an authoritative figure. Much of her own collection - tens of thousands of books, maps, photographs and writings, gathered while she travelled the country for decades with fellow American and husband, archaeologist Louis Dupree, are stored here in the university's Afghanistan Centre. It provides a rare journey through the country's past. The collection includes copies of a glossy monthly magazine, called "The Islamic Emirate," published in English by the Taliban during its 1996-2001 rule. "That is where you can find out what Mullah Omar (Taliban's supreme leader) said and such and such day about such and such topic, that is full of information for researchers," says Dupree. There are newspapers dating back to the 1920s and books so rare that Dupree has the only known copies, as well as thousands of slides taken by Louis during his work on archaeological digs. Dupree sees cultural heritage not as a luxury of peaceful countries, but an essential element to knitting troubled ones back together. But Afghans can perhaps be forgiven for neglecting their history. The decade-long Soviet intervention in the 1980s was followed by a brutal civil war that ended with the rise of the Taliban, Islamic extremists who sought to obliterate the country's pre-Islamic past. They dynamited the towering Buddhas of Bamiyan - which Dupree in her travels has visited and documented - shortly before the September 11 attacks and the US - led invasion. But Dupree is determined to preserve the country's past so Afghanis can be proud of their heritage. Tens of thousands of documents are stored in the collection, which is used by researchers and students at the University. But Dupree says it's time to digitise much of the collection - some now so old the paper is brown and withered. "The purpose is, is to give them documents and books, they will teach them about their history and teach them about the various situations and agriculture and health, all of these things, as they go out and they become leaders, they should know that there are sources where they can help get the information, that will help them to write their strategy plans. They don't need to just take it out of the air some place," she explains. Dupree fell in love with Afghanistan on her first visit in 1962, living in the country for the next twelve years. But she was forced to leave in 1978 when her husband was accused of being a spy. The couple continued their efforts, often from abroad, during the tumultuous decades that followed, until Dupree returned in 1992 after the death of her husband Louis. Since then she's divided her time between Afghanistan and North Carolina, but can't bear to be away for too long. "My message to them (Afghan students) is to learn about your history so you know what it is to be an Afghan, to be proud of being an Afghan and don't try going out to some other country, stay here and help develop it," says Dupree. Afghans regard Dupree as one of their own, with some even calling her "grandmother of the nation." President Ashraf Ghani found room at the university when he was chancellor in 2005 to store the tens of thousands of documents in the Dupree collection, and former President Hamid Karzai found the funds to build the centre. At 87, Dupree shows no signs of slowing down - and still head-up the Afghanistan Centre. The Afghanistan Center's motto, "Nation Building through Information Sharing" sums up Dupree's personal mission to spread literacy to the vast majority of the population who can neither read nor write. Dupree sees it as part of her continued mission of valuing the past, while welcoming the new. You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/ec6111dee01f6a02aa0f238b70c15967 Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork