John Berger and everyday acts of Sumūd

John Berger documented the creativity and resilience of Palestinian communities over several years, considering it a ‘paradigm’ of how communities everywhere struggle for justice in their daily lives. Juman Simaan explores how a culture resists the forces of colonialism and the role writers and witnesses play. 'I hoped that my presence among the farmers as they harvested olives and planted trees, and telling their stories, was an act of solidarity and resistance'.

1.From After the Last Sky: Palestinian lives, (1999, p. 113). This book was a collaboration between Edward Said, a Palestinian American scholar, and Jean Mohr, a Swiss Photographer who also co-authored with John Berger two works: A Fortunate Man (1967) and A Seventh Man (1975). Like those books, After the Last Sky combines textual reflections and photographs that highlight daily experiences, and the resilience and resistance of marginalised communities.

2 Later published under the title ‘Fellow Prisoners’ in 2011