I Am the Beggar of the World: Landays from Contemporary Afghanistan
*Starred Review* In The Tenth Parallel (2010), Griswold offered keen geopolitical insight by cataloging ongoing religious strife in contentious locales, including Indonesia, Nigeria, and Sudan. Here, the globetrotting Griswold recruits renowned photographer Seamus Murphy to provide the visuals, and turns her attention to Afghanistan in order to record a collection of landays, Afghani folk poems, typically sung by women in private. With the help of local guides and Pashto translators, Griswold convinces women to share couplets that touch on a wide range of emotions and themes, from love and grief to separation and war. Because the lyrics remain anonymous over generations, Afghan women use them to express freely their desires and frustrations, yet still risk violating Taliban strictures against song and dance. From heartbreaking indictments of fathers who sell their daughters into slavery to humorous, techno-savvy posts on a Pashto Landay Facebook page, Griswold’s selections illustrate the rich potential of this poetic form, at once contemporary and timeless. Murphy’s stunning photographs complement the text perfectly, capturing children at play in refugee camps outside Kabul, smiling U.S. soldiers pointing squirt guns, and armed militants marching through the mountains. A timely, indispensable, and unforgettable poetic documentary. --Diego Báez