"If Only We Were Like Ants" is a Syrian narrative told through children torn apart by war

"These children could have gathered in one classroom to talk about their dreams and aspirations, but bullets, shelling, and death made this meeting possible only on the pages of this book."

With these words, al-Kheder Al-Khalifa introduces his new narrative book, "If Only We Were Like Ants - Children Scattered by the Bullets of Battle and Brought Together by a Book." In it, he relays the diverse stories of ten children from villages in northern Syria who have experienced the tragedies of loss, displacement, and submission to harsh conditions imposed by various military and political forces, leaving them no room for choice and without any responsibility for their families' decisions.

Al-Kheder told Zaman Al-Wasl that the idea for his book stemmed from a story he told of a child, Thamer, who lived in a village controlled by multiple factions. He entered the village in a car that didn't bear any flag of any faction or group. He met the child selling diesel and was terrified of the car. That's when, he says, a story came to mind about how children see us, especially in areas of displacement.

Al-Kheder noted that he was unable to visit all of Syria's regions because he was banned from doing so to gather material for his book. He tried to be fair and impartially convey what these children witnessed between 2011 and 2020, even if he didn't agree with their views. He conveyed them because children in these environments believe in them. An Imaginary Classroom

Al-Kheder, as he says, based his book on the idea of ​​an imaginary classroom for Syrian children. An event occurs, forcing them to disperse and flee, each with their family. The classroom remains empty. Like a village tourist, he began touring Syrian villages and displacement camps, gathering these children in an "imaginary, forced" way to return them to their classrooms. There, they talked about the dreams they had that night, the food they ate, and their plans for their supposed summer trip: where they would go, their future ambitions, and their relationship with their country. But the raining bullets, the schools bombed by airstrikes, the schools transformed into prisons and military headquarters, and the political and religious views of their parents prevented these children from actually meeting in one classroom.

The book began with the idea that in order for justice to be achieved, we must listen to each other carefully. Throughout the book, each child begins to narrate what they saw and how the other sees and sees the country. Al-Kheder hinted that among his child heroes were a girl trapped in Kafriya and al-Fu'ah, and another He was trapped in Douma, and a third died as a result of the earthquake that struck Syria and Turkey in February 2023. Some of them had fathers with ISIS, others with Hezbollah militias or with the Syrian Democratic Forces. There was also a child whose leg was amputated as a result of a COD missile, and how he lived and adapted to his disability.

And there is "Karim," the child of the tunnels and the parallel world, who died as a result of the earthquake that struck his town of Jandaris in February 2023. Although he died, he was not buried. Rather, his spirit lives on, roaming other places and worlds, seeing others like him who were not buried, like the missing.

If Only We Were Like Ants

Regarding the connotations and symbolism of the title of his book, "If Only We Were Like Ants," Al-Kheder explained that the title was inspired by a word from one of his child heroes, "Obeid," a dark-skinned man from the Jabal Badro neighborhood east of Aleppo. He was injured by a Scud missile in 2013, and while watering his amputated leg, he believed it would grow back. He made himself a crutch from an olive tree. His aunt also bullied him for his dark skin. When he saw ants living in harmony and adapting, he wished that we, as Syrians, could all be like ants, so that there would be no discrimination between the components of Syrian society, nor racism or class differences within it.

Regarding his message in writing this book, the author indicated that he wanted to emphasize that the battles of adults grind down children who are not to blame. In the midst of war, everyone believed they were the guardian and defender of the truth, but the world of children is different, and they have eyes that see with impartiality what other adults cannot.

Al-Kheder is a Syrian photographer and writer who travels Syrian villages, collecting and rewriting the stories of witnesses. He holds a bachelor's degree in psychology and a master's degree in urban marketing. He won the Lebanese Samir Kassir Award for Journalism in the opinion article category in 2017 and the Fetisov Journalism Award for Journalism in 2021.

By Fares Al-Rifai