Hippies in Afghanistan

In 1919 the Third Anglo-Afghan war broke out between Great Britain and Afghanistan. The English feared that the Russians were going to take over power in Afghanistan but there wasn’t much they could do. They were tired of fighting after World War I (1914-1918).

That same year a truce was called. Amanullah Khan declared himself king of Afghanistan and signed a peace treaty with England on the 19^th of August 1919: his country was now officially independent. Ridder Dijkshoorn learned about the war from a close source of the soldiers who fought in it. Descendants of the Afghan warriors told him all about it in the nineteen sixties when Ridder took a hippy journey to the Middle East.

Afghan chess set, ca. 1970

Ridder: “The Chessmen Museum has a chess set on display that was made in Afghanistan. The game is made of marble and the pieces can be put away in a metal case that is beautifully decorated with little stone tiles that make up the board of the game. To be honest, I don’t remember how I got this game. Maybe it was brought back by one of the soldiers that were stationed in Kunduz? Or maybe it was an Afghan refugee, fleeing from the Taliban? Or maybe I bought it in one of the charity shops in Holland that sell products from developing countries? What’s clear is that I didn’t buy it on my trip to Afghanistan in the sixties. This incredible journey was part of the Hippy Trail to India. The Afghan chess game would have been too big and heavy to take it along with me in my backpack.”

Modernization and historic tales
“Afghanistan was still a monarchy in those days. Rumor had it that the king was afraid to leave his palace because the real ruler of the country was his cousin, the prime minister of the country. The cousin tried to modernize Afghanistan, by promoting western clothing and education for women. This didn’t really show through in day to day life: clothing was mostly standard Islamic style. The men wore trousers with a low drop crotch and the women wore chadors, with a little grill that made it possible for them to look where they were going. The Afghans are a proud mountain people, which is illustrated by the fact that the wealthier men wore old-fashioned but beautifully decorated musket rifles over their shoulder when they were out on the streets. Army officers and policemen looked a bit shabby in comparison; they usually didn’t possess more than one piece of the official uniform. They would wear the trousers, or the jacket, or the hat, but never the whole outfit at a time.”

“I heard stories about how this army, by the time the nineteenth century ended, had expelled the English up to three times from their country. The English were afraid that the Russians would invade India via Afghanistan. During the first war a bloody battle took place in the Khyber Pass, the only road between Kabul (Afghanistan) and Peshawar (Pakistan). When I crossed this very narrow pass by bus, I could imagine how the English soldiers did not stand a chance against the Afghans that had ambushed them there.”

The US also fear the Russians
“Being sandwiched in between two countries that had a lot of power was exactly what made it possible for Afghanistan to remain independent. As did the mountainous structure of the country, which made it just as impossible to occupy as it did Switzerland. When I was travelling around Afghanistan, the English had long gone and the Afghans gratefully took advantage of the Cold War between Russia and the US. This time around, there were no armed battles; the weapon of choice was money for developing countries. Afghanistan was given a brand new asphalt road that connected the three main cities of the country: Herat in the west, Kandahar in the south and Kabul in the east. I still remember the journey through the mountainous area between Herat and Kandahar: the driver of the beautifully painted bus saved on gas money. When descending, he would put the transmission in neutral position and drive down the mountain with a terrifying speed. Ever since I have practiced a ‘consciously fatalistic’ attitude when I go travelling.”

“I enjoyed Afghanistan very much. Its people treated the ‘strangers from the west’ so friendly. Their businesses also benefited from the Hippy Trail: there were little sewing workshops everywhere that manufactured the famous Afghan coats. They were lined with sheep fur on the inside and had marvelous embroidery of flowers and such on the outside. A friend of mine decided to return to Holland immediately and rent a Volkswagen van, which he drove over to Afghanistan. He went back to the Netherlands with the van fully loaded with Afghan coats that allowed him to establish a successful clothes shop. I myself took some more time to travel back home and visited Iran, still Persia then. The Shah still ruled back then and he showed off his power by constructing public gardens at the entryways of every village or town. These parks all had a fountain and a big statue of the Shah.”

Englishmen, Russians, Americans…
“A lot has changed since then. I finished my academic studies and worked in the Netherlands. The Shah was banned from Persia and in Afghanistan the Russians came to the aid of the king’s cousin to help him modernize the country. In the end this lead to the occupation of Afghanistan, which allowed women to return to school and also they didn’t have to hide themselves in chadors anymore. These changes provoked a reaction from the Islamic resistance and the US were unwise enough to provide the Afghan warlords with weapons. The Afghans could now expel the Russians from their country themselves… Currently these same weapons are being used to drive American soldiers and their War on terror out of Afghanistan. Their search for Osama bin Laden finally led the Americans to Pakistan, where he was hiding out. Fortunately it seems that Barack Obama has come to his senses and realizes that it is not a good idea to send guns to revolutionaries. Especially not to those located in the unstable region of the Middle East, where dormant differences between Shiite and Sunnite Muslims have existed for centuries and have now caused a violent battle between the two groups. How will it end? Only God/Allah knows.”

By Ridder Dijkshoorn