A COINCIDENCE IN THE ARABIAN DESERT

Where do you start telling a bizarre story? Probably right at the start, not so? Now I will ask you where is the start of such a story? The setting for this story is in the Arabic desert in Dubai. Shall I then start with the beginning of the Arabian desert? Maybe I shall start telling you about that court case about Islam that I read 30 years ago? Well, let me just start somewhere.

My wife Annemarié Coertse and our son Niel with

Daniel Brawn in the Arabian Desert

Our son Niel practises in Dubai as a lawyer for the last 10 months. Annemarié and I visited him middle April 2016. Prior to us going, I asked him to arrange visits to the houses of parliament, the Highest Court in Dubai and another place or two. That request met with some resistance from his side with the strong retort: “Dad, you shouldn’t pluck out your camera and start shooting. It is not South Africa.”

I decided to keep a low profile and not to arrange anything and left all arrangements in his hands. That was the better part of wisdom. When we arrived there he had everything planned to perfection. He arranged a dune bashing trip with his colleague Daniel Brawn. 

Annemarié went with Niel in his Jeep and Daniel and I were in his Jeep.

Daniel comes from the UK and is 63 years old having started his career as a welder. He then decided he does not want to grow old with all sorts of career injuries and he enrolled at a University in the UK studying ancient history and archaeology. He had a growing family and he couldn’t survive on the income from this field of study. Then he started law and ended with a doctorate in law. As I have stated above, he and Niel are now at the same international firm of lawyers in Dubai.

Daniel lived for some time as a child in South Africa where his dad was a political activist telling his story by making movies. As a child he met with a number of well-known activists and he was in the same class as Sir Seretse Khama’s, the previous president of Botswana, son Lieutenant General Ian Khama.

Niel, on the other hand also developed his career. First of all, he was vehemently opposed to academic studies and started as cabinet maker working amongst others on Mr Harry Oppenheimer’s furniture. Then he qualified as a lawyer and now works in Dubai.

Now I ask you another question: What are the chances that I would have met Daniel Brawn in the Arabian desert during April 2016 and discussing, amongst others, this court case about Islam that I read some 30 years ago and have never ever even given it another thought? Well, it happened and I met him and we were bashing dunes and seeing the odd camel or stopping at an oasis.

The odd camel wandering around

While I was with Daniel, Annemarié was having a go at the dunes with her eyes closed and yelling. She describes her ordeal as exactly the same as if in an amusement park but that it lasted three hours.

Daniel and I had the most extraordinary conversation in his Jeep. Niel asked him afterwards, why did he every now and again slow down considerably? Daniel explained: “Niel, that was when your dad and I were discussing something important.”

He is now researching the ancient history of Dubai and more specifically its social structures and the different sects found in Islam. That was the time that I referred to that South African court case. We also discussed the case the EFF recently won against Jacob Zuma. I told him that I read that case en route to Rome in the aeroplane while my fellow passengers were glued to the tiny TV screens watching movies. I gave Daniel my copy with my manuscript notes on it and he promised to read it, which he subsequently did.

I am sure you still remember the meeting when Professor Himla Sootyal delivered her lecture at our West Gauteng Branch on DNA and when she recommended a book by Bryan Sykes: THE SEVEN DAUGHTERS OF EVE. Back in South Africa I sent Daniel a reading list inclusive of this book.

We also discussed Cheik Anta Diop’s book THE AFRICAN ORIGIN OF CIVILIZATION. He undertook to obtain his own copy and read it.

He then guided us to an archaeological site deep inside the desert that is apparently 120 000 years old. There he showed us where that community lived and buried their loved ones. Burial, you should bear in mind, is one of the important markers that sets us for ever apart from the animal kingdom. The other marker is agriculture. Bryan Sykes grows lyrical about these facts; it struck me forcefully that these markers are indeed most remarkable and that nothing, not even our technological advances, can compare with these two markers: agriculture and burials.

The archaeological site where there was

a community living about 120 000 years ago with

some of the graves visible

In these photos you will see caves where the ancients buried their loved ones. I venture to state that these photos must be probably some of the oldest one can get – it is certainly much older than Sterkfontein’s graves [Link to the Genealogical Society of South Africa's Cemetry Recording Project] we photographed some time ago. While we were there, it was only the wind you could hear blowing softly over these ancient sites as if the wind was accentuating the ancient secrets buried thousands of years ago – these sites are not going to yield its secrets easily. I think that if you listen carefully to the wind and keep on digging, you will eventually discover some of their secrets. Daniel says that when you sleep out in the desert, at night you can hear the sand rolling down the dunes.

A couple of kilometres from there but within walking distance, there was a small village with camels out on the desert sand. They are living within earshot from this site. On the face of the desert sand there is nothing to eke out a living let alone to educate your kids or keep your camel farm going. How do they manage?

When you travel in the Eastern Cape or Zambia or Zimbabwe, there is always some sound somewhere in the distance. Here, in this desert I only heard the wind.

The wind blowing softly over this ancient site, is still howling in my ears.

The graves of the ancients

Please read those books – you never know whom you might meet thirty years from now!

[Links to Cheik Anta Diop on Wikipedia; and another video clip]

[Link to Bryan Sykes on Wikipedia]

It was a mind changing encounter with Daniel Brawn and I want to go back to spend time with Daniel in the desert and to meet with the nomads.

Back from the desert we had to inflate the tires

for normal road conditions

I think that the meeting with Daniel was serendipitous to the extreme. I never thought that I would visit a place such as Dubai, let alone meeting a man such a Daniel Brawn, bashing dunes up and down and having these amazing conversations somewhere in the Arabic desert.

Thank you Daniel Brawn for taking time and that you spent it with us.

Miracles do happen – even in the Arabic desert.

Please drop me an e-mail at neelscoertse@wirelessza.co.za

Neels Coertse

Editor West Gauteng Newsletter

Branch of the Genealogical Society of 

South Africa [Link to the West Gauteng Branch's Newsletters]

30 April 2016

[This article was first published on behalf the West Gauteng Branch of the Genealogical Society of South Africa on 30 April 2016]