Let us start with etymology, the root and origin of the term ‘Lebanonymous’ which can be read in one of two ways; firstly, Lebanonymous or alternatively Lebanonymous. Encapsulated in the term is the fusion of the words ‘Lebanon’ and the adjective ‘anonymous’. Either anonymous is spliced to ‘ymous’ and tacked onto ‘Lebanon’, or ‘anonymous’ is added to the abbreviation of ‘Leb’ a slang term denoting a person originating in Lebanon.
This leaves us with two new words to work with:
Lebanonymous: adjective. A person of either Lebanese descent or origin whose confessional, sectarian, ethnic or political identity is not immediately apparent or obvious. NB this term may be used as a synonym for ‘Lebanese’ should the confessional background matter.
Lebanonymity: noun. Being simultaneously in a state of being obviously Lebanese but anonymous regarding one’s confessional, sectarian, ethnic or political affiliation(s).
The term itself serves no practical purpose, and was more inspired by reading extracts from James Joyce’s Finnegan’s Wake and the subsequent fascination I have with conjuring up and coining new nonsensical English words than any socio-political implication. This is a blog as well after all, not a political tract. If you like ‘Lebanonymous’ and ‘Lebanonymity’ are ‘Joycean’ in that they are a wordplay on two English words, a protest and simultaneously, a total fiction.
If Lebanonymous were to have any worth or meaning I would invest it with the following notions. Firstly, that upon meeting a Lebanese person it would not be immediately apparent as to which sect or ethnic group they belonged and that that in itself being Lebanese would suffice; secondly, that Lebanonymity would be an ideal wherein a confessional or sectarian identity was optional and secondary to an overarching and singular Lebanese identity.
A comfortable Lebanese identity being to fully enjoy the shade beneath the cedar tree that graces the centre of the Lebanese flag, and take full of advantage of the respite from the blazing heat of the Middle East that the tree offers.
The achievement of Lebanonymity can via from two ways. Firstly, ignorance; upon a Lebanese person telling a non-Lebanese person they are Lebanese, there is no secondary question about sectarian affiliation as the questioner is unaware of the demographics of Lebanon. Secondly, the achievement of a goal whereby Lebanon reaches a level of development in its global and self-perception whereby the concept of the individual overcomes the concept of the community, rather than being subsumed by it i.e. one is firstly Lebanese, and then secondly, or in brackets Shia, Maronite etc.
The absence of Lebanonymity can be said to exist when Lebanese is hyphenated i.e ‘Lebanese-Druze’, a Druze who is defined by being Lebanese, or else a ‘Druze-Lebanese’, a Druze who is the author and definer of being Lebanese, or finally a mere Druze for whom ‘Lebanese’ is a failed concept not to be associated with. In any case sectarian or ethnic affiliation within this context serves as either a suffix or a prefix to an alternative identity.
Therefore the achieving of Lebanonymity would be the equivalent of providing a simultaneously satisfying and workable definition for overarching terms such as ‘British’ or ‘European’. The failure to achieve such an ideal would render a supranational or overarching identity as much a failure as the now extinct Yugoslavians and mythical Homo Soveticus (the Soviet Union’s idealised man).
A brief digression. Perhaps the foremost writer on Lebanon in the English language is British journalist Robert Fisk, whose tome-like history of Lebanon’s civil war, entitled Pity the Nation borrows its title from a poem authored by arguably Lebanon’s most famous son, the poet Kahlil Gibran who once wrote;
“Pity the nation divided into fragments, each fragment deeming itself a nation”
The truthfulness of the above statement underpins the frailty of the concept ‘Lebanese’, a nation comprised of fragments, undermining what binds them. Indeed the prose of Gibran lends itself nicely to the definition of a historical-political concept ‘Lebanonization’, a process whereby a state splits upon sectarian lines, the dubious honour of coinage falling to Lebanon. Lebanonization, the process of fragmentation or boiling down can be illustrated in the below true scenario, which also lends itself to highlighting the beginnings, and failure, of Lebanonymity.
Recently I met with a then Lebanonymous acquaintance for a pint. The pint was at his suggestion, and otherwise unremarkable save that it suggested the Lebanonymous was either a lapsed Muslim or a Christian. His Lebanonymous name didn’t give it away. For his part, the Lebanonymous Lebanese had assumed correctly from my name that I was an Armenian, but assumed incorrectly that I was a Lebanese-Armenian.
Lebanonymous Curiosity got the better of him first: “Are you an Armenian Catholic or Armenian Orthodox?”
“The latter” I replied and in the ensuing conversation I corrected him to my families alternative Middle Eastern connections. My turn; “So, what religion is your family background, are you Christian or Muslim?” and the conversation proceeded like this;
“Christian”
“Maronite or Greek Orthodox?”
“Melkite” damn, I should have known that, and in that final answer my Lebanonymous friend killed his Lebanonymity and became a Lebanese-Melkite. But in the conversation, which was indeed far longer than here related, words chipped away at his mountainous Lebanonymity, chipped it away into shard-like fragments that cut a clearer, less anonymous picture.
* * *
There resided upon a mountain in the Tyrol a Lebanonymous man of such philosophical erudition that his significant words conspired into meaningful letters forming worthy sentences of such substantial worth that he was named in Arabic Abu Cicero - ‘the father of Cicero’ that great Roman statesman.
An exile twice, from Armenia, from Lebanon, a true mountain man, the son of three mountain chains; Cilician, Lebanese and Alpine. This Anatolian chojuk grew up caught between the many fatherlands of his parentage, the ying of his Germanic motherhood, with its organised method, and the yang of his fatherhood, with its disorganised cynicism and pessimistic optimism.
Abu Cicero breathed deep the mountain air of his three mountain homes and sneezed a great clearing nasal roar of freedom, before coming down from the mountain a changed man. Abu Cicero, a founding father of Haykakan Azatutyan Giroghneri Gradarani Heghopokhgakan Sharjum (Armenian Freedom Writers Library Revolutionary Movement) sat under the shade of SOAS’s cedar tree with your humble blogger and said unto the assembled;
“Troubled men concern themselves with problems of much greater scale, such as those of the nation, in order to remove themselves from their own troubles.”
Said Lebanonymous Abu Cicero to I, your blogger, who stands accused of the above in writing this out-of-the-blue blog.
© Ara Iskanderian 13th September 2009
