General Douglas A. Pritt: Afghan Culture

Once again I find myself unable to find the words to adequately describe the topic at hand. The term Afghan culture is misleading by itself. Afghanistan is more about regional culture than it is about a national culture. The Afghan National Army is the first success story in building a national identity for the people of Afghanistan. The Army is ethnically balanced based on the demographics of the country and is the first element of National Power to consistently respond to orders from the National Command Authority. It is also about what you do to survive and provide for your family. Many people describe the Afghan culture as one of corruption. It is really one of survival, survival of self, family, and tribe. Actions we consider as corrupt are really just a means of survival and providing for your family in the minds of the Afghans.  

Afghanistan is an interesting and, in my view, a very exciting place to serve. Everyday brings the promise of adventure and provides an opportunity to do unique things, meet interesting people and go to new and exciting places. Sometimes the places we visit make you feel like you have stepped back into the past, the very distant past in some cases. We see amazing work being accomplished with little in the way of resources. It is amazing what the Afghans can do when they don't know they can't. The Afghans are a hard working people and at the same time they are more than willing to let you do their work for them if you are willing. This is a big issue with Americans who often feel it is more efficient to do the work themselves. We remind everyone of the TE Lawrence quote: It is better to let them do it imperfectly than to do it perfectly yourself, for it is their country . . . and time is short.

Photos from Afghanistan Courtesy of General Doug Pritt

There are many different cultures and lifestyles rolled up into one country. I have had the opportunity to meet Afghans who come from a culture far removed and different from ours. It is difficult to describe the differences, but here are some of my observations.

I have seen Nomadic Tribes (families) traveling with their goats or camels across land that looked dry and parched to the point it appeared uninhabitable. Most tribes also have a few donkeys they use to carry their tents and belongings. Some of the ANA Soldiers are recruited from these tribes and the young men have to be taught how to clean themselves after using a bathroom. It is impossible for me to imagine spending my entire life living in a tent and traveling endlessly from point to point with no place to call home. These nomads sleep with the animals. When we fly over the camps and the animals are frightened they run under the tents for protection. When we travel at night and fly over the camps we see some of the animals gathered around the tents. The animals can’t all fit inside these rather large canvas structures pieced together to shelter the tribe and their most prized possessions, their livestock. For these nomadic people it has been this way for generation after generation and I don’t see the lifestyle changing any time soon.  Visiting a relative who lives in a mud hut is a big event in their lives because it affords them access to many luxuries they seldom enjoy like a well, walls, heat and in some cases a chance to watch TV. It is an amazing leap, living most of your life like people did thousands of years ago and once in a while stepping into the modern world through the technology of television or radio. The literacy rate in these tribes is less than 10%, so an opportunity to join the Army is the only way some of them will ever learn a skill beyond being a Sheppard. I am still fascinated every time we see one of these tribes in an area many, many miles away from the nearest village crossing an area that looks like it hasn’t seen rain in years. They must know where all the water sources are located or they couldn’t survive.

Most of the people in Afghanistan live in mud huts with dirt floors, little if any furniture and woven straw mats to sleep on. No running water, no electricity, no bathrooms. Sanitation is not a consideration or concept. Open sewers or no sewers in most of the areas. Many of the better compounds have out houses although not all. I still don’t understand how they go to the bathroom in some of the remote villages. Their clothing, for both men and women, is designed to allow them to squat and go to the bathroom without anyone being embarrassed.

In the rural areas where there is a consistent water source, farming is the most dominate way of survival. Life appears to be better in these areas. I see children swimming in the rivers, streams and irrigation ditches when they are not working in the fields. Subsistence farming takes place in the river delta areas and terrace farming along the low hills near the rivers and streams. These areas are lush and green and provide a stark contrast to the rest of the landscape. These farmers sell or trade some of their crops to buy other goods and services. Once in a while you can even see tractors plowing the fields but just like in biblical times you see oxen pulling plows in most places. If you own land in the right place you can live a pretty good life as a farmer. When I say pretty good I am referring to Afghan standards, not US standards. One aspect of farming I have yet to observe is poppy growing. I haven’t seen any Poppy fields, or if I did I didn’t recognize them as such. Poppy production is up in Afghanistan but in the area east of Kabul the number of acres planted in down. That tells me the farmers are getting better at generating more yield per acre for their crops. Until this year Afghanistan had been under a drought for the past 7 years. Many of the farmers were having a difficult time growing crops due to lack of water. Because of the snow that fell last winter, this has been a good year for all types of crops. I am impressed with the quality, quantity, variety and availability of produce at the local shops. It is now mid October and there are still plenty of melons being sold and some new varieties just starting  to show up in the shops and produce carts. Tomatoes are also a hot selling item and you will see tomato carts and pickup trucks with the bed full of tomatoes parked in the middle of traffic selling to anyone who will stop.

As I fly over the landscape, I see small villages in every valley near a river or stream. These villages look like they haven’t changed since the beginning of time. For generations, families have eked out an existence by farming and trading and when you ask why they are there the answer is the same, this is my home. As I mentioned earlier the identification with family and the local tribe is really the foundation of this society. Not all Soldiers enlisting into the Afghan Army are volunteers; some join because the Elders in the village tell them they should go. This can take place for many reasons like; earning money for their family, a way for the Elders to earn favor with a Government official, a way to posture the young man to get married when he finishes his service in the Army. Many times one of the Elders is the young man’s father, uncle or grandfather. No matter how large the village, in most cases, the entire village is from the same tribe and the young man selected to join the Army has a responsibility to help the tribe.

Weddings are an important social event here. One of the Elders in the Village where Camp Phoenix is located was married recently and several of the Soldiers were invited. There were over 700 guests and this was just the male guests. The Soldiers who attended said they never did see a female. They were at the wedding from 6 PM until 11 PM and the actual marriage had still not taken place. There was music, dancing and food for everyone and according to reports from one of our interpreters the party lasted until 3 AM. The dancing is of course only with people of the same sex. One of the Lieutenants in the task force was the star dancer and everyone applauded each time he danced. We give him a hard time about being married to some Afghan man he danced with and doesn’t even know. The introduction of the Bride and Groom took place around midnight and then more celebration. This was a special wedding, for a very wealthy man, so it was unusual because of the size of the party, but weddings are a big deal here. As we travel we often see vehicles decorated for a wedding driving down the road.

Larger towns and villages are interesting as they all have a few main streets and along the main roads small shops are stacked as close together as possible. Of course they sell everything. As with many 3^rd world countries you see meat hanging out in the open air for the flies to eat. You also see lots of fruit and vegetable stands as well as push carts selling the same fruits and vegetables. When something is in season it is sold everywhere, 2 stores side by side often selling the exact same things. In fact you might see 5 stores in a row selling water melons. One store might be a bike repair shop the next a meat market, the next a place to buy wood, the next store sells groceries and the other store sells pots and pans. All 5 are selling the water melons because they have relatives who grow water melons. In fact several of them might have the same relatives and get their melons from the same person.

Photos from Afghanistan Courtesy of General Doug Pritt

The big towns and cities are different for several reasons but the biggest is the traffic. People take on different personality when they get behind the wheel and the Afghans are no exception. Traffic is fascinating. There are no rules and you don't need a license to drive, so it is a free for all. You can drive on the wrong side of the road if you are bigger or can bluff the oncoming driver. Seeing a Jingle Truck coming at you, on your side of the road, gets your adrenalin flowing very quickly. Mix in a few children running by, some carts being pulled by donkeys, people carrying heavy loads in their wheel barrows and you get an idea of the organized chaos called traffic in Afghanistan. It really is somewhat organized because you see very few accidents. In the time I have been here I have traveled hundreds of miles and I have only seen one accident. I think part of the reason is the roads are in such poor shape you can’t travel too fast, so at slower speeds you can stop quickly and avoid a collision.

The major cities also have a central shopping area called the bazaar. Of course there can be many bazaars in the large cities like Kabul, Herat, Jalalabad and Kandahar but there is always a main bazaar. I am sure it was the place where trading took place when the city was small and it just grew as the city grew. With limited transportation available it makes sense to keep commerce in a central area, so the shops are crammed together as close as possible and many shops are actually on the street. In Jalalabad the vendors are on the sidewalk and three deep on the street selling their wares. You see vendors walking down the street with a carpet over their shoulder attempting to stop people and sell their rug. You also see people, mostly young men, selling phone cards along every road and particularly around every traffic circle. You never see women selling things or working in the shops. If you see women shopping it is almost always with a man, as an escort, or with a group of women. Of the major cities, Herat is by far in the best condition. There was limited fighting there and the city has paved roads and plenty of parks. The areas in Western and Northern Afghanistan are distinctly different from the areas in the South and East. The cultures are different because of the enemy activity in the area, being closer to the Pakistan border, and the tribal customs. There are many faces to Afghanistan but the most striking is the different faces of these two geographically different regions.

No matter the size of the village, town or city one of the commonalities is the walls. In my view Afghanistan is the wall capital of the world. This is the home of walls R us. The Afghans are terrific wall builders; they have it down to a fine science. If they could export walls there would be a robust economy and the entire country would be prosperous. There are walls around the houses, the fields, the parks, the Mosques and anything else someone wants to put a wall around. They even have walls around nothing. People put up walls to protect and mark their property but it strikes me as unusual every time I see walls marking plots of land in an area with no water and located in what most people would call a desert. I guess Afghans are like the Sooner's of Oklahoma, everyone wants to get ahead of the land rush, although I don't think the land in Afghanistan is quite as hospitable as Oklahoma. There is a proposal to give land to Afghan Army Soldiers who serve for 20 years in the ANA. The feeling amongst the Afghans is very positive about this incentive and it looks to me like there is plenty of land to go around if you don’t care about how far your land is from civilization.

Photos from Afghanistan Courtesy of General Doug Pritt

Squatters are common here. They come in, put up a wall and start to build a house in a very short period of time. They then claim it is their families land. Often times they can produce a real or fake deed from some former war lord or government official. Many times these deeds are hundreds of years old. With no property records, in many areas, it is difficult to prove these people don’t own the land. The further you get from the major population centers the less likely it is anyone from the government will care if someone takes the land for their own. In the case of squatters and other legitimate land owners, water is the most important factor. If you have water you can survive, if not life will get more and more difficult. There are common, public, wells but there aren’t enough and once you leave the built up areas there are fewer and fewer wells for the people to use. We, Task Force Phoenix, often pay to have wells dug to help improve their quality of life and create friendships with the local people. These are called Commanders Emergency Readiness Program projects. I will tell you about these projects in more detail in a future update.

In the area where the Kabul Military Training Center weapons ranges are located we often have squatters and nomadic tribes show up in the night and set up camp in the impact areas. These ranges are frequently used for live fire exercises and unfortunately we think one person was killed and one injured when new ANA Soldiers were firing mortars. I say we think because there is also a theory they were attacked by thieves or drug runners.

As with most poor countries there are of course beggars. The most common are older men, many with missing limbs and young children. They are not in overwhelming numbers and only located in the larger cities. On rare occasion I have seen older women begging in the streets.

Kite flying is an art here. Kites are small with no tale and made to fly in very light winds. The kites are just starting to be seen in larger numbers now as the 100 days of wind are starting to die down. What is amazing about the kites is how maneuverable they are.  With only one string and just the action of the young person doing the flying they are able to do amazing things with the kites. The favorite game is to attack the other persons kite and knock it from the sky. There are kite shops and the average kite sells for about one dollar. When you work for less than a dollar a day you don’t buy too many kites, so purchased kites are a luxury. Kids here are very cleaver and make kites from practically nothing. I have seen kites made of plastic bags and very thin paper. The frame is made of small pieces of wood and break easily in strong winds. I have only seen one kite with a tail in the entire time I have been here.

One of the common things about the Afghan culture is time. I think time has a different meaning here. It is not measured by minutes and hours, days and weeks, months and years, but by generations. The Afghans think in terms of eternity, not just for themselves but for their families. They surround themselves with their family members because they trust and respect their family members. They also feel obligated to settle any unjust act or treatment on their own. We frequently hear stories about a family member settling a score that is 2 or 3 generations old.

As I said it is a fascinating place to serve. I am amazed each and every day at the unique culture and environment called Afghanistan. I know I will leave here with a much greater appreciation for the hardships the Afghans endure on a daily basis. I will also appreciate the quality of life we have in the United States and live each day to its fullest because of my experiences here.

Love Doug