Amricani … legacy of bridging cultures
In the first half of the twentieth century, the tiny Gulf nation of Kuwait looked very different from what it does today. But the sixties brought about change. The growth of oil industry in Kuwait led to the slow disappearance of a way of life that the country had known for centuries. In the mid-sixties, ruthless bulldozing of old traditional structures that were witness to the past that Kuwait had seen as a pearl diving, shipping, and trading nation led to a complete transformation of the architectural landscape. Sadly, today, not much remains of Kuwait’s structural heritage, sacrificed as it were at the altar of modernization. Despite this, however, in the last few decades, there have been attempts at preserving some of the old buildings that have escaped the onslaught of time.
One complex, which was spared the fate of demolition, was the American Mission Compound. Located next to the National Assembly Building, the American Mission complex housed the first hospital which incidentally was the first reinforced concrete building in the Arabian Gulf, the doctors residence, the pastor’s residence and the first church of Kuwait, a quaint structure tucked away in a peaceful corner. A few years back, in 2011, a section of the American Mission Compound was converted into the Amricani, an internationally acclaimed cultural center that became a haven and beacon for lovers of art and culture in Kuwait and the region. “The Amricani is not just a museum housed in a modern building, the building itself has its own spirit, its own story to share,” says Mutlaq Al-Juraid, Curatorial Assistant to the Al-Sabah Collection as he gave me a guided tour. “Today, the Amricani is the only place that hosts the Al-Sabah Collection and it is a cultural center that is home to a variety of visiting exhibitions, and shows,” he says. The Amricani has achieved significantly in the field of education and information, since it started. Apart from serving as a training center for future curators and conservators, it has provided an opportunity for the youth of Kuwait to benefit from its well-tailored docent programme. “Visitors to the Amricani experience it at different levels. They see different exhibitions on display and watch special audio-visual presentations that trace the development of the complex and the growth of modern health care in Kuwait,” says Mutlaq leading the way to a small viewing gallery.
Although, the present story of the American Mission Compound which includes the Evangelical Church and the Amricani is an inspiring one, the now faded beginnings of this complex makes an interesting read as well. It is a bygone story of Kuwait, then a port town that came into its own, and it is also a story of friendships between different cultures. Interestingly, in many ways, this compound can also be considered a testimony to the history of Kuwaiti –American relationship.
The history of the American mission in Kuwait can be traced to the last few years of the 19th century when Samuel Zwemer, one of the co-founders of the Arabian Mission, stopped in Kuwait on his way to Basra from Bahrain and noted that “the place is the cleanest Arab town in the Gulf.” But it took some years for members of the mission to find a foothold in the country. “It was not easy for the Kuwaitis to allow foreigners in,” explains Evangelia Simos Ali, a former architect with the Kuwait Municipality, and an expert on Kuwait’s history. “The Kuwaitis treated the request of the American missionaries with suspicion and hostility.” But the tides turned in 1908, when Sheikh Khazaal, ruler of Muhammarah and a patient of the Arabian Mission’s Dr. Arthur K. Bennett, invited Dr Bennett to meet Sheikh Mubarak, the ruler of Kuwait. A year later, Dr Bennett performed a successful cataract surgery on Sheikh Mubarak’s daughter. Grateful for the mission’s help and having benefitted from the knowledge and skills of the American doctors, Sheikh Mubarak invited the Arabian Mission doctors to start practice in Kuwait.
The buildings that formed a part of the American mission complex were different from the traditional buildings of Kuwait. “These buildings were made of concrete unlike the traditional mud brick construction,” said Evangelia. “Moreover, the American Mission Hospital was a colonial veranda type house which was exactly the opposite of traditional structures in Kuwait.” The construction of the complex took place in stages. In 1911, Sheikh Mubarak provided an annex of his palace to be used as a hospital. In 1913, construction on the first purposebuilt hospital was completed. In 1939, Sheikh Ahmed Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, the Amir of Kuwait opened the Olcott Memorial Hospital, commonly known as the Women’s Hospital. Later in 1955, HH Sheikh Abdullah Al-Salem Al-Sabah opened the Mylrea Memorial Hospital, which was the Men’s hospital. But by that time, health care in Kuwait was developing at a steady pace and by 1967 it was decided to close down the American Mission Hospital as it had served its purpose. For years, the buildings continued to languish under the sun until 1995, when Dar Al Athar Al Islamiyyah and UNESCO started exploring preservation plans. In 2000, restoration began with support from the NCCAL, UNESCO, Ministry of Information and Dar Al Athar Al Islamiyyah. The DAI took over the building in stages until the formal opening of the Amricani Cultural Center in 2011.
Apart from architectural importance, the American Mission, and the people who worked there also made significant contributions to the development of healthcare in Kuwait, but that is not all. These private American citizens — doctors and nurses, missionaries and educators— who made Kuwait their home, often for long periods, left behind accounts of their stay in Kuwait – and in the process, they captured important periods in Kuwait’s history. Nathaniel Howell, the former American Ambassador in his book ‘Strangers When We Met’ while recounting the experiences of Dr Paul Harrison, the first doctor to serve at the American Mission Hospital writes, “The city of thick mud walls and flat roofs spread along the south side of a spacious harbor. Sailing craft of different kinds were built along the shore, and Paul, as he talked with the boatmen, learned
that hundreds of them went out each year to the pearl banks and dove for oyster shells. Back of the city the open desert stretched out in unbroken emptiness. There was no drinking water in the city, but water was brought in every day by sailboats that plied back and forth to the mouth of the river (Shatt
Al-Arab) fifty miles away.” Howell also goes on to quote Dr Eleanor Calverly when she first arrived in Kuwait in 1912 to join the American Mission Hospital. Dr Calverly captures her impression of pre-oil Kuwait in hauntingly evocative terms. “Out of the desert on the horizon appeared a city of low houses the colour of sand. Above the sky was very blue. Beneath, the blue water of the Arabian Gulf was dotted with white sails. Beached along the shore a line of brown sailboats awaited the season for pearl diving … In the whole picture was scarcely a tree or a patch of green. And yet Kuwait had a beauty of its own; a beauty of sand and sky and sea.”
Interestingly, the doctors who lived and worked in the compound were among the first western expatriates to bring their families to Kuwait. It is not surprising, therefore, that the first Western children, born and raised in Kuwait were Americans. Moreover, the establishment of the hospital also indirectly led to a gradual influx of Christians from other parts of the Middle East. With time, these Christians became an integral part of the sociocultural tapestry of Kuwait. “The people who worked in the clinic had Arab and Indian assistants, who were Christians,” observed Emmanuel Ghareib, whose father worked first as a nurse and then as a bill collector at the hospital. “These people helped to construct the Evangelical Church in 1931 to provide Christians a place for worship,” said the pastor while speaking about the origins of the church in the compound. Interestingly, Emmanuel Ghareib is the first Arab pastor in the Gulf. While writing about the early years of the hospital in Kuwait, Nathaniel Howell also captures the interesting relationship that formed between the missionaries and the locals. He writes, “Although the missionaries would later come to realize the futility of attempts to convert Kuwaiti Muslims, the sounds of their worship and singing often lured passers-by in a town where entertainment was scarce. On occasion, as many as sixty to one hundred Kuwaitis crowded the courtyard to listen to homilies preached in Arabic and to engage in lively discussions of Christianity and Islam. As much as anything else, these early encounters began to undermine the suspicion and hostility within the Kuwaiti population regarding Christians and laid foundations for the unique level of tolerance among most Kuwaitis today. It was extremely hard to discount these Christian-Americans who had come among them to serve their medical needs.”
The American Mission Hospital went on to play an important role during the decisive Battle of Jahra in 1920. The doctors of the hospital tended the wounded which helped to keep down the number of casualties on the Kuwaiti side as compared to the Ikhwan, who died in hundreds because of lack of medical care. Dr Stanley Mylrea, the legendary head of the Mission hospital for thirty years, left a complete account in English of the Ikhwan threat and the Battle of Jahra in his book ‘Kuwait Before Oil’. In his book, Dr Mylrea seeks to justify Sheikh Mubarak’s decision to let the Americans in by highlighting the service that the American Mission Hospital provided during the war. He quotes Sheikh Mubarak’s observations in 1914 as the Amir reflected on his permission to the American Mission, “Today I ask myself, ‘Who are these people to whom I have sold this piece of land, on which we are standing? Are they politicians? No, they are not. Are they a business firm? No. What have they come here for? They have come here to teach us, and the Lord knows we need teaching. They have come here to build a hospital and to take care of our sick. They have come here to do us good.”
Since the beginning of the twentieth century, the American Mission Hospital has been a silent witness to Kuwait’s history, having seen the gradual evolution of the country from a pearling, mercantile nation to a powerful oil economy. Stories abound of collaboration and cooperation which also includes large donations from local Kuwaitis to fund the construction of Mylrea Memorial Hospital, which as Lewis Scudders explains in his book ‘The Arabian Mission’s Story’ was due to the sense of empathy that the Kuwaitis developed with the foreigners. Scudders writes, “Kuwaitis from across the social and economic spectrum came to appreciate the mission and its institutions as somehow uniquely theirs.” Years later, this legacy of shared cooperation continues with the Amricani, which continues to build bridges of cultural understanding between communities and countries.