About
In this project I was responsible to become the poet laureate of Libya. Through the role of being the poet laureate of Libya I was accountable for researching their role in WWI, finding a specific event they were involved in, choosing a specific poetic form, and choosing a perspective from which the event was viewed. Furthermore we had to write an essay to accompany our poem. As well as give a presentation, about our event and teach it to our peers, at the end of the project. Through this essay the historical context for our poem and our creative thought process was portrayed. Finally, we were all put into certain book launch teams where we promoted, edited, designed, and planned our book. Once all hard work was done we celebrated our work in the local Durango, Colorado Open Shutter Gallery with our own book launch party. In the end our project was very successful and memorable, and everyone got to take a book home.
Here is my project archive with all my work done on this project:
Here is my project archive with all my work done on this project:
My Poemبيادق
(Pawns) Libya in the Senussi Campaign Victoria Reeve Marching into Egypt to face Britain, An enemy we had no quarrel with, Grand Senussi said: “tis a great mission” but it was filled with conspicuous writhe With three different attack campaigns, The Senussi were assured victory One to the coast with subs, without refrain. One against Sudan, twas not made to be. Each campaign leaving us with death and loss Each causing us to become more doubtful The final campaign, the British were cross With ‘Band of Oases’, our hands were full. Bahariya, Farafra, Kharga, Dakhla We had them all, though it didn't last long With Rolls-Royce Armoured Cars, I was in awe Senussi Mountain guns were no equal 24-hours of battle, then retreat Back into Libya with peace in hand Many had died by the act of deceit If only I had heard this beforehand The Ottoman Empire just used us! We were just the distraction, nothing more. Used to obtain the Suez Canal, ‘cause twas a shorter way to African shore Many lives were lost for their selfish cause We were merely pawns in their game of war. |
Essay Historical Context: The Senussi Campaign
World War 1 is a war that we have all had to eventually learn about in school. We learn that it was this big war between the European nations including Russia, France, Britain, Serbia and Germany, Austria-Hungary. We hear about the Western Front and Britain’s great naval army, yet we never hear about the Africans, Indians, or the Chinese and so many others that were never recognized. Therefore, I chose to write about the Senussi campaign to recognize those who should have been acknowledged a long time ago. The Senussi Campaign is a battle against the Senussi (Libyans) and the Britains in North Africa that lasted from November 1915 - February 1917. The Senussi leader’s strategy to win this battle was to do 3 attack campaigns[2] with the purpose of convincing the current Egyptians to raise jihad against the British and to overthrow the British rule in the area.The Senussi campaigns began because the Ottoman Empire wanted to take over the Suez Canal. In order to do this, the Ottoman Empire convinced the Senussi to go into war with the British as a distraction. After the third attempted campaign, the Senussi retreated back into Libya and formed a peace treaty with Britain and Italy on April 14, 1917. In the end, the Ottoman Empire did not succeed in capturing the Suez Canal and the majority of Egypt did not rebel. A word from the author: I chose to format my poem in the form of a sonnet. A sonnet has the rhyme scheme of ABAB and consists of four lines per stanza. In my poem, I chose to do the perspective of a soldier in the Senussi campaign, because I felt that a soldier could most accurately tell their story about the war. Now, this project was a really rough for me, for we were doing something that has not been done before. There were a limited amount of obtainable resources and we were to write about a perspective that has not been talked about much. Yet I still enjoyed learning about World War 1 and all the different people that were not mentioned. I found it quite fascinating that so many people went unrecognized and enjoyed getting to know about them. I also am thrilled that we got to learn about, and actually do, the process of creating and publishing a book. Over all, I cherish all that I have learned and am looking forward to sharing this perspective with the world. |
My Presentation
Once we had created our poem and explanatory essay. We knew our event pretty well, so we were to create a presentation and teach our event to the class for 10-12 minutes. The notes that we took on each other's presentations were then translated into questions to create the final test of our learning. Here was my presentation on the Senussi Campaign.
The book launch team I had been apart of was the local promotions for our book and our book launch party. Through this role, I had created a poster for advertisement and contacted the Durango Herald and Telegram.
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