Book. Of the many publications that Qatar has generated in recent months, Mondial oblige, the most unexpected, and one of the most enlightening on this little-known country, is a comic strip. Qatar, the luster and the Orient, published by Delcourt, pillar of the ninth French-speaking art, offers effective keys to understanding this micromonarchy of the Gulf, so decried today. In ninety pages, with a precise and realistic drawing and a palette of warm colors, the two authors, Emmanuel Picq and Victor Valentini, retrace the lightning rise of this emirate that no one would have been able to place on a world map thirty years ago.
All the actors in this saga are there, starting with the various monarchs, all from the Al-Thani dynasty: the pusillanimous Khalifa, who took power in 1972, in the wake of the country’s independence, until then a protectorate British, and which is reluctant to market the gas treasure on which it sits, for fear of leading to a process of modernization that would overwhelm it; his son, the bubbling Hamad, who overthrew him in 1995 and triggered exports of liquefied natural gas, a blue gold that would make the country’s fortune; his son Tamim, enthroned in 2013, a cold-blooded sovereign, who will emerge victorious from the ordeal of the blockade imposed by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain (joined by Egypt) between 2017 and 2021, final obstacle before the coronation of the World Cup.
There are also the supporting roles: the hyperactive Hamad Ben Jassem, the brain of Qatari business-diplomacy; the populist Egyptian Sheikh Youssef Al-Qaradawi, conservative guarantor of the ruling family; the very glamorous Cheikha Moza, a charm and spur to the country’s societal openness; Nicolas Sarkozy, associate of the Emir Hamad, who brought Qatar into the capital of the jewels of French capitalism; the touchy Mohammed Ben Zayed, then crown prince of the United Arab Emirates, the inverted twin of Qatar.
Political quirks and games
The book obviously tackles the subjects which have earned the city-state a deluge of criticism: the exploitation of the immigrant labor which built the infrastructures of the World Cup, the perfume of corruption which hangs over the attribution of competition and Doha’s sometimes troubled relationship with the Islamists.
But the merit of this comic is not to confine itself to the outraged rhetoric in which the country tends to be locked in lately. The failings and ambiguities of Qatar are inserted into a broad and complex narrative, which interweaves the local political game, the internal power relations in the Gulf and the interaction with the United States, historical protector of the Arabian Peninsula.
You have 15.19% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.