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Ghorba - غربة

The Arabic word Ghorba — غربة — means strangeness or foreignness. It describes a feeling of exile — a longing for more familiar people and places. It is a ubiquitous theme of arts from across the Arab region, and it has a long history. In recent decades, art on the topic of ghorba has focused on the experiences of refugees from turmoil and immigrants seeking to reap the fruits of the empires they and their ancestors had built. Ghorba very certainly involves feelings of anguish. It can be taken as a sort of mourning. Some musical expressions of ghorba border on howling. But …