From 1967-1969, Alleen and Don Nilsen lived in Afghanistan, where Alleen taught in the American International School of Kabul, and Don taught in the English Department of Kabul University. During this time, we took pictures to show what the world looked like when a country is changing from the first Century AD to the 20th Century AD.

Our PowerPoint will show Afghan plumbing, threshing, bridge-building, car repair, English signs for businesses, dress (especially head wear), games (e.g. kite fighting and buz keshi), education, government, religious issues, and social issues. All of this is very humorous to American eyes because all of these things are so very different from what we see in America. But these things are not funny to Afghans.

Because Afghanistan from 1967-1969 was a theocracy (and still is), most of Afghan humor targets the Shah, the Ayatola, and the Mullahs. Americans would not consider an Afghan joke to be a joke at all, because Americans have not experienced the difficulties of living in a theocracy. Here is an example of an Afghan joke:

An Afghan farmer saw Mullah Nasrudin in his watermelon patch, and confronted him. “Why are you stealing my water melons?” Mullah Nasrudin replied, “I’m not stealing your water melons. I’m only putting them into this sack so that the wind won’t blow them away.”

The Nilsen’s learned about the Kuchis (who are constantly traveling toward Russia during the Spring, and toward Pakistan during the Fall, and who build their tents out of whatever they can find along the way (compare the American “Afghan”). They learned about food preservation (wrapping it in mud), turbans, Karakul Caps, and the “Safid Riche (white beard) who is old and therefore wise. We learned about the Afghan Budhas in Bamian that had originally had gold faces, but were faceless at the time the Nilsens were there. These 40 meter high Buddhas were later destroyed by the Taliban (artillery fire). We also learned about Arabic numerals (which are now used universally). Roman Numerals just aren’t very good because they don’t include the “Zefr” (zero). The zefr is a place holder so that a number can have more than one meaning such as the 2 in 2, 20, 200, 2000, 20,000, 200,000, etc. Because of the zefr we can now do addition, subtraction, division, multiplication, and exponents (for something that is exponential, such as genealogy).

We will time-travel to the time of Christ by looking at the language and culture of Afghanistan. In this PowerPoint, you will see a student’s wooden chalk board to help Afghan children learn verses from the Khoran, an Afghan Coloring Book, and a straw picture of Two Important Afghan Words: “Muhammad” and “Allah”

The Afghan language (Dari) is rich in metaphor. The Afghan word for a Prickly Pear Cactus is “zabane mader showhar” (which translates as “mother-in-law’s tongue.” The Afghan word for Ostrich is “shotor-morgh” which translates as “elephant hen.” The Afghan word for Popcorn is “chos e fil” which means “elephant’s fart. Another Afghan word for Popcorn is “pof e fil” which means “elephant’s puff.” The Afghan word for Lady Bird (the insect) is “kafsh duzak” which means “little shoe-smith.” A Turkey in Afghan Persian is “fil morgh” which means “elephant chicken.” And a Turtle is “sang posht” which means “rock back.”

Our favorite Afghan metaphor is their word for Walnut. A Walnjt is called “chahar maghs” which means “four brains.” If you think about it, that’s what a Walnut actually looks like—four brains.

From 1967-1969, when the Nilsen family lived in Kabul, Afghanistan we saw many beautiful English signs that were mostly misspelled, but the misspellings are perfectly logically. Our favorite sign advertised flowers, and the wording on the sign was “Flower and Bucket Maker.” It took us a while to figure this one out. What the sign meant to saywas “Flower and bouquet maker.”

Don and Alleen Nilsen “Humor Across the Academic Disciplines” PowerPoints: https://www.public.asu.edu/~dnilsen/