Final Project

The UAE before 42 years ago were almost a dessert and they don’t any kind of entertainment that we have in these days like sport clubs, shopping malls and traveling to far countries like Europe. But when anyone sit with their grandfathers he always listen to them and he can feel they had fun also more excited than us, so I planned to make an interview with one of my grandfather to have a lot of information about their childhood and how were enjoy their times on their days.

I planned to have the interview with my grandfather on Thursday and was very excited because one of his grandsons was interested on his golden memories, and most of the interview he was talking about the camel racing.

Camel race is considered one of the most traditional and popular sport in Arabian Peninsula in old and modern times. It has been a part of Arabs culture as camels have been proven as reliable vehicles that can endure the harshness and aridity of deserts.

Camels are known for their abilities of withstanding dry, hot climate. Camels’ physiology help them to sustain their humidity by elevating their bodies away from the ground by means of four, dry yet strong legs. Bedouins have seized the opportunity of taming camels and train them based on their needs. Camels have been used mainly for transporting people and goods, however, due to their abilities, Bedouins have also used them for different purposes such as wars and entertainment.

Camels Race in particular, is considered the most popular form of entertainment besides the Camels beauty show. In Arabic it is called, سباق الهجن, “Sibaq Al hijin”, and it is require a special procedure to make the camel light and fast enough to compete in such races. Race camels start preparation at age of 4 years old and it takes a period of two months to one year to make them able to compete in races. The process starts by isolating the camel for a varying period and control its diet to tame it controllable, then it goes into the second stage by teaching it commands and how to response to them accordingly. The third stage is when the bridle is enforced and the camel starts to follow the tamer commands. The final stage is when the camel is equipped with a saddle and prepare it to be mountable, hence, concluding the process of taming it and starting to make it practice different forms of walking, trotting and running.

The camel can compete in a race for a period of two years to ten years based on lineages. The camel speed in a race usually starts at 65 km/hr for the first kilometers however it starts to drop drastically to hover around 40 to 30 km/hr. To ensure maximum performance, the camel is mounted by a rider who whip and chant on it to keep the camel focused on giving it fullest. As for the race lap distance it varies based on the camels age and capacity, it can go from 4 Km up to long tracks which could go up to 10-15 Km. The winning camel usually get praised and inaugurated to be a desired asset that worth millions of dirhams.

Camel race is considered a stable tradition that has been practiced for more than a thousand year and it never showed any deviation or deterioration in practice, however, due to the recent incidents of malpractices such as hormones injections, harmful additives that enhance performance yet shorten camels life cycles and riders malnutrition regimes to decrease weight on camels thus it becomes faster, UAE government has enforced a law banning any doping to camels and substituting camels riders with a robot that can be installed on a saddle. The robot is equipped with an actuator whip that can be controlled to rotate remotely and a speaker that transmit the owner chanting to the camel thus make the robot a suitable rider that can do the job.

Camels race has been, still be and will be a defining sport that shows the values of desert dwellers , it shows dedication, patience and tenacity as well as defiance to the difficult nature of desert. Camel race echoes that despite the hard reality of living in a desert, entertainment and joy is still cherished and coveted and it will be always the way to live.