Pioneer in the Desert: Brigitte Schiffer

In the sixth episode of our series on Western Female Travelers, we focus on Brigitte Schiffer’s visit to Siwa.

The first visit (August 1932): A brief research trip to the oasis as part of an expedition led by Henry Maurer (dentist of King Fuad I of Egypt and member of the Archaeological Society of Alexandria).

The second visit (Summer 1933): A return to Siwa for much longer and deeper field research, which lasted several weeks (probably over a month), during which she made most of the phonographic recordings and photographs used in her thesis. Schiffer was accompanied by her fiancé Hans Hickmann, also a musicologist, who assisted both with audio-photographic documentation and with exploring the connections between Siwa’s music and Pharaonic Egypt.

The German-Jewish composer and ethnomusicologist Brigitte Schiffer (1909–1986) conducted pioneering field studies in the Siwa Oasis, in Egypt’s Western Desert. Armed with a phonograph and supported by the renowned Berlin Phonogramm-Archiv, she documented the music, songs, and instruments of the local Berber-speaking community, leaving a legacy that remains invaluable for understanding the cultural richness of the area.

Her recordings, recently digitized and symbolically returned to the Siwa community through a “musical repatriation” project, are now sparking new dialogues among scholars, archivists, and local musicians. Schiffer engaged with a living, orally transmitted musical tradition, far from the museum-like and “pure” concept favored in much colonial research.

This collection of historic music is now available at my Black Lions Library in Siwa.

Curiosity: Her monograph Die Oase Siwa und ihre Musik (1936) was translated into Arabic in 2000 and is still recognized as a reference work in Egypt. After fleeing to Egypt in 1935 to escape Nazi racial laws, Schiffer revolutionized music education in Cairo by directing the Higher Institute of Music Education for Women and fostering connections between European and Arab musicians.

#BrigitteShiffer #HansHickmann #Siwa

Brigitte Shiffer driving the car in Siwa, accompanied by her fiancé Hans Hickmann