A reflection on war and its links to Lewis

​However, as it says in the title of the play inspired by the expedition, “Afghanistan is not funny”.

When Sam Maynard, the former Stornoway Gazette photographer, and his friend and comedian Henry Naylor set off for Kabul in 2003 they weren’t exactly looking for gags.

Both had been angered by the media treatment of the conflict in Afghanistan and went to find out for themselves what was happening.

It was perhaps an ill-advised adventure which they were lucky to survive. The innocents abroad found themselves plunged into the hell of war. They walked into a minefield, found themselves kidnapped and nearly blown up.

The conflict was far from over, though no one seems to have told the pair beforehand. Some 20 years later the consequences rattle on through the lives of Afghanis and in the conscience of the west.

“Afghanistan is not funny”, which is being given a one-off performance in An Lanntair in Stornoway next month, is about how we and the two friends have dealt with the repercussions of Afghanistan.

On the tightrope between tragedy and humour the one-man show, written and performed by Naylor, is given the stamp of authenticity by the backdrop of Sam’s documentary photos of their original trip.

To give some recent context, the US and allied forces invaded Afghanistan in 2001 as retaliation for the 9/11 attacks on America. The plan was to hunt down Osama Bin Laden, the al Qaeda leader who had planned the atrocities, but that took a long time and many deaths including those of 457 British troops.

The UK’s 20 year presence in Afghanistan came to an end at Kabul airport in the hasty evacuation in the summer of 2021. The event had its own Lewis connection through the rescue of two female aid workers, along with their families, who represented the Linda Norgrove Foundation.

There is, and always will be, a profound link between Lewis and Afghanistan in the wake of the life and untimely death of Linda Norgrove, the island-born aid worker killed in 2010 during a failed rescue attempt.

The An Lanntair performance is a fundraiser for the Norgrove Foundation, which is dedicated to educating young Afghan women and run by Linda’s parents, John and Lorna, from the Uig district of the island.

In that sense the play will be a kind of homecoming for Sam, who was one of the original founders of An Lanntair as an arts centre in the old Town Hall.

As well as being a staff photographer for this newspaper Sam built up a huge creative legacy in the Hebrides. He set up Eòlas, one of the first island TV companies which trail-blazed much of the content and style of modern Gaelic television.

He was the driving force which helped the late John Murdo MacLeod craft the last Sgoth Niseach and built up the most important, yet still unpublished, photographic archives of the Hebrides at the turning point of the 20th century.

Since moving to London over 20 years ago he has travelled the world as a director and producer of high octane television programmes which bring in global audiences and awards. Kabul may have been a crash-course for some of the risky rodeos Sam has been on since.

Sam has always described Uig, where he is now building a family house, as his spiritual homeland. So to reconnect through the drama of the play and the Norgrove Foundation has a certain circularity.

Speaking from London this week, Sam spoke about the importance of the work of the Norgrove Foundation. The charity’s emphasis on promoting women’s education and health has been wiped away by the re-imposition of Taliban rule across the country.

He said: “In 2003 when we arrived and went to Ministry of Women, it was all so positive, women were taking up roles in public life which had been the exclusive preserve of men. But to see the whole thing disappear and have that ignored and forgotten is one the main drivers behind staging this performance.”

The play and exhibition which came out of the 2003 visit were highly successful. But what was a piece about the media’s treatment of war was reworked by Henry Naylor using Sam’s images into a more reflective piece about the consequences of the occupation.

The one-man show staged by Naylor at the Edinburgh Festival in 2023 was one of the top fringe performances of the year and has toured globally picking up accolades on the way.

Sam said: “Both Henry and I were fortunate to have followed this story over the years but this is a way for the performance to give something back to Afghanistan through the Norgrove Foundation.”

“Ultimately why we wanted to do it is that Afghanistan has disappeared from the front pages. People have tuned out over 20 years but in reality the situation has never been worse for women and children there.

“I hope this is going to make people think again about what has happened and our ongoing responsibility for Afghanistan.”

​“Afghanistan is not funny” - a one-off performance for the Linda Norgrove Foundation is on at An Lanntair on Thursday 23rd May. It is advisable to book tickets now.