Lokman was an intellectual, writer, publisher, translator, filmmaker, political commentator, and active member of Lebanese civil society. Born in Beirut’s southern suburb of Haret Hreik on July 17, 1962, he was the son of an Egyptian Christian mother and a Lebanese Shia father, who practiced law as a prominent attorney and served as a member of Lebanon’s parliament. At the age of 20, Lokman moved to Paris to study philosophy at Sorbonne University. Upon completing his Master’s degree, he returned to Beirut in 1988, as Lebanon’s civil war pressed on into its thirteenth year.
In 1990, Lokman founded the independent Dar al Jadeed publishing house with his sister, Rasha al Ameer. Intending to transcend ideological constraints and celebrate intellectual and artistic diversity, Dar al Jadeed set about publishing literary works often considered controversial or contentious, and, in some instances, banned by Lebanon’s General Security Directorate. The publishing house also made international texts accessible to Arabic-speaking audiences, either by printing the Arabic translation or—if none existed—by producing it, as Lokman did for Joseph Saadé’s Victime et bourreau.
The act of historical reckoning was regarded by Lokman as the first antidote to self-imposed amnesia and perpetual impunity. Thus, in collaboration with his wife and partner Monika Borgmann, Lokman co-directed and co-produced the award-winning documentary film Massaker (2004)—a “psycho-political study” of six men who participated in carrying out the 1982 Sabra and Shatila massacre. Although the film was widely screened at international film festivals and received a number of awards, including the prestigious Fipresci Prize, Massaker was in fact only the precursor to what would become Lokman’s greatest legacy within the domain of memory and memorialization.
The concept of UMAM Documentation and Research emerged in response to the glaring absence of a national archive in Lebanon—the gravity and consequence of which Monika and Lokman sensed sharply in the course of their research for the film. Compelled to remedy this vacuum, in 2005 the couple established UMAM Documentation and Research, an organization that “believes in the need to confront Lebanon’s strained past if the country is to ever move out of endless cycles of violence and instability.” To this end, UMAM D&R serves as a citizen resource center, preserving and providing access to a collection of archival materials. In his capacity as the organization’s co-director, Lokman also served as a contributing member of the international working group responsible for developing the Guiding Principles for Safe Havens for Archives at Risk.
Art constituted another entry point to memory and medium of memorialization for Lokman, who perceived creativity as a bridge, whereby broader audiences and communities might engage with the past in more nuanced ways. UMAM D&R therefore offers an interactive cultural space—widely known as “The Hangar”—in which film screenings and other events are hosted, art exhibits are organized, and dialogue is fostered.
It was, in part, this conviction in the power of artistic expression that prompted Lokman and Monika to return to filmmaking, producing the critically acclaimed Tadmor in 2016. This documentary is the organic culmination of multiple UMAM D&R projects that focused on the topic of Lebanon’s missing and forcibly disappeared—one of the most searing, yet neglected remnants of the country’s 15-year civil war. Their work inevitably led to an examination of Syria’s far-reaching carceral system, in which hundreds, if not thousands, of Lebanese nationals were unlawfully imprisoned. Tadmor thus depicts 22 Lebanese men as they recount and reenact the systematic torture and humiliation they endured while detained in Hafez al-Assad’s Tadmor (Palmyra) prison in the 1980s.
Yet Lokman was not content to document the harrowing vestiges of the past; he also worked to educate and empower others to envisage and engender a more peaceful, tolerant, and inclusive future. In 2005, he launched Hayya Bina (“Let’s Go”), a multi-faceted initiative that began with the goal of promoting more substantive citizen participation in political processes, and challenging the logic and efficacy of Lebanon’s sectarian system. Gradually, the program expanded to implement educational, agricultural, and environmental projects in rural or otherwise marginalized communities throughout the country.
In addition to his archivist, artist, and activist roles, Lokman was also a prolific political analyst and commentator, making frequent appearances on Lebanese, Arab, and international satellite television stations, and penning essays and articles for numerous publications. Through these modes of communication, he denounced authoritarianism in all its forms, as well as the underlying dogmatism through which it is sustained. Lokman was therefore widely known as a longstanding and vocal critic of Hezbollah, which he argued had coercively monopolized representation among Lebanon’s Shia community, and in turn eliminated any opportunity for political pluralism. So when nationwide protests began in October 2019, Lokman worked to enrich this dynamic outpouring of civic engagement through constructive discussion. In downtown Beirut’s Martyrs’ Square, he participated in programming for “The Hub”—a venue in which demonstrators were welcome to assemble to participate in panels and seminars addressing the pressing social and political matters of the moment, and debating potential reforms.
At the time of his assassination, Lokman was devoting much of his attention to the MENA Prison Forum, which he and Monika established in 2018. By raising the profile of carceral issues within dominant or ‘mainstream’ discourse, Lokman asserted, the Forum could act as a conduit, connecting people of all disciplines, backgrounds, and segments of society across the region who might then join together to mitigate detention-related abuses as well as their individual and collective effects.
By raising the profile of carceral issues within dominant or ‘mainstream’ discourse, Lokman asserted, the Forum could act as a conduit, connecting people of all disciplines, backgrounds, and segments of society across the region who might then join together to mitigate detention-related abuses as well as their individual and collective effects.