CONNECTED in CAIRO

Iskanderella performing at al-Fann Midan Nov 5.

Ursula Lindsay offers a critical, and thoughtful look at “Art in Egypt’s Revolutionary Square” in the latest issue of Middle East Research and Information Project (MERIP).

Interest in the art of the revolution has been considerable ever since the graffiti and performance art of the uprising during the 18 days. There’s a lot of interest currently in the forthcoming film The Noise of Cairo. But much of this description of art is uniformly enthusiastic.

Not so Lindsay. She begins:

Although the legal framework in Egypt has not changed (Emergency Law and laws against defaming religion, the army and the state remain in place), what Egyptians call the January 25 revolution has undoubtedly ushered in a new sense of freedom, as well as a determination to use public space to congregate and to connect, and to demonstrate support for the uprising through cultural activism.

Read more…

I’m hearing a lot of buzz about a forthcoming documentary film The Noise of Cairo. It’s about changes in the Cairo art scene after the 2011 Egyptian revolution.

Produced by scenesfrom, which calls it a “cinematic kaleidoscope,” it features interviews with a dozen artists from Ramy Essam to Sondos Shabayek to Ali Abdel Mohsen, and many others I’ve not heard of), asking them to explore the role played by creatives during the revolution.

Unfortunately, there’s not much more information available. I’ll update this page as I learn more.

The first major book about the uprising, Ashraf Khalil’s Liberation Square is out in time for the anniversary of the beginning of the uprisings.

It’s not the very first book on the transformations occurring in Egypt, but most of the others fall into one of two categories. They are books on contemporary Egypt that were updated and rushed into print, like Alaa Al-Aswany’s On the State of Egypt, Steven A. Cook’s The Struggle for Egypt or Lloyd Gardner’s The Road to Tahrir Square. All good books, mind you, but really about what led up to the uprisings rather than the uprisings themselves.

The other kind of books already out are scrapbooks, collections of photos, graffiti or texts with some explanation and commentary. I’m thinking of Messages from Tahrir: Signs from Egypt’s Revolution by Karima Khalil, The Road to Tahrir: Front Line Images by Six Young Egyptian Photographers, Mia Gröndahl’s Tahrir Square: The Heart of the Egyptian Revolution, and Tweets from Tahrir: Egypt’s Revolution as it Unfolded by  Alex Nunns and Nadia Idle. Useful, and often very interesting, but not a coherent narrative account of the uprisings themselves.

Khalil’s book is described by Kirkus Reviewsas a “journalistic memoir.” The review goes on to call it a “personal account that will be appreciated by those looking to move beyond the day’s headlines, from one who wrote some of the stories published under those headlines.”

Laure Miller calls it “thrilling” in her review in Salon, writing:

The last half of “Liberation Square” forms a suspenseful, day-by-day narrative of the weeks between that first protest, on Jan. 25, and Mubarak’s resignation on Feb. 11. Khalil was on the streets much of the time and has interviewed dozens of participants about the unfolding drama as the demonstrators sought to take bridges and public spaces from the police, figured out how to communicate when the government cut Internet and cellphone service, fended off attacks from hired Mubarak supporters on camel- and horseback, welcomed the military and then wondered why it didn’t do more to defend them, listened to and rejected the self-justifying statements of Mubarak and other officials, and gradually realized that there was no going back and that the country was theirs at last.

The Arabist calls it “riveting” and offers a brief fascinating passage from it, urging everyone to go buy it right away. My former colleague at the American University in Cairo, psychologist Nancy Peterson agrees, saying she couldn’t put it down to get her work done.

I’ve ordered my copy.

This new video calls on the people of Egypt to turn out in force once more on Jan. 25th to show the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces that Egyptians do not want a military regime but an elected civilian government.

On Jan. 25th, the anniversary of the beginning of the uprisings, we can anticipate at least two things. First, tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, will obey the call of this video.

The military regime will attempt to use the anniversary as part of its efforts to appropriate the “true revolution,” defining what counts as legitimate and what counts as destabilizing.

What remains to be seen is whether the anniversary is marred by bloodshed as these two purposes come into conflict.

Don’t Mess With the People

A Cairo skyline taken in the 1920s.

It used to be that if you wanted to see color photography of Colonial-era Egypt, your easiest route was the 1939 version of The Four Feathers. The Egyptian scenes were filmed on location in Egypt, although they were set some 50 years earlier.

Now, a web site called “Retronaut” offers 50 color photographs (autochromes) of Egypt in the 1920s taken for National Geographic by Gervais Courtellemont and W. Robert Moore.

Thanks to Rebecca Doherty for this reference.

Atef Said

The web-site of the “socialist, feminist, anti-racist organization” Solidarity has posted an interview with Egyptian human rights activist and lawyer Atef Said, currently completing a PhD at the University of Michigan.

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Said lays out his view of the progress of the revolution, in which SCAF (which he describes in fairly monolithic terms) is clearly the greatest obstacle:

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Since February 11, SCAF has proven to be working against the revolution. An Egyptian critic described the current situation as a half coup d’état and half revolution. It is half coup d’état in the sense that the military is showing that it wants to control the future of Egypt, and to limit this beautiful and powerful revolution into a superficial change, one controlled by a military regime. And it is half a revolution, in the sense that no significant social and economic changes have occurred for the benefit of the majority of Egyptian people.

He dismisses concerns over the Muslim Brotherhood’s electoral gains and, while less happy about the Salafist showing, emphasizes:

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My view is that whoever is elected is better than the army, which has proven to be the leading force of the counterrevolution, working with the support of Saudi Arabia and the United States. Their purpose was to crush — not simply slow — the reform process. So I say that any elected body is better than SCAF staying in power.

You can read the full interview here.

If your university library has an institutional subscription to Project Muse, you may be able to access Connected in Cairo directly, either on-line in text-searchable format, or as a set of downloadable pdfs.

Project MUSE is a leading provider of digital humanities and social sciences content; since 1995, its electronic journal collections have supported a wide array of research needs at academic, public, special, and school libraries worldwide. MUSE books and journals, from leading university presses and scholarly societies, are fully integrated for search and discovery.

I’ve been teaching and telling people that Egypt’s military is not a monolith, and that it is probably in considerable internal confusion. This view just got a boost because Britain’s The Guardian has published an extraordinary account of the inside of the military as seen through the eyes of an anonymous middle-ranked officer.

Entitled “Egyptian army officer’s diary of military life in a revolution” it recounts how the regime moved to ensure the loyalty of officers when the uprisings started, but also claims that cracks are occurring in that loyalty, that there is considerable confusion–about what’s going on, about who is right, about where the country is headed–and growing dissatisfaction with Tantawy’s handling of things.

Two powerful passages:

After Mubarak fell and the rule of Scaf (Supreme Council of the Armed Forces) began, the top brass moved quickly to secure the loyalty of all mid-level and junior officers. Whenever a big Friday street demonstration or rally in Tahrir Square took place we would all receive a bonus of between 250 and 500 Egyptian pounds (£26-52), whether or not we had anything to do with policing the protests.

But later:

But as the months went on, despite this ignorance and the generous bonus system, dissent against [Egypt’s commander-in-chief and current head of Scaf, Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein] Tantawi has grown. Most of the mid-level officers now think of him as Mubarak’s right-hand man, and they hate the fact that Scaf’s violence has tarnished the army’s image in the eyes of the public. Many still disapprove of the current protests because they feel it’s not the right time, and also because they’re resentful that others can go and demonstrate on the streets when they themselves do not have such freedom. But that attitude is beginning to change, especially as independent TV channels have been airing video clips of the recent violence and the brutality of the security forces is being openly discussed by people like [prominent media personalities] Yosri Fouda and Ibrahim Eissa. More and more mid-level officers are turning against Scaf, and against Tantawi.”