Write and Live Forever (inspiration from ancient Egypt)

from Ancient Egyptian Literature, edited by Miriam Lichtheim

"As to those learned scribes,
Of the time that came after the gods,
They who foretold the future,
Their names have become everlasting,
While they departed, having finished their lives,
And all their kin are forgotten.

They did not make themselves tombs of copper,
With stelae of metal from heaven.
They knew not how to leave heirs,
Children to pronounce their names;
They made heirs fro themselves of books,
Of Instructions they had composed.

They gave themselves [the scroll as lector]-priest
The writing-board as loving son.
Instructions are their tombs,
The reed pen is their child,
The stone-surface their wife.
People great and small
Are given them as children,
For the scribe, he is their leader.

Their portals and mansions have crumbled,
Their ka-servants are [gone];
Their tombstones are covered with soil,
Their graves are forgotten.
Their name is pronounced over their books,
Which they made while they had being;
Good is the memory of their makers,
It is for ever and all time!

Be a scribe, take it to heart,
That your name become as theirs.
Better is a book than a graven stela,
Than a solid tomb-enclosure.
They act as chapels and tombs
In the heart of him who speaks their name;
Surely useful in the graveyard
Is a name in people's mouth!

Man decays, his corpse is dust,
All his kin have perished;
But a book makes him remembered
Through the mouth of its reciter.
Better is a book than a well-built house,
Than tomb-chapels in the westl
Better than a solid mansion,
Than a stela in the temple!

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The Yacoubian Building (Book Review)

The Yacoubian Building is a rich and multi-layered examination of the intersections of sex, race, class, and state violence in modern Egypt. The building's complex and morally ambiguous tenants rise, fall and scrabble to their feet again from various circumstances. On the one hand, this novel is a brilliantly executed tapestry of interconnected stories--Taha's lost love Busayna gets used by another character, Malak to trick a third character Zaki el-Dessouki, into giving up his lavish apartment. One common thread through the characters and their stories is, the cynicism with which people, particularly men, use others, to achieve happiness. On the other hand, The Yacoubian Building is a revealed archive of Egypt's layered pasts--the linguistic and cultural legacies of French and British colonialism, the contested figure of Gamal Abdel Nasser as hero or heretic, the multiple registers of Arabic language, and the rising influence of Islamist organizations on Egyptian society. Aswany, as a secular intellectual, is obviously quite skeptical of how far the newfound piety in Egypt really penetrates, but his faith is nevertheless strong in the "everyday goodness" of Egyptians. It is this flexibility that allows people like the closeted gay newspaper editor Hatim to flout certain social conventions within well-defined limits. The elasticity of this commonsense piety is what Aswany seems to admire, in contrast to the more austere piety of the Islamists. Nevertheless Aswany refuses to caricature Islamists. On the contrary, he gives the reader a very moving and convincing portrait of how a young Egyptian becomes radicalized, and the instrumental role of state violence in that process. This fictional portrayal shows, far better than most policy reports I have read, the step-by-step process by which the lower-class Taha is denied access to the traditional routes to respectability and begins to be pulled into the ambit of the Islamists at his university. Aswany shows how Islamist rhetoric works on the young man, pulling at his desire for Busayna. We can symphathize with how Taha becomes an activist, and we understand his desire for revenge, not as a brainwashed youth marching into Paradise, but as someone who has experienced very real torture at the hands of state security forces. It is this factor of torture that proples him into the violent act that ends the novel. There are numerous clues that he, (like his first love Busayna and others) is a victim of cynical manipulation by those who were supposed to be his closest compatriots. Finally The Yacoubian Building is a heartbreaking commentary on the venality of everyday life, and a look into the heartbreaking choices that people must make in these conditions. Aswany's book is a critique of power and the raw urge to dominate and use others that lies at the core of violence. When Hatim tosses racist slurs at his lover Abduh, when Hagg manipulates his mistress into an abortion, we see that the Islamists are not the cause but a symptom of a society profoundly sickened by corruption and greed. Women and men wear masks over their feelings, performing a lie, just as the state wears a mask of piety and order cloaking its brutal forms of repression, hypocricy and violence. Aswany ends the novel on a note of optimism--the wedding of Zaki and Busayna, the old aristocrat and his young lover. In spite of evil, Aswany seems to be saying, love, fragile but persistent, can bloom out of degradation and humiliation.

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Sout al Horeya (Sound of Freedom)

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Al Jazeera English: Tariq Ramadan and Slavoj Zizek discuss the uprising in Egypt

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Flames of Revolution: Egypt Part 1

Rami Abdoch is a blogger, writer and Anthropology/Sociology major at Rhodes College in Memphis, TN. He has given me permission to repost this from his blog It's an excellent piece analyzing the current crisis in Egypt:

Here is an excerpt:

Tunisia’s revolt, dubbed by some as the “Jasmine Revolution,” was apparently sparked by a young man named Mohamed Bouazizi setting himself on fire, feeling hopeless at his potential in life. His fruit stand was seized because he did not have a permit, even though he had a university degree. It is difficult to imagine the ethos and proverbial lock felt in the heart and mind of a person that would lead him to do such a horrendous thing to himself. Afterward, some 3 or 4 individuals from both Egypt and Tunisia did the same to themselves, seemingly without knowledge of this initial incidence. A mere coincidence? These incidents spread via the internet, ballooning into the week long protests in Tunisia that caused president Ben Ali to be deposed. My sense is that the people of Egypt, filled with hope after seeing the Ben Ali ousted, took that hope and began mass-scale protests in Egypt. This spurred the Egyptian government to shutdown the Internet completely to slow the mobilization of its people and protests, as social media was the driving force behind Tunisia’s revolt, largely as a result of tech-savvy youth. The importance of social media cannot be underscored enough. Youth quickly got to work on posters, slogans, and organized rallies, primarily via Twitter and Facebook. The majority of Tunisia’s population is under 30, which is also the case in Egypt. The fervor of a young population in tandem with social media mobilization has enabled these movements to spread at tremendous speed. Also, both countries’ citizens have largely the same misgivings, primarily economic. Egyptians thought to themselves: “If Tunisians can do it, we can do it” Thus, the ripple effect of revolution. Carpe diem, Middle East style.

Check it out!

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Asma Mahfouz: Bravery personified

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More of Cairo: Taha Hussein's grave, the Maqam of Imam Shafi'i, and Ibn Ata Illah

"I arrived at length at Cairo, mother of cities and seat of Pharaoh the tyrant, mistress of broad regions and fruitful lands, boundless in multitude of buildings, peerless in beauty and splendour, the meeting-place of comer and goer, the halting-place of feeble and mighty, whose throngs surge as the waves of the sea, and can scarce be contained in her for all her size and capacity." -Ibn Battuta

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The Pyramids

On a hot dusty day in Cairo, I jumped on a bus heading west to the suburb of Giza and the pyramids. Its quite a revelation to find that the Pyramids are smack in the middle of a bustling suburban area of Cairo, even more so when you encounter their stark beauty and sheer size. As for the relentless atmosphere of tourism, the scantily clad Italian and German tour package retirees...well it doesn't take away from the silent beauty of these monuments to the afterlife.

I also had the opportunity to see a much smaller less spectacular pyramid called the Step Pyramid. It is the oldest stone monument in existence, designed by the legendary architect, doctor and sage Imhotep. As always, enjoy the pictures!

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"Where the Middle East Meets Africa"

My friend and colleague W.H. Marsh has been penning some interesting stuff on his blog "Where the Middle East Meets Africa" He is currently doing a Fulbright in Cairo and has a lot of interesting insights about race, culture and politics there.

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Water World, Power Sharing Agreements, and Other News

Gentle readers, I appreciate your patience as The Azanian Sea has been a bit quiet due to my academic obligations. Studying Arabic is a full and a half time job, so I've been taking a break from blogging to categorize majzoom and munaasib verbs and other grammatical delights.

It's been a busy summer for world headlines in East Africa and the Indian Ocean. A tragic airline crash and a horrific bombing of a prominent Sufi shrine in Lahore meant Pakistan was again in the headlines for negative reasons. The US continued its controversial drone-initiated missile attacks against the Pakistani Taliban in Waziristan. Elsewhere in Sudan, the government released Hassan al-Turabi a month and half after his arrest.

In Zanzibar, the ruling party CCM (Chama Cha Mapinduzi) and its opposition CUF (the Civic United Front) head into a vote today expecting a change in Zanzibar's election laws to allow opposition parties to form coalition governments. It is hoped that the change will reduce the tension between the two parties, which had become acrimonious and at times violent following elections in 2001 and 2005.

The ongoing water wars between Egypt and the nine other countries that share the Nile River continued with the Egyptians being accused of hiding behind the 1929 colonial-era Nile Water Agreement, which states that Egypt gets 90 percent of the river's water. The disagreements promise to continue, as Egypt is loathe to budge from its claims over the Nile's water, as a large portion of its agricultural economy is dependent on that water. Past attempts to negotiate water rights have largely been conducted between Sudan and Egypt but Ethiopians have been increasingly vocal in voicing their opposition to the current water situation.

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Reshaping Muslim World Narratives?

The Rand Corporation is working up a new proposal to 'reshape Muslim world narratives'. This proposal states that the basic problem of Muslim countries is the narrative they possess (that is, the life story that contributes to their identity) is basically 'hostile' and 'violent'. Thus RAND's project " aims to develop national social and historical narratives that can enhance positive cohesion in Muslim world nations." According to the briefing:

"The benefits of such an outcome are obvious. A narrative of this kind can help these societies clarify common goals and direction. It can lend sense' to tragic events of the near and distant past. It can lay the foundation for reconciliation and shared national identity. It can address the deficit of dignity and pride that many believe are at the heart of the current anger and violence emanating from the region."

The author of the briefing is impressed with the US narrative, because it:

"allows each member of society, regardless of which side his or ancestors were on, to identify with all sides of a past conflict--with those who suffered an injustice, with those who were a party to injustice, with the losing side, with the winning side—while still embracing the outcome as the right thing to have happened. Additionally, those whose ancestors were not involved can still identify with the broad themes of unjust suffering, courageous resistance, social advancement, and progress towards greater justice."

So basically there are no losers in the US narrative, only winners, because the US always moves forward in the spirit of justice. While this is, at best, insulting to the thousands of activists who gave their lives in order to make justice a reality for the oppressed and poor of the United States, it is also symptomatic of the false historical narrative of American exceptionalism which we as a nation still believe in (most of us). And the RAND would like to export this model:

"In Phase I, a team of historians, educators, media experts, and political analysts will disassemble the American narrative, identifying the essential components of the narrative, including its themes, catalytic events, and integrative techniques, and create a neutral template from these for application to other nations."

This is the sort of dangerous cultural hubris that should be avoided, not encouraged in US foreign policy. The problem is not the narrative; Arabs are not idiots, and they are quite capable of crafting a resonant historical narrative given the opportunity. I seriously doubt they require the assistance of a special US project. And from the little traveling I have done, residents of these countries are quite capable on the whole, of separating US policy from US citizens.

Perhaps I am misinterpreting the intent of the project, but it seems to me that the real purpose of this project, is to get those who are clear that the US is responsible for a great many of their security issues (i.e. in the targeted nations of Syria, Egypt, and Iraq) to stop thinking of the US as an invader and more as a trusted ally. But you cannot change the facts on the ground. No amount of narrative re-shaping can undo the chaos the US has left in the wake of not one, but two invasions of majority Muslim countries in the past eight years.

Instead, US foreign policy should start from the premise that people are quite capable of crafting their own positive narrative, which will place the US in a constellation of relationships with other nations, IF the US will stop playing carrot-and-stick with Syria, stop propping up the corrupt Mubarak regime, and end the Iraqi occupation. Trying to cram false positivity into an explosive situation will most assuredly have an adverse effect: the US will be seen (correctly) as engaging in cultural propaganda and this will embolden reactionary regimes even further.

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In An Antique Land

Its hard to describe this engaging book from Amitav Ghosh. Is it a novel? A memoir? A travelogue? A historical reconstruction? A distillation of the best traditions of Orientalistism? In fact it is all these and more, a most remarkable journey into a lost world. Ghosh is an Indian historian researching the history of a 12th century Jewish merchant while living in an Egyptian village. Interwoven with his search for Ben Yiju's life from Mangalore to Aden to Alexandria is an often hilarious account of his relationships with the residents of the village. Ghosh humorously relates the litany of questions he is bombarded with about the customs of India ("Ya Allah, do they REALLY burn their dead in India?" is a constant one)

What emerges most strongly from Ghosh's account is the fluidity of medieval Indian Ocean society; how merchants crossed political boundaries with ease and how this movement generated a level of cosmopolitanism and cultural familiarity, a shared understanding across nation, religion, and ethnicity, which we see through Ghosh's account, has broken down. (if it existed at all for the common people).

One of the most affecting sections of the book involves Ghosh's encounter with a healer named Imam Ibrahim who refuses to part with his knowledge for Ghosh's anthropological interest. Goading Ghosh about 'those savages' who burn their dead and worship cows, he provokes an angry outburst from Ghosh, who brags that his country "has had a nuclear explosion."
Writes Ghosh, "At that moment, despite the vast gap that lay between us, we understood each other perfectly. We were both travelling, he and I: we were travelling in the West. The only difference was that I had actually been there, in person: I could have told him a great deal about it...but it wouldn't have mattered. We would have known, both of us, that all that was mere fluff: in the end, for millions of people on the landmasses around us, the West meant only this--science and tanks and guns and bombs."

Altogether this is a most unusual book, and an interesting diversion from more straight-ahead scholarly treatments.

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