The Egyptians: A Radical Story

It was not without excitement that I approached Jack Shenker’s book, The Egyptians: A radical story, a book long overdue as the clasp of the counter-revolution seems to have captured hope in a vice-like grip. The book is split into three parts, falling broadly into the pre-revolution era, the crux of resistance and the ongoing revolution. Shenker begins by setting the scene, explaining that the book aims to be a narrative away from the elites yet very much aware that we all live in a green zone seeing the world through our biases. Despite wanting to challenge these biases, the author is refreshingly honest in confessing that this book, like all books, takes a side.

A story of corruption and interests unfolds as Shenker covers the Nasserite, Sadat and Mubarak eras in terms of global economy, capturing perfectly the harsh reality being lived by those at the mercy of the rich and powerful, with state power pooling clearly into the interest of the rich. With Nasser came “embedded liberalism”, only to be followed by Sadat’s economic reforms, referred to as infitah, “opening” – ultimately another word for privatisation. The impact of Sadat’s politics, though lauded in the business fields, ultimately ate away at the core of Nasser’s social contracts, providing the average Egyptian with little to nothing.

Long has the media, both national and international, perpetuated the narrative of Egypt being politically inert. The common held belief of Egypt being in stasis did not change post the January 25 Revolution, if anything, the view of a static Egypt was maintained and the coming of a revolution was a shock. In this, Shenker highlights exactly how far from reality the case was, how little pockets of resistance were bursting up and down Egypt, and perhaps what is truly shocking is the ignorance of the state in not expecting that anything could come from it.

From Kamshish to Qursaya, threads of individual resistance are woven into a tale of the revolution, across time and the country, the revelation to the Egyptians, and to the readers, that in Egypt, economic liberalisation and political authoritarianism march hand in hand. As opposition to rural land reforms and military appropriation mounts, so does the awareness of the people, both of their power and of the State’s responsibility.

In The Egyptians, the complexity of the State is one that is perhaps mind boggling to most readers, the ability of the elites to create a landscape controlled by an undemocratic power grid, that is more oft than not, invisible. As Shenker attempts to grapple with the reality of what a deep state actually means, he discovers that the horror lay not in the stories told – not that the book is short of accounts of state violence – but in the psychological sabotage of the people. In order for the State to maintain its veneer of respectability and distance itself from any backlash, it has repeatedly informed the people that they have no agency, they are powerless and that change is granted only from a benevolent father figure (the State).

In seeking to maintain its patriarchy, the State’s discourse often attempts to draw parallels between the smaller family unit and a larger one, where the regime is the paternal figure steering the country ahead in turbulent times. It seems only fitting, that in the creation of anything outside mainstream control, such as ashwa’iyat (often translated to slums) and mahraganat, local popular music, we see individuals fighting to create their own space. The stubborn insistency to reject state defined norms, is not only what makes Egypt and the revolution quintessentially Egyptian, but is by definition, their resistance.

Since the beginning, Egypt has been condemned to be a story of binaries, an oversimplification of a people who wanted freedom and rose. In actuality, Egypt’s reality is far from a simple story, and as Shenker portrays it in what is perhaps the most detailed book on the Egyptian revolution, the struggle extends long before that. A heady and dizzying read, the reader is left with a sense of exhilaration, as a story of suppression and consequently resistance spans the pages.

Despite Shenker’s eagerness to break free from all elite narratives, he appears susceptible to that which he outwardly condemns in his books. Whilst conveying the reality of state violence and repression, the forcing of a “with us” or “against us” mentality, some may question how the Muslim Brotherhood have been reduced by him merely to an anti-revolutionary bloc, as an “other” when they have for so long been part of the fabric of Egyptian society and have as much claim on the revolution as anyone else.

Throughout the book, Shenker does away with the image of the poor ignorant Egyptian farmer, portraying them as innovative and free thinkers, yet somehow manages to excuse and whitewash the support for the coup. In the same book where Shenker quotes self-proclaimed liberals and revolutionaries; Alaa Aswani, who called for the banning of voting for those illiterate and cheered on the military’s brutal crackdown, and Gigi Ibrahim, who insisted on calling the military coup in July 2013 a revolution, he is unforgiving of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB), rehashing the popular line of “selling out the revolution” in Mohamed Mahmoud street, when dozens of Muslim Brotherhood youth could share stories of their shouts against the armies, of the tear gas that was like no other.

While refusing to allow authorities to put the revolution in a box, Shenker refuses to give space to MB “revolutionaries”, everything they have done was appropriated, taken from the true owners of the revolution. There is much to criticise Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood for, but there is a worry that in feeding into the Cairene elite’s rhetoric, Shenker falls guilty to the very thing he condemned.

In an otherwise hopeful book, the bleakest picture is painted post the Rabaa and Nahda square massacres, the glee of the supporters of the massacre a chilling reality. Yet, what Shenker manages to portray in his detailed book, is what is so often lost in the desolate picture of Egypt today, and that is that the deep state is no longer deep – it has been pushed to the forefront. The veneer of respectability the state worked so hard to maintain, the distancing of both economic hardships and police brutality, has been torn down. In The Egyptians, Shenker acutely captures the moment of the revolution; a moment of no return. For the January 25 Revolution was not confined to a date or place, but a state of mind. And it is for that reason that the counter-revolution, despite how horrific and bleak things may appear now, failed. The definition imposed by the State no longer stands.

Just like the mahraganat which insists on proving their existence, so does this book, it says defiantly we’re here and we’re here to stay.