In this documentary film titled Egypt’s Modern Pharaohs written by an Egyptian, Jihan el Tahri which was shown at the IREP Documentary Film Festival in Lagos last week, attention was drawn to the Egypt’s turbulent political history from 1952 to 2012. Edozie Udeze reports.
Egyptian filmmaker, Jihan el Tahri has always been imbued with the courage of a lioness. Even as the Freedom Park, Lagos, venue of the IREP Documentary Film Festival bubbled with frenzy, with thousands of people waiting to watch her film titled Egypt’s Modern Pharaohs, she felt unmoved. Sitting among her friends, she puffed away at her cigarettes as she carefully savoured the euphoria of the Park. She could only acknowledge banters from here and there as fans and film buffs greeted her from time to time. “I can only talk to you when the screening is over”, she told this reporter. “What is it you really want to know?” she asked as an afterthought, looking up from her seat with a disarming smile. “Just to know about the circumstances that led you into doing this documentary”, was my reply. “Ok then, no big deal”, she answered. “We’ll get around to it.”
This documentary film on the history of modern Egypt is making waves all over the world now. Titled Egypt’s Modern Pharaohs and divided into three parts; it details the sacking of the last Pharaoh King Farouk in 1952. Thus began the revolution in which the army has since taken over the political reign in Egypt. The uprising that sacked Hosni Mubarak began in 2011, it was then that El Tahri who had been in exile for decades due to her first film that troubled the regime of Mubarak, went back home for the first time. The confusion at home aided her freedom and return.
“When I got home from South Africa in 2011, my father was troubled. He was afraid for me and for the family when he said to me, ‘why did you return? You have already given us enough troubles here.’ Nonetheless, when I got to the Square there was much crowd there. There was, however, this picture one man was circulating. I took one from him. When I got home, I showed it to my father, who then exclaimed, ‘oh this is the picture of Mohammed Naguib’. Who is he? I asked him. He was the first president of Modern Egypt, he said to me”.
That then set her mind racing, knowing then that Gamal Abdel Nasser (1956 – 1970) was not really the first president after the fall of King Farouk, the last of the ancient Pharaohs in 1952.
The two hour film properly and painstakingly situates the events in their right perspectives. Having got her sponsorship from Qatar, el Tahri went to work, to let the world see what intrigues and intricacies that have shaped the Egyptian political terrain since 1952. The documentary covers a period of 60 years. From 1952 to 2012, it shows the battle of supremacy and power plays between the modern Pharaohs and the Muslim Brotherhood, a group that has tormented the Egyptian leaders for years. The Brotherhood has been seen as the alternative government and even some of the presidents courted their friendship, while others tried to suppress their reckless roles in the society.
The film opened with the chasing away of both the British and French forces from the soil of Egypt. This was done in 1952 when Mohammed Naguib and Gamal Abdel Nasser took over the armed forces. Same year, the last vestiges of the Biblical Pharaohs in their large epitome were eliminated from power. With this, the coast was clear for the revolution to thrive; to see if these new leaders could give the people the respite they needed to have unity, peace and growth.
The research deliberately paid uncommon attention to the roles played by Naguib to wrestle Egypt from the jaws of the fifth columnists, those who did not want Egypt to make progress. Due to this, there was constant squabble between Naguib and Nasser who later detained him. With Naguib under house arrest, Nasser gradually consolidated power, riding on the populist acclaim to hold firm on the people’s hopes and aspirations.
Now in firm grip of power, he erased every sign of Naguib from the political history and power play of Modern Egypt. But El Tahri did not forget to remind historians that officially Nasser was known to have ruled Egypt from 1956 to 1970. However, the revolution began in 1952 and there was a vacuum in leadership. Who then led the country at that time from 1952 to 1956? This indeed, is where this documentary clears the air and tried to restore the period in history that belonged to Mohammed Naguib, a gentle man general that bestowed on the people that need to go along with him for a greater tomorrow; a more prosperous and egalitarian Egypt.
Although Nasser made efforts during his long reign to better the lots of the people, he was noted to have resorted to the tactics and style of the ancient Pharaohs. Fear and oppression reigned supreme. People disappeared at every whim. He opened Egypt to the Arab world and turned to Russia for friendship. With this assurance, he went to war against Israel in 1967.
Israel responded quickly and according to the film, within one hour, Israel had finished the whole of Egyptian navy and thus set the country back by many years. Nasser did not recover from this disgrace and trauma until he died in his sleep in 1970.
Using commentators in French, Arabic and English, the film elaborated on these various stages when corruption was the hallmark of Egyptian leadership. Poverty took over the lives of the common people and fear ruled the waves, creating more unrest in all the nooks and cranny of the society.
In 1970, Anwar el Sadat who was Nasser’s deputy took over. An army general who did not quite grasp the intricacies of power play before Nasser suddenly died, he inherited a leadership troubled and divided between their love and royalty for the Muslim Brotherhood and the excesses of their modern Pharaohs. It took Sadat a pretty long time to wrestle power and restore confidence in the system. In 1973, he mobilised to fight Israel and to take back the Suez Canal seized and occupied in 1952 by Israel. When this did not work, due to the prompt intervention of Henry Kissinger, the US Secretary of State, Sadat was persuaded to turn to the US for a new political friendship. Thus, Egypt and Israel signed the famous Camp David Accord, with Sadat paying an official visit to the State of Israel.
In 1981, Sadat was assassinated by disgruntled members of the Muslim Brotherhood who accused him of drifting politically and religiously. They needed a society where Islam was given prominence. To them secularity must be expunged from the Egyptian political constitution. Jihad must be the necessary recourse. In the ensuing malady, Hosni Mubarak, Sadat’s deputy took over. A naturally repressive fellow, he began the longest reign of terror as the worst modern Pharaoh of all times. From 1981 until 2011 when he was ousted from power in a popular revolt and uprising, Mubarak was everything brutish, highhanded, oppressive and sadistic. “Yes,” el Tahri replied, “he used the state police to ensure that people disappeared every day. He ruled for five consecutive times in elections he organized to suit his whims and caprices.
“This was the moment we, as Egyptians, dreaded most. There was no strong voice against his government except perhaps the Brotherhood whom he allowed to contest elections individually and as independent candidates. In 2011, at 82 years, Mubarak still wanted to contest for the 6th time. This was when the trouble began for him. He also wanted his son Gamal to succeed him. The people said no. This is not a monarchy. This is not a new form of ancient Pharaohs. Besides, Gamal possessed no political experience. He was not a soldier and soldiers would never tolerate or accept him,” el Tahri said.
And so in January, 2011, the people marched to the Central Square in Cairo, following in the footsteps of the Arab Spring that had already started in Tunisia.
The interregnum
What formed the major highlights of the documentary were the events that shaped the Egyptian history for 60 years. Apart from the period of June 2012 to July 2013 when Mohammed Morsi was president, Egypt has been in the strong grips of army generals. It has become next to impossible for a civilian to rule and hold that nation together. The army has come to occupy and they have so much tasted power that they cannot relinquish it. They feel that Egypt would disintegrate, losing its secularity to the fundamentalists if it falls into the hands of civilians.
And so in 2013 once more, an army general Abdel Fattah el-Sisi took over. It is part of the moves to save Egypt from chaos. But the truth is that at every point in the political history of Egypt uneasy calm has remained the worth of the people. All their leaders have come to resemble Egypt’s Biblical Pharaohs known for their obnoxious ways of leadership. The centralized form of governance still prevails, with corruption at its highest level, while the state security apparatuses hang on the necks of the people. Turbulence reigns supreme. Fear grips everyone here and there. The documentary is so expository that it grips you.
It makes you harbour unbridled and deep sympathy for Egypt, this cradle of world civilization. The cult of personality of leadership, the intimidations that orchestrate leadership are still there, with poverty at its very peak. But when will this deep culture of bad leadership even end, not only in Egypt but in the whole of Africa? That is the lesson for all in the two–hour documentary.
