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Al-Ahram Weekly 21 - 28 January 1999 Issue No. 413 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 21 - 28 January 1999 Issue No. 413
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Focus Economy Opinion Culture Features Living Travel Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters New age new fare
By Youssef Rakha
One would not expect the first week of the Book Fair to go exactly as planned, and though the finalised programme will be available as of Saturday 23 January, visitors are advised to check with venues as late as possible. Given the sheer magnitude of the event, however, it is unlikely that anyone will be left unoccupied, even if their specific preferences have been moved, postponed or cancelled altogether.
Following complaints about last year's disorderly readings, the poetry evenings this year will each include only three well-established poets (two Egyptian and one Arab), while any number of less well-known versifiers can be heard reading their work in the Culture Café and Okaz Bazaar. Among the famous poets scheduled to read are Adonis, Mohamed Afifi Matar and Ahmed Abdel-Moeti Hegazi. Seminars take on endless guises as Al-Liqaa Al-Fikri (Intellectual Meeting), where dignitaries will speak about the topics of the main symposium; specialised seminars, in which they review specific issues like "human rights organisations" and "the future of the environment in Egypt"; Shahadat (Testimonies), where various public figures, including the much talked about businessman Naguib Sawiris, are expected to make an appearance; and, finally, Katib wa Kitab (Writer and Book), where books will be discussed in the presence of their authors. Highlights include Ragaa El-Naqqash's 1998 sensation, Naguib Mahfouz and his Memories, as well as Bahaa Taher's latest collection of short stories, Dhahabtu ila Shallal (I Went to a Waterfall) and Milad Hanna's historical work, Quboul Al-Aakhar (Accepting the Other). In Saraya Al-Ihtfaliat, the Celebrations Hall, on the other hand, Umm Kulthoum and the colloquial Arabic poet Abdel-Rahman Al-Abnoudi, as well as such popular music stars as Latifa and Samira Said, will be the subjects of large-scale memorial and honourary celebrations, while Mukhayam Al-Ibdaa (Performance Tent) will witness performances by folk music groups, experimental theatre troupes and performance artists from the provinces. Other events, testifying to the strong Arab presence in the Fair, include Layali Al-Shariqa (Nights of Shariqa) (27-30 Jan), a special event where visual artists and intellectuals from both the Emirates and Egypt will celebrate Shariqa and discuss the shared cultural heritage of both countries.
The thirty-first round of the Cairo Book Fair (26 January-11 February) goes by the new age title of "The end of a history, the beginning of another". Focusing on such topics as "science and where it will lead humanity", "the standardisation of the global economy" and "capitalism -- history of the future", the main symposium will touch on a wide range of issues the only common denominator of which is the millennium. Dr Samir Sarhan, however, is eager to identify the Fair with its original function, despite the many artistic and intellectual events that will occur alongside the symposium."The plays, the films, the poetry evenings are not presented for their own sake," he says. "Every cultural activity is presented in terms of its link with literature, because the Fair, however much it expands, remains essentially a book fair. And books still occupy centre-stage, still play the lead in the big show."
With 697 Egyptian and 1,773 foreign publishers from 78 countries offering 3,750,000 volumes, after all, one can hardly complain. Having been partly responsible for this expansion himself, the middle-aged academic and playwright has his own theory about the Fair's function.
"Because we are used to the sort of free, democratic thinking that illuminates Arab life emanating from Cairo, the idea is to create a climate where this can go on. Of course, intellectuals have never been decision-makers, they don't possess concrete answers. All they possess is a vision. And this vision must be affirmed, especially in a big cultural event like this one. The main thing is to create this climate, and the basic function of the Fair is the same as the basic function of culture, art and creativity -- to raise questions. The answers, on the other hand, are in the hands of decision-makers. But culture makes its own kind of impact. Intellectuals must not stop questioning the prevalent value-system and assessing its relevance..."
In answer to one of the more frequent charges levelled at the Book Fair, that many Arab and international invitees do not show up, Dr Sarhan does not cite logistics as the culprit.
"It's not true that we insist on inviting people who refuse to participate," he says instead. "All those who have been invited are coming. The fact is that there are no foreign invitees this year, but there is a central figure, Sheikh Ahmad Zaki Yamani, the ex-minister of petroleum in Saudi Arabia, and a worldwide expert on oil. As you know, the Arab world has been suffering from lower oil prices, and he will speak specifically about the future of the Gulf countries, in the context of the global conspiracy to reduce oil prices to a minimum."
As it turns out, in fact, the greatest surprises of the Fair are neither Egyptian nor Western, but Arab. Besides Sheikh Ahmad, who is "an international figure discussing an issue that pertains to the whole world, not just the Arab countries", there will also be "the second conference of the UNESCO project, Kitab fi Garida, whose core round table is made up of ten Arab intellectuals, including poets Mahmoud Darwish, Samih Al-Qasim, Abdel-Wahab Al-Bayyati and Adonis, as well as the 25 general editors of the newspapers that issue the books every month. And that is not to mention the many other Arab intellectuals who will be present, whether or not they are official invitees..."
As for the millennial anxiety which seems to have caught up with the Fair, Dr Sarhan finds the questions posed by the next century particularly significant. "It all goes back to the argument put forward by the Japanese American thinker, Fukuyama," he explains, "that, with the death of the ideologies and the beginning of the new world order, the history of humanity has ended and a new history is about to begin, and that this new history is conditioned by capitalism, capitalist economics, and the political order known as Western democracy. Of course, part of the result of this process is the standardisation of the global economy. So we must stop at Fukuyama's argument while we are on the threshold of the next century. The beginnings of the so-called new history are no doubt rife with contradictions. While capitalism triumphs, for example, the possibility that only one power will dominate the world economically has dire consequences for poorer countries. From the cultural viewpoint it clashes with the issue of national identity. From the political viewpoint it poses threats to national sovereignty and compromises the fates of peoples, as we saw with Libya and, more recently, Iraq. The new world order, in its present constitution, may also marginalise the role of culture, in the interest of economics and politics, and perhaps also militarism. And this prompts intellectuals from all over the world to defend culture as the essential international common ground, which can confront the consequences of the new world order and globalisation, and affirm the role of heritage and the specificity of each culture, encouraging dialogue between peers rather than cultural dependency and the authority of one culture over another."
While heralding "major renovations in every physical aspect of the Fair", Dr Sarhan would rather talk about the mental side of things. "There's no point telling you that we've got new carpets for the buildings is there," he snaps. "Of course, we've developed everything. This year the books are displayed using state-of-the-art methods, comparable to the ones used in the Frankfurt Book Fair and the most developed major book exhibitions around the world. We have information kiosks in every saraya (building), as well as a new books section which will spare those who are looking for the latest books a great deal of effort. We have an exclusive saraya for Egyptian publishers and one for Arab publishers to cope with the expansion in the number of books on offer. And the whole event is much better organised than in previous years. On the other hand cultural activities have also expanded. The number of young authors who read their work points, if still tentatively, to a new literary movement... What concerns me as an intellectual, however, is the philosophy behind what's going on."
Dr Sarhan reverts back to his original topic. "In a way, the object is to prove that Egypt plays a central role in the thought and creativity of the Arab world. And to stimulate thought and creativity. The dignitaries and public figures who will attend the seminars do not represent themselves but represent the issues on which they're working. Farouk Hosni will discuss cultural issues, Hussein Kamel [Bahaa El-Din] educational ones... Osama El-Baz will talk about the possibility of a 'third road' [i.e. a political road that is neither socialist nor capitalist], which is another major possibility in the world today..."
Doubtless the next Book Fair is tinged with new age anxiety. Doubtless it occurs at the threshold of a new age. Whether it will provide genuinely new fare, however, different from its 30 previous incarnations -- that remains to be seen.
