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Al-Ahram Weekly 15 - 21 April 1999 Issue No. 425 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 15 - 21 April 1999 Issue No. 425
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Profile Features Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Plain talk
By Mursi Saad El-Din
The other day a young man came to me, asking my opinion about a research project he was undertaking about the English language publications in Egypt. That simple query brought back a trail of memories that I has almost forgotten.
I remembered my many years in London as cultural attaché. That was back in 1945, when relations between Britain and Egypt were not at their best. The war had just ended and Egypt had high hopes for complete independence. There was at the time a new Labour government with socialist ideas and one of its first actions was to give India its independence. A small group of us who embraced socialism thought the time was ripe to explain the Egyptian case to the new government. We prepared a booklet with the title "Egypt and the Labour Government", which we published in an attractive edition and sent to members of British Parliament. Then came a succession of delegations from Egypt who held talks with the foreign secretary. As part of our publicity campaign we decided to publish a magazine which we called The Bulletin and for which I was responsible.
When that young researcher came to me I fished out a collection of Bulletin issues which, somehow, I had managed to keep. Going through the 12 issues of that year's collection, I was impressed by the efforts we, a group of young enthusiasts, must have put in the production of the Bulletin and amazed by how distinguished the contributors to the magazine were, the range of the subjects dealt with: Zaki Naguib Mahmoud wrote about modern Egyptian literature; Fikri Abaza, about the Egyptian press; Rashad Roushdi, about the theatre; and Abdel-Aziz Hegazi, about the Egyptian economy.
Other articles of The Bulletindealt with problems such as housing, population, agriculture, problems which seem to be endemic. The housing and population issues take up a good part of the space in The Bulletin, to be challenged only by the anti-illiteracy campaign.
The quality of the articles contributed by the scholars who were pursuing higher studies in Britain is quite impressive. A series of articles about the ancient library of Alexandria are to this day topical, and can indeeed be useful with regards current efforts to rebuild that lighthouse of learning. The series by Ahmed Fakhri about the Siwa Oasis was later published by the author in the form of a book which has now become a handbook for those interested in the oasis.
Another series dealt with the history of Al-Azhar inked to which were a number of articles about the contribution of Islamic thought and sciences to Western civilisation. The articles were by distinguished Egyptians like Ahmed Hassan El-Zayat, who was at the time studying under the guidance of Professor Gibbs and who later became Egypt's minister of foreign affairs.
Political issues also took up quite a space in our Bulletin. Articles about the Suez Canal were published in January 1952, before the canal became an issue taken up by the 1952 Revolution. The Bulletin gave the background of the canal, publishing in full the agreement that governed that great waterway, as well as articles by English experts, such as Hugh Schonfield. The Bulletin's comment on Schonfield's article was: "While not necessarily agreeing with Mr. Schonfield's conclusion, The Bulletin publishes his article for its sympathetic approach to the Egyptian point of view."
The Bulletin was not the publicity method we used to promote Egyptian culture. We organised a series of lectures by both Egyptian and British speakers. Among the British speakers were Lord Dunsany who spoke about "The Influence of Egypt on my Work", Paul Rotha who gave a lecture on "The Film as an Influence on International Understanding", and Arnold Haskell, who wrote a popular book on Ballet in Penguin. To this day, I remember the interesting story with which he opened his lecture. The story was about an old lady who, booking her ticket for a ballet performance, said to the girl at the ticket office: "But please, my dear, give me a seat closer to the stage because the last time I could not hear a single word."
