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Al-Ahram Weekly 31 August - 6 September 2000 Issue No. 497 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 31 August - 6 September 2000 Issue No. 497
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters The third man
By Youssef Rakha
In Morocco, the "Asila Cultural Season" prompted open-ended discussions concerning the Moroccan south and democracy while, in Akhbar Al-Adab of 27 August, the saga of the arrest and release of Ibrahim Saadeddin continued to stimulate the conspiracist imagination -- exercised in, among other places, the Zaitoun Workshop (a division of the Tagammu Party) in the framework of a seminar on the independently produced, alternative-culture occasional book, Amkena, edited in Alexandria by writer Alaa Khaled and focusing on "the poetics of place". The seminar, which took place on 28 August as part of the Zaitoun Workshop seminar series, probed the intellectual concept of the book. Are the oral histories collected by Khaled and others intended to divulge places like Coptic Cairo through the testimony of everyday people? How do these people relate textually to the places in which they have lived? Do the interviews illuminate the places in question? And is there an underlying ideology?
But when the convergence of a Coptic theme, colloquial Arabic as a medium of expression and independent funding was brought into focus, notably by writer Youssef El-Qa'id, the exchanges acquired the all-too-familiar inquisitorial flavour with which El-Qa'id and others' cultural critiques are invariably imbued. Albeit in a confused and confusing way (old-guard "intellectuals", one attendee was quick to point out, remain unfamiliar with the concepts and practices of independent culture that is neither commercial nor state supported), Amkena was thus unsuspectingly trapped in the same prestructured conceptual framework of the nation, the writer's nationalist obligation to the people and the ideological function of literature.
In the light of Khaled's staunch refusal to rely on (foreign) funding for this non-profit enterprise (critic Abla El-Roweini expressed concern as to the viability of continuing to publish the book at the editorial board's personal expense), the defensive tone Khaled and other members of Amkena's editorial committee (like Mohab Nasr) were forced to adopt was particularly saddening. Such refusal results from a sincere desire to sustain credibility among post-engagement intellectuals, and to see the validity of a rare enterprise being unduly questioned merely points up a vapid idealism that is increasingly widespread and often masks professional corruption and political impotence. A discourse that percieves any deviation from the standard Arabic and commercial-government supported norms as cause for concern is not, at any rate, progressive.
And such, alas, was the nature of the discourse used by Akhbar Al-Adab to express an open hostility towards Ibrahim, whose recent misfortune, judging by Akhbar Al-Adab , at least, has revealed the "intellectuals'" narrowly channelled political frustrations in a particularly obvious way. Poet and subversive-post-modern hero Ahmed Taha -- for a long time he and his now defunct literary magazine Al-Garad were the targets of accusations of normalisation, general un-patriotic tendencies and even espionage -- contributed his first article to Akhbar Al-Adab in a long time (one thought the two parties were avoiding each other due to ideological differences), in which he highlighted the fact that Ibrahim had not emerged a hero -- Taha's phrase -- despite his finally being released, and criticised the activities of the Ibn Khaldoun Centre in the same way, implying that, had he been truly innocent of the crimes with which he was charged, Ibrahim's release would have been more widely celebrated.
More balanced, though no less provocative, were the discussions undertaken (by a broad array of Arab and non-Arab politicians, public figures as well as academics, writers and artists) in the course of one of Morocco's most well-known festivals, taking place in Asila in the south. The democratic imperative, though frequently commended, was questioned, with the likes of Egyptian former ambassador Ahmed Maher and Moroccan academic Ali Oumlil debating the efficacy of the Western democratic model and the specificity of Arab and Third World conditions. Among the notable participants who had nothing to say about politics and culture were Egyptian actor Ezzat El-Alaili (who was the festival's stellar guest of honour) and Egyptian poet Abdel-Mo'ti Hegazi, who organised a seminar entitled "Poetry and the crisis of communication", in which the lack of poetry's role in everyday people's lives was identified and examined yet again. But at least the Western connection was approached in a level-headed way, providing an intellectual space in which to examine Western models away from conspiracist agendas and political frustrations.
Yet the vast majority of these people each belonged to either commercial or government supported frameworks. So it remains to be seen whether those who attempt to break out -- the third men -- will still be regarded with suspicion, regardless of what they are actually doing or even how they are doing it.
