24 - 30 May 2001
Issue No.535
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 24 - 30 May 2001 Issue No.535 |
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Cairo University's African Research and Studies Institute is a beacon of Africanism in Egypt. Gamal Nkrumah takes a close look at this unique centre of learning
Portrait of an Egyptian Africanist
Sayyid Ali Feleyfel likes to describe himself as "the first 21st century director" of the African Research and Studies Institute at Cairo University. Indeed, Feleyfel has held the top position at the institute for only a couple of years now. His spacious office is what you might imagine a distinguished Egyptian professor's office to be like, piled high with students' papers and the countless volumes published annually by professors and researchers at the institute and by Africanists all over the world. Intermixed with the academic texts are invitations, lecture and seminar notices and plane tickets.
Dr Sayyid Ali Feleyfel, the director of the African Research and Studies Institute
Feleyfel was off to the Eritrean capital Asmara for the first time the following day and was rather excited about the trip. He was travelling with a group of old Africa hands including Arab Human Rights Organisation head and the late President Gamal Abdel-Nasser's special envoy to Africa Mohamed Fayek and Centre for Arab and African Research and Documentation director Helmy Sharaawy. An Eritrean student sat next to Feleyfel discussing the political situation in the Horn of Africa and more mundane subjects, like the current weather in Asmara. From the charming Italian colonial architecture of Asmara to the altitude sickness suffered by some visitors during their first few days in the 3,000-metre-high city, the professor and his Eritrean student lightly touched upon a wide range of topics. Particular attention was paid to the progress of the doctoral student's thesis and the paper he would soon present on Eritrean revolutionary leaders at a seminar on African leaders of the 20th century organised by the Institute.
"Last December we began seriously to assess and evaluate the work of the history department. We stood on the threshold of a new millennium and we have had a long experience of over 54 years analysing, researching and documenting African history. We needed to find out where we stand today and what we stand for," explained Feleyfel. "One way of finding answers to these questions was to organise a seminar on the leading African political and literary figures of the 20th century. We selected those figures that we felt contributed most in the struggle to emancipate Africa from colonial rule, backwardness and underdevelopment. We selected those individuals who made a difference, those who changed the course of history and those who worked hardest to uplift their people and to tackle the enormous challenges faced by the continent. But in focusing on individuals we also hoped to analyse the movements they led."
Feleyfel's first introduction to Africa was by sheer coincidence. As a teenager in the 1960s, his father took him to a bookstore to select a book of his choice, in celebration of his passing exams with flying colours. After carefully scanning the shelves, the young Feleyfel settled for A History of Africa. The book was an eye-opener, introducing Feleyfel to a whole new world. There and then began a fascination with the history, often misunderstood and twisted, of the long-suffering people of the African continent. The general vilification of Africans systematically common in the international media prompted Feleyfel to delve into the rich history of the vast continent and its disparate peoples. "For my master's thesis I chose to look at the history of racial segregation and the impact of the heinous apartheid system in South Africa, with a special emphasis on the early beginnings of institutionalised racism between 1857 and 1902," he mused. He was among the first Egyptian academics to do so. For his PhD thesis Feleyfel continued with a South African theme, taking a closer look at the British Cape Colony between 1853 and 1910. He did so at a time when there was a dearth of information, academic or otherwise, about South Africa in Egypt. Still, he persisted with the help of his mentor and supervisor, Ahmed El-Hetta.
Scholars remain largely in the dark about the extent and nature of influences from Egypt and the Arab world on the rest of Africa, and vice versa. As a historian, Feleyfel is well qualified for the post of director of the institute, one of the first of its kind in the world and certainly the very first in the Middle East. He has a strong sense of history and realises the important role that the institute could play in facilitating research on Africa and disseminating information about the continent in Egypt and the Arab world. Soon after Feleyfel joined the institute as an instructor in 1972, his works began appearing in Egyptian academic journals. He participated in seminars and conferences, presenting papers and meeting, in the process, other Africanists in Egypt and abroad.
Feleyfel quickly climbed the academic ranks, from assistant lecturer to lecturer and then professor. He wrote extensively on the Horn of Africa, Sudan and South Africa. Among his publications are The Ogaden People's Crisis: Stranded Between Ethiopian Occupation and a Sense of Arabo-Islamic Belongingness (1987); Foreign Powers and Regional Separatism in Sudan, 1990; The Racist Governing System in South Africa, 1991; Indigenous Africans and the Boer War, 1992; The Ottoman Empire and the Muslims of South Africa, 1993; The Historical Roots of the Angolan Civil War, 1996; The Arabic Language in East Africa, 1996; The Egyptian-Sudanese Frontier, 1997; and Chinese-Egyptian Relations in the African Context, 2001.
Feleyfel sees his writing as a means of introducing his Egyptian readership to Africa. But being a prolific writer did not stop him from devoting considerable time to his teaching responsibilities. He has to date supervised 25 masters and 15 doctoral theses. Alongside his academic career, Feleyfel has taken a keen interest in the affairs of students from African countries studying at Egyptian universities and other institutions of higher learning. Long before he assumed his post as director of the institute, Feleyfel was involved with summer schools designed to assist African students in both academic and extra-curricular activities. He is currently organising a computer summer course for African students.
Feleyfel believes that the key to cementing ties between Africans south of the Sahara and Egyptians (and Arabs in general) is to encourage African students in Egypt to perfect their command of the Arabic language. Between 1995 and 1998, Feleyfel was head of the institute's Centre for Teaching the Arabic Language to African Students. A historian by training, Feleyfel realises how important a good command of Arabic is in conveying a student's ideas and experiences, in articulating their views and opinions and in making it easier for them to understand and appreciate different aspects of Arab and Egyptian culture. "The Arabic language is by far the most widely spoken language on the African continent. Ten Arab states are located in Africa and over 70 per cent of Arabs live in the continent," he said. But African academics from countries south of the Sahara are more conversant with European languages and cultural norms and values -- not surprisingly, as they did their research under the auspices of Western, rather than Arab and Egyptian, institutions of higher learning. "There is a dire need to help create a new generation of African academics who are at home with the Arabic language, who are capable of expressing themselves and their opinions in Arabic and who understand our ways."
A tall order perhaps, considering the difficulties, financial, cultural and logistical, experienced by many of the 50,000 African students in Egypt today. Still, Egyptian Africanists like Feleyfel, are determined to cultivate stronger ties with Africa south of the Sahara through making the lives of African students in Egypt more rewarding and more meaningful.
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