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The Soul of the Square
Ahdaf Soueif (MA '73) shares luminous moments in Tahrir and optimism about the future
 Photographed by Omar Robert Hamilton
On Friday, February 11,
Egypt partied. Chants,
songs, drums and zaghareed
rang out from Alexandria to Aswan.
Three chants were dominant and very
telling. One, "Lift your head up high;
you're Egyptian," was a response to
how humiliated and hopeless we'd
been made to feel over the last four
decades. The second was: "We'll get
married; we'll have kids," and reflected
the hopes of the millions whose
desperate need for jobs and homes
had been driving them to risk their
lives to illegally cross the sea to
Europe or the desert to Libya. The
third chant was: "Everyone who loves
Egypt, come and help fix Egypt." And
on Saturday, they were as good as
their word. They came and cleaned up
after their revolution.
Now, of course, we're taking stock
of the size of the task that lies ahead
of us, and it is nothing less than
re-imagining and restructuring our
country. And doing this in the face of
powerful forces working against us.
But I am hugely confident. I'm
confident because I've watched and
listened to so many young Egyptians
over the last few months, and I am
awed by your clarity of vision, your
articulateness, intelligence and
determination. And so, over the course
of 18 short days, I have –– like so
many of my generation –– moved
from guilt and despondency over the
state of the world and the country we
are bequeathing to our children to a
feeling of pride and confidence in this
younger generation: in you. You
stepped forward, took responsibility
and started changing the world. Our
part now is to fall in line behind you,
to put at your disposal everything that
we have, and to offer you our support
in the form, quantity and time that
you tell us you want it.
It is in this spirit that this piece is
written. And in this spirit that I end it
with a quote from my son, Omar
Robert Hamilton, 26, who raced in
from Washington, D.C. to join the
revolution:
"We made a city square powerful
enough to remove a dictator. Now
we must remake a nation to lead
others on the road to global equality
and justice.
Tahrir Square worked because it
was inclusive, with every type of
Egyptian represented equally. It
worked because it was inventive, from
the creation of electric and sanitation
infrastructure to the daily arrival of
new chants and banners. It worked
because it was open-source and
participatory, so it was unkillable and
incorruptible. It worked because it
was modern. Online communication
baffled the government while
allowing the revolutionaries to
organize efficiently and quickly. It
worked because it was peaceful. The
first chant that went up when under
attack was always, Selmeyya! Selmeyya!
(Peaceful! Peaceful!) It worked
because it was just. Not a single
attacking baltagi (thug) was killed;
they were all arrested. It worked
because it was communal. Everyone
in there, to a greater or lesser extent,
was putting the good of the people
before the individual. It worked
because it was unified and focused.
Mubarak's departure was an
unbreakable bond. It worked because
everyone believed in it.
Inclusive, inventive, open-source,
modern, peaceful, just, communal,
unified and focused. A set of ideals on
which to build a national politics."
By Ahdaf Soueif (MA '73) |
