WATANI International
5 September 2010
“In the first place I am a poet… poetry is the language of revelation and intensity… I think our emotions have become so intense today that they cannot dispense with poetry.” The words belong to the poet and staunch defender of modernity and enlightenment Ahmed Abdel-Moeti Hegazi. Through his weekly article in the Cairo State-owned daily Al-Ahram, Hegazi frequently found himself in the thick of battles over a wide range of questions. To cite but a few, these included the renewal of the religious discourse, women issues, and the controversy over Syrian novelist Haidar Haidar’s A Banquet for Seaweed. Among his famous intellectual battles was one which weighed the impact of the much-maligned Napoleon’s French Campaign of 1798 against Egypt, but which, according to Hegazi, was quite positive on the cultural level and catapulted Egypt into the modern age. Watani spoke to Mr Hegazi.
How would you identify yourself?
First and foremost I am a poet. Before I travelled to France in the 1970s I used to spend most of my time on poetry. I had sufficient income to cover my expenses, so there was noting to compel me to write articles for newspapers. When I came back, I had no savings and my income fell short of covering my financial obligations, so I accepted the commission of writing a weekly article for Al-Ahram. This is one of the problems facing Egyptian intellectuals. To make ends meet they have to spend much time working, which comes at the expense of their major areas of creative interest. To be frank, when I stop writing poetry, I feel I am betraying myself.
While searching for self, I realised that Egypt’s history should be seen through a collective perspective. Now some Egyptians overlook and are even contemptuous of the Pharaonic civilisation, claiming that the country’s history started in 639AD with the Arab invasion of Egypt. I believe that Egypt has one history that carries many cultures within itself. We must be proud of our multicultural background.
What is the contribution of poetry to world culture?
Poetry as an art has been known by man from the earliest days of history. There is a close tie between poetry and religion. When reading [the ancient Egyptian text] ‘The Book of the Dead’, one finds that it uses poetic language. The same could be said about Akhenaten’s hymns. When it comes to Judaism, it is commonly known that there were many poets among the people of Israel. Poetry has been a major component in Arab culture. When the Prophet Mohamed recited the Qur’an for the first time, the people of Mecca said this was poetry.
Even though poetry is a basic art in all the different languages and literature of the world, it was especially so in the case of Arabs. Other nations had other arts beside poetry; the Egyptians had the narrative, the history, the instructive and the religious. The Greeks had poetry and philosophy. But to the Arabs, poetry was both their history and philosophy.
So, if we lose the poetry we lose the reference point of our Arabic language we lose the way our ancestors thought, their ethics, their imagination, and their notions about eternal life. To protect the Arabs’ relationship with their past and their heritage they must conserve their relation with poetry.
Arabic poetry is today translated into several languages, becoming thus truly international.
Where did the idea of the House of Poetry come from?
It had to do with my relationship with French culture. The fact that I spent many years in France induced me to bring the idea to Egypt. In the early 1990s I was invited to read my poems in the Parisian ‘House of Poetry’. There was an institution specialised in sponsoring poetry. I learned that several similar institutions existed in capitals all over the world. France was the first country in Europe to host a house of poetry, and now they can be found in several Arab cities including Rabat, Tunis, Sanaa, Oman, Sharjah, and Manama.
When I told Culture Minister Farouk Hosni about the idea, he responded enthusiastically and suggested that the house of Sitt Wassila in Old Cairo, which dates back to 1664, be assigned for this purpose. The house serves as the bridge linking the present-day public to the past.
What is the task the House of Poetry is most keen to perform?
Preserving our forefathers’ poetry. It has to be borne in mind that our area of interest is not confined to poems written in classical Arabic. Rather, it covers those in colloquial Arabic, the Nubian language and the dialect of the Sinai Bedouin. We should also cultivate relations not only with European poets but also with the poets of the Orient, such as the Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Indonesian, Persian, Turkish, and even Australian poets.
The house of poetry should hold various cultural activities. These should include poetry recital and critique evenings, as well as musical and lyrical evenings to confirm the strong relationship between poetry and music. There will also be exhibitions for photography, sculpture, and plastic arts. It can organise festivals inside and outside Egypt, and there will be a magazine—as yet unnamed—to be the outlet for news of the House of Poetry. It will be used to collect and revise poetic and critical texts and cover events which will be held to discuss them.
How do intellectuals react to the growing ethnic and sectarian division?
Indeed, intellectuals should not be perceived as a homogenous block. By definition, however, intellectuals are supposedly those who devote their lives in search of the truth. To properly perform their role in society, intellectuals should rise above narrow loyalties and stand up to fanaticism of all sorts. This is how I believe things should be. But the reality is rather different. Some intellectuals fan the fire of sectarianism without admitting that they are promoting fanaticism. Everybody knows that Egypt’s project of modernisation was dealt a blow with the eruption of the 1952 Revolution, which ushered in the end of democracy. With the only exception of the Muslim Brotherhood, all political parties were banned by the Free Officers. The catastrophic defeat of Egypt in the Six Day War in 1967 paved the way for the rise of the Islamic current. Depending on Islamists in his fight with the opposition left, the late president Anwar Sadat further fuelled sectarian strife. Regrettably, Sadat himself was a victim of his own policy. Americans and Europeans are now claiming to be teaching us lessons about battling terrorism, although they themselves were the first to provide shelter to those wolves. In fact, their experience with terrorists is clearly similar to that of Sadat. They should understand that Islam has nothing to do with terrorism. Those who talk about the clash of civilisations, led by Samuel Huntington, sow the seeds of conflict among peoples of the world.
What about the clash of civilisations?
This is not real. It is a call for agitation. History teaches us that Islam and Christianity never benefited from war. Religion is the language of the heart. So how could it benefit from war? Standing behind the call of a ‘clash of civilisations’ are political institutions and rulers. They aim to revive colonial domination and guarantee US hegemony over the world. Some further deepen the division by the myths they promote. Take the following proposition: the Western mind is naturally scientific, while the Arab mind is emotional and religious in the first place. However false this argument may be in reality, it has had an influence on many intellectuals. They disregard the fact that the 20th century teemed with pioneers of enlightenment including Qassem Amin, Rifaa al-Tahtawi, Taha Hussein, Salama Moussa, and Louis Awad. Now we need a new class of creators to lead society.
How could intellectuals play their presumed role as defenders of progress and modernity?
First of all, they should stick to their independence. The State also has a big role to play with respect to spreading and protecting culture. It should provide cultural outlets with reasonable prices. I would like to say that, as the editor-in-chief of Ibdaa magazine, I went through several battles when it dared to discuss sensitive issues, including that of our Coptic heritage. I felt that the State was on my side. But intellectuals should by no means become a mouthpiece for any party whatsoever.
Does the Arab mind have room for self-criticism?
Self-criticism is inevitable if we are to move forward. We have to acknowledge our defects. Otherwise we will fall short of defeating backwardness and stagnation. The Renaissance was particularly characterised by the rise of critical thinking.