WATANI International
21 November 2010
Despite the fact that the current political parties in Egypt were founded after 1976, al-Wafd is the only party that was formed early in the 1920s with popular backing. Incidentally, its history marks the history of modern Egyptian politics
Among all the political parties on Egypt’s current political field, the oldest and the one with the most illustrious history of public backing is the Wafd Party. Literally, al-wafd means the delegation. The foundation of the party goes back to the early 20th century and the then vibrant Egyptian nationalist movement which called for Egypt’s independence from British rule.
No Muslim monopoly
The British occupation of Egypt began in 1882 in the wake of a large and violent revolt led by Colonel Ahmed Orabi in 1881 against the then governing powers: Khedive Tawfiq and the European interference in Egyptian affairs. The revolt was crushed and Orabi banished to what is today Sri Lanka, but the mood of public grumpiness and the call for Egyptian independence remained.
In 1914, Britain declared Egypt a British protectorate. Once World War I was over, Egyptians decided to publicly campaign for their independence. Saad Zaghloul, the elected speaker of the Legislative Council, decided together with his two colleagues Abdel-Aziz Fahmy and Aly Shaarawi to form what was then named al-Wafd al-Misry (the Egyptian delegation) whose function was to strive for Egypt’s independence. To gain a public mandate, they began a nationwide campaign to collect signatures to authorise them to “work in all legitimate ways towards the independence of Egypt.” Egyptians responded in unprecedented alacrity and, in November 1918, the Wafd was formed of seven members: Saad Zaghloul as president, Abdel-Aziz Fahmy, Aly Shaarawi, Mohamed Mahmoud, Ahmed Lutfy al-Sayed, Abdel-Latif al-Makbaty, and Mohamed Aly Allouba as members.
The Copts noticed the delegation was an entirely Muslim one, so three prominent Copts: Wissa Wassef, Tawfiq Andrawis, and Fakhry Abdel-Nour went to meet Zaghloul. “The love of the homeland is not a Muslim monopoly,” Andrawis said. Zaghloul directly saw the point, and added three Copts to the wafd: Wassef Bouros-Ghali, Sinout Hanna, and George Khayyaat.
Dominant
The Wafd directly began working for the immediate termination of the British Protectorate. Zaghloul had created a delegation that involved representatives of most of the political and social groups of Egypt. Since it was full of so many different groups, it could not yet be truly considered a political party but more of a coalition.
They held talks with Reginald Wingate, the British governor in Egypt, wrote to the British Prime Minister Lloyd George and the American President Woodrow Wilson
The Wafd was denied its request to go to London and speak with the home government. They were not allowed to attend the Paris peace conference either. They counteracted by publishing memos and giving speeches ensuring that the delegations in Paris would know what the real Egyptian delegation desired. Later protests and statements led to the deportation of Saad Zaghloul and other key figures of the Wafd to the island of Malta. These deportations led strikes and demonstrations with chants including “Long live Saad… Long live Independence”. This started the nationalist revolution of 1919 and the British then released Saad Zaghloul and his followers.
Though the British were still in control and Zaghloul died in 1927, the Wafd party went on to become the dominant political organisation in the country, albeit in a subordinate role to the executive power of the king and despite later internal rifts.
In the opposition
The liberal period, and the British occupation, came to an end with the 1952 Revolution and the rise of Gamal Abdel Nasser as president. Nasser abolished all the political parties and had their leaders tried for political corruption. Egypt went into a soviet-style single-party system.
It took until 1976 and a decree by the then president Anwar al-Sadat for political pluralism to come back to Egypt. The Wafd came back as al-Wafd al-Gadeed (The New Wafd) and, with the wider freedom of expression under President Hosni Mubarak in the 1980s, became a major opposition party. Copts especially looked up to the Wafd as a party in which they held a special place. One of the party’s traditions is that the second man in the party should be a Copt. Mounir Fakhry Abdel-Nour today holds this position. The head of the party is al-Sayed Badawi who has promised to work to restore the party to its old glory.
