Should only the brighter aspects or incidents of national history be acknowledged and highlighted, or should every part of that history be recognised, no matter how bitter or bright, defeated or triumphant? Politicians, national figures, historians and researchers have often struggled with that controversial question, and failed to give a definitive answer. In case of Egypt’s history in specific: should focus be made on the rulers, the people, or the incidents that went into shaping its civilisation? Do we obscure the negative incidents, or do we accurately and unbiasedly acknowledge all events? The uncontested truth is that historical fact is unalterable, subject to neither whim nor sentiment; subtraction or addition.
The questions on historical accuracy are valid in regard to countless instances in Egypt’s history; it is beyond the scope of this article to cite or discuss them all. From time to time, however, some new incident comes up. Watani’s current Arabic language issue carries a story titled: “The statue of De Lesseps finds a new home at the [Suez Canal] International Museum”. The statue in question is that of French diplomat and entrepreneur Ferdinand de Lesseps (1805 – 1894) who was the mastermind behind what is today the Suez Canal, the canal connecting the Red Sea and the Mediterranean. The visionary project created a maritime artery for transport and trade that cut down the distance and time it took to travel back and forth the east and west of the globe. It replaced the tedious, perilous journey around Africa’s Cape of Good Hope, which was the only way to do so until the Suez Canal came into existence.
It can safely be said that De Lesseps was the godfather of the Suez Canal project. He spent years studying its viability and introduced the idea to Abbas Pasha, ruler of Egypt from 1848 to 1854, but failed to convince him. When Said Pasha succeeded Abbas as ruler, from 1854 to 1863, De Lesseps was able to persuade him to go ahead with the project and, in 1854, Said Pasha issued a firman that gave De Lesseps the right to dig the canal and operate it for 99 years once it goes into service. The Suez Canal was inaugurated in 1869 under the rule of Khedive Isamil, ruler from 1863 to 1879. To immortalise the role De Lesseps had played, the Suez Canal Maritime Company, jointly owned by Britain and France, erected a statue of him at the northern tip of the Canal, in Port Said. In 1899, during an international celebration of the 30th anniversary of the Suez Canal, the statue of De Lesseps was unveiled. It remained in its place of honour at the entrance of the Canal for 57 years until 1956 when Gamal Abdel-Nasser, Egypt’s President from 1954 to 1970, nationalised the Suez Canal. This led to a military operation against Egypt by Britain and France, joined by Israel . The military action failed, and Egypt maintained its sovereignty over the Canal. But the people of Port Said reacted by rejecting the statue of De Lesseps at the Canal entrance; they felt it stood witness to a history of British and French occupation of part of Egypt. Port Said’s people demanded that the statue of De Lesseps be replaced by a statue of the Egyptian peasant who was the unsung hero of the Canal; thousands of Egyptian peasants had been forcibly conscripted to dig the Canal, many of them paying with their lives for it to come into existence as they worked under excruciating, inhuman conditions.
It was not possible to get rid of the statue of De Lesseps upon public whim, totally overlooking the pivotal historic role he played. The patriotic sentiment, however, weighed in and the idea of erecting a statue for the Egyptian peasant on the base which once carried that of De Lesseps was endorsed. But the statue of De Lesseps—unwanted by the people of Port Said—was not discarded; it was moved to the newly constructed Suez Canal International Museum in Ismailiya, alongside a collection of artefacts and documents that record the Suez Canal project since its inception and until President Sisi opened a parallel stream in 2015 to make the Canal a two-way waterway.
The story Watani is publishing records the great history of the Suez Canal, a bittersweet history Egypt is proud of. It recounts both the foreign and national roles; this is history that cannot be divided through acclaiming part of it and disowning another. It is a dear part of Egypt’s history that brims with countless instances which epitomise the singularity of Egypt’s strategic location and the greatness of her people.
Watani International
5 December 2020