Two weeks ago, I wrote in this place reminiscing about the 30 June 2013 Revolution, that massive nationwide public uprising against conditions rejected by Egyptians. The long-suffering Egyptian people had for long decades endured rampant injustice, underdevelopment, political corruption, plots for dynastic rule, and placing the State under the sway of business tycoons who looked for their special interests. The straw that broke the camel’s back, however, was the appalling Islamist Muslim Brotherhood (MB) rule that rose to power in June 2012, in the wake of the 2011 so-called Arab Spring. I wrote that I viewed the year June 2012 – June 2013 as a period allowed by the Divine for Egyptians to experience first-hand true Islamist rule, and see for themselves the MB’s attempts at trifling with the time-honoured Egyptian identity by giving precedence to Islamism. The result was that Egyptians rejected the MB regime, and were once and for all weaned of the concept of benign religious rule. Historians and sociologists have long confirmed the capacity of Egyptians for endurance and stoicism, but there comes a point when the pileup of pressures brings about an explosion of rebellion and calls for reform.
The famous saying goes: “Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose”. The 30 June 2013 Revolution was not the first popular massive uprising in Egypt’s modern history; the first in the 20th century came in 1919, less than a century earlier. This issue of Watani, carries the story of the 1919 Revolution; the reader will not fail to detect parallels between it and the 30 June 2013 Revolution, confirming that the Egyptian national character is no fleeting or haphazard trait, but has its roots deep in history. It senses any threat to the nation, and promptly rises to defend its destiny.
I would like to give my readers a briefing here on the parallels I saw between the two revolutions. Let us begin with a brief on the events that led to the 1919 Revolution.
The year 1918 marked the end of the first World War. Egypt had been pushed to the frontline of that war by Britain which had occupied Egypt militarily since 1882 under the pretext that an Egyptian national uprising had then posed a threat to the Suez Canal and to British financial interests in Egypt. When the First World War broke out in 1914, Egypt was formally [since 1517] part of the Ottoman Empire, an adversary to Britain and its allies. Britain declared Egypt a protectorate of the British Empire, the Ottoman viceroys as national monarchs, and imposed martial law on the country.
WWI had a heavy toll on Egypt which emerged from the war ‘squeezed’ and injured yet expecting to be granted independence in exchange for its substantial help to the British. Egyptian nationalist politicians, headed by Saad Zaghloul, brought their demands to the British, but were rejected. Zaghloul and his fellow politicians were arrested in March 1919 and exiled to British-controlled Malta.
The arrests sparked the 1919 Revolution. Egyptians from all religions and classes united against the British. Student demonstrations led to strikes by transport workers, and morphed into a national general strike that paralysed the country. Rioting broke out in Cairo and other places. In the countryside, the revolution was very violent, exploding with resentment against the British. A historic event occurred when several hundreds Egyptian women gathered to protest against the British occupation, led by the wives of the exiled Egyptian nationalist politicians, Safiya Zaghloul, Esther Fahmy Wissa and Hoda Shaarawi; it was the practical start of Egypt’s feminist movement.
The British brutally quelled the revolt at the expense of lost lives and huge destruction. Realising that Egypt could not be held indefinitely by military means; the British returned to negotiating with the Egyptian politicians but, realising they would not compromise, and with the strikes and demonstrations continuing, they decided to proceed with their plan for Egypt. They deported Zaghloul, whose huge popularity they feared, to the Seychelles; and declared Egypt an independent country on 28 February 1922, while retaining control over Egypt’s defence and foreign affairs. British troops remained stationed in Egypt, and Britain reserved the right to increase troop levels during a state of war. Despite unfailing resistance and political effort, Egypt only became fully independent in 1954, with the last British troops leaving in June 1956.
When the 1919 Revolution erupted, the British could not fathom it was indeed a revolution; they saw it as a string of student demonstrations and worker strikes. Soon enough, however, it was obvious that all Egyptians were taking part: students, workers, civil servants, women, Copts and Muslims, gathered as one man around the common purpose of independence for Egypt. This coincides with events of the 30 June 2013 Revolution when Egyptians of all walks of life spontaneously and voluntarily took to the streets in a breathtaking scene of national solidarity to prise their country out of the clutches of the MB. There they stood side by side, men and women, young and old, bearded and non-bearded, veiled and with hair uncovered, all sounding one demand: regaining Egypt.
In his book “The 1919 Revolution .. Egypt’s National History”, historian Abdel-Rahman al-Rafei (1889 – 1966) writes that the reason for the 1919 Revolution went beyond the hardship inflicted on Egyptians by WWI. It was a rejection of injustice and exploitation by the British who furthered their interests to the detriment of mainstream Egyptians that were left with only crumbs of their country’s abundance. This in addition to debilitating rise in cost of living and shortage of basic commodities. Again, a parallel situation preceded 2013, when the country’s wealth was placed in the hands of special interest groups, tycoons, and businessmen who were left to exploit it and even gain high political ranking in exchange for their support of dynastic rule.
In 1919, life in Cairo came to a standstill upon the strikes of workers, followed by tramway and taxi drivers. The revolutionists cut telephone and telegraph cables; banks and shops closed; lawyers and judges went on strike; as did railway train drivers. The result: the British had to allow Zaghloul to return from exile, they cancelled the ban on newspapers, and looked into worker demands. This was similar to what happened with the nationwide protests of 30 June 2013; at Cairo’s Tahrir Square, the epicentre of the revolution, Egyptians would not budge till their demands of an end to MB rule were met. It took the intervention of Egypt’s faithful army to see the demands of the people come true.
Watani International
14 July 2023