File spoon-archives/postcolonial.archive/postcolonial_2002/postcolonial.0205, message 197


Date: Fri, 17 May 2002 20:36:07 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Kamran D. Rastegar" <kdr7-AT-columbia.edu>
Subject: Re: Personification of Colonialism



It's worth clarifying for those who may not be familiar with Taha
Hussein's work or importance that the book here in question "The Future of
Culture in Egypt" was written in 1937/38, and that at that time Hussien
was a promising mid-range bureaucrat in the Ministry of Education. He was
to become the Dean of Cairo University, and Minister of Education after
the 1952 revolution; this book was a product of an early phase of
post-colonialist anixiety, where Hussein was looking forward to the
possibility of focussing on issues not directly related to colonialism and
the struggle for independence.

Although he diplays a great deal of admiration for the accomplishments of
Western educational systems, and although he is altogether ready to pin
the blame of certain social concerns on indigenous sources, it would be
very simplistic to read his intervention as purely a "personification of
colonialism" - he is arguing for an Egyptian indigenous response to social
ills that have arisen, he claims, through a modern history of both
Ottoman and Western European colonialism. It is from here that he
promotes the idea of a national culture, quite apart from, yet
synchretically attentive to, this legacy of colonialism.

In this sense I'd argue that the book is exemplary of a certain
consciousness of post-colonial concerns that was only just nascent at
this period in Egypt and the Arab world. Attempting to pre-imagine the
postcolonial cultural landscape, he is quite ambivalent about what the
correct path to tread might be, once the struggle for independence is
resolved.

K


On Fri, 17 May 2002, Waiel A wrote:

>
> Egypt was not part of the Ottoman Empire at the time the book was written
> and indeed it was not governed by "Turkish Pashas" then.
>
> About the book itself, I think it was fairly common among intellectuals of
> the time to stress the "Egyptiannees" of Egypt which would mean either that
> Egypt is not Arab or is not *only* Arab. Some of the major thinkers and
> writers of the time, Tawfeek El Hakeem and indeed Naguib Mahfouz himself,
> tended to view Egypt as not an integral part of an "Arab world". besides,
> national sentiments at the first half of the 20th century, including those
> expressed in the anti-colonialism 1919 Revolution, were mainly Egyptian in
> nature (and not Arab). And the word "Al Umma" (the nation) would be mainly
> used to refer to the Egyptians.
>
> waiel
>
> >From: chemicalis <chemicalis-AT-yahoo.com>
> >Reply-To: postcolonial-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu
> >To: postcolonial-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu
> >Subject: Re: Personification of Colonialism
> >Date: Thu, 16 May 2002 19:44:56 -0700 (PDT)
> >
> >yes I agree with you that the period of Modernization
> >was complex and he didnot call for imitation, but for
> >learning from the European model. do you think his
> >call is motivated by the negative tensions between the
> >Egyptians (especially intellectuals) and the Turkish
> >Pashas ruling Egypt, who were regarding themselves
> >"superior" in race, etc. than the "Arabs"?
> >was he calling for resisting the Ottomans  by revising
> >Egypt's "identity"? Was he resisting
> >Arabism/nationalism that many intellectuals were
> >urging for at that time? but, what would arguing that
> >"Egypt's links with theMediterranean/Western world
> >were multifaceted and ran deep in history" do to Egypt
> >at that time?
> >
> >samia
> >
>
>
> _________________________________________________________________
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>
>
>
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