By Sophie Azeb
Guest Blogger
The entry on Egypt in satirical news agency The Onion’s atlas, Our Dumb World, reads: “Free Admission on Sundays. Located in the Smithsonian, the Louvre, the National Gallery in London, and countless other museums throughout the Western world, the nation of Egypt lies behind thick glass displays in climate-controlled rooms.” Its history? “Currently on loan to the British Museum.” No surprise then that a quick Google search for “Egypt looters” turns up 803 news articles, blog entries, and videos – all posted within an hour. Watching Al Jazeera on Saturday, I was struck by the lament uttered by an anchor at the news of looting. “Tragic,” she remarked as images of damaged artifacts from the Egyptian Museum were displayed onscreen. Her reaction is echoed by many reporting on Egypt in the media, ultimately at the cost of ignoring the real news in these tense hours: that Egyptians, inspired by years of brutality and violence, inspired by Tunisians, inspired by the rest of the world disregarding their needs, have begun and maintained a popular and leaderless revolutionary insurrection against a Western-backed, 30-year long violent dictatorship. They are dying for this.
But wait – back to King Tut.
Egyptians care more about their history and antiquities than the Western world gives us credit for. There is a reason that thousands of Egyptians created a human barrier around the Egyptian Museum in Cairo once “security forces” retreated. Our antiquities are our history too (Okay, Egyptologists?). We have a deep pride in our culture, and a deep love for our country. But Egyptians are not only joining together to protect museums and libraries. They are guarding neighborhoods, taking shifts to sleep between protests and prayers, distributing food, and directing traffic.
It is important to be concerned with the looting or potential looting of Egyptian antiquities. I would like to repeat, however, the assertion of Mona Eltahawy and the many Egyptians I’ve corresponded with over the past few days: I believe that these looters are working with Mubarak’s regime in an attempt to drive protestors to turn on each other or instigate a police attack on civilian protestors. I believe that Western media outlets are focusing on the looting in order to minimize the true significance of this mass movement (I’m looking at you, CNN). I would also like to emphasize that Egyptian antiquities, as The Onion sharply satirizes, have already been looted. In a former colony of Great Britain that is economically dependent on the United States and tourism, Mubarak’s dictatorship was no happy accident. The Orientalist rhetoric that has long facilitated the removal of Egyptian artifacts to more “capable” institutions goes hand in hand with upholding the Mubaraks of the world.
Egyptians will not stand down now. No matter what comes in the next few days or weeks, Egyptians have ensured their future will change. Let us imagine, build and protect a democratic Egypt first. Then we can work on protecting our antiquities.
Don’t worry. The museum will be open from Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
* Sophia Azeb is a graduate student and instructor in African & African American Studies at SUNY-Buffalo. You can follow her on Twitter.
Sophia, thank you for writing such a succinct and sharp response to all the folks worried about the looting of the museum. What I find “tragic” is that while so much attention has been payed to the supposedly beheaded mummies, very little has been said about the 150 or so people who have died while protesting. Who were they? What were their names? Why were they protesting? Instead, we have anthropologists on nightly news shows assessing damages to the museum. Of course, it has always been easier for the West to care about artifacts from the Third World than about the real people who live there.
I am of two sides on this: I recognize that it feels ridiculous to talk about art and artifacts when people are dying. I am also an art historian who works with art of another culture and time period that was largely destroyed by an invading army. I know the importance of material culture in telling history. I also know that a great deal of material culture relevant to Egypt’s history is housed outside the country (isn’t the British Museum’s Egyptian wing just lovely?), and that this looting will serve as an excuse to never return it. (Case in point: Peru v. Harvard, ad nauseum.)
When I heard of people dying I cried. When I heard of destroyed artifacts I cried. (It should also be noted that this goes far beyond the museum in Cairo; tombs have been opened and storage facilities ransacked. A lot of those items will never be recovered.)
I am, and continue to be, incredibly moved by those risking their lives to protect things from people paid to distract the West and increase our ever-expanding imperialist impulses. I am, and continue to be moved, by the majority of Egyptians that realize that the future must not come at the expense of the past.
I think it’s okay for some of us Westerners to recognize the importance of these things, too. Caring about objects (objects that have lives and tell stories) is part of my occupation, something which I truly believe in — caring about freedom is part of my passion.
Thanks Sophie. It’s a brilliant take. I laughed, I cried.
From my twitter feed:
@weddady: I think that the only artifact lost from the Egyptian museum is the mummy of 82-year old Hosni Mubarak.. #Jan25
His blog is here: http://dekhnstan.wordpress.com/