Journalist Mahmoud El Tamimi in his talk spirtis in the city focused on suez canal. All photos by Amira Noshokaty.
The brainchild of Architect Omar Zahran, under the slogan ‘Invisible layers, Untold stories’, this edition of Revive Heritage included a session of Spirits in the City National memory project by journalist Mahmoud El Tamimy. Focusing on the Nationalization of the Suez Canal and the Tripartite Aggression on Egypt that soon followed in reaction to the Nationalization in 1956.
The Digging
"The digging of the Suez Canal saw the largest forced-labour campaign in the history of humankind. According to researchers, in 1862 around 20,000 workers a month were forced to dig the canal," explained journalist and researcher Mahmoud El Tamimi.
“In Nobar Pasha’s (Egypt’s Prime Minister during the reign of Khedive Ismail) memoirs, he wrote that Khedive Ismail took ownership of land in Menya and wanted to visit it, so he decided to create the railway, which would have been easy for Ismail to pay for with his own money.
However, Ismail learnt from Ferdinand de Lesseps and forced workers to create the railway, where the Village’s Mayor would gather young men, tie them with ropes and force them to go build. That was in 1862; by 1962 workers were board members in their own factories. Of course, the mismanagement in the public sector has turned such privileges into corruption, but we cannot deny such steps for the Peasants and workers of his country,” noted El Tamimi.
Who dreamed of nationalization first?
"Dr. Mostafa El Hefnawi earned his PhD from the Sorbonne in Paris on the importance of nationalizing the Suez Canal before the 1952 revolution. That's why the first thing Nasser did after the 23 July 1952 revolution was ask Dr. El Hefnawi, in August 1952, to give a lecture to military officers at the Military Club in Zamalek on the significance of Suez Canal nationalization. This fact is revealed — though in dramatized form — in the film Nasser 56, directed by Mohamed Fadel and written by Mahfouz Abdel Rahman," El Tamimi explained.
Longest speech
Nasser declared the nationalization of the Suez Canal in a speech on 26 July 1956. The speech, delivered in Manshia, Alexandria, was one of his longest public addresses. Beforehand, El Tamimi said, Nasser made sure Egyptian captains were ready to take over the canal, that the stock market was closed, and that his code word to signal the start of the takeover was "Ferdinand de Lesseps" — the name of the man who had originally secured full rights to the Suez Canal.
The nationalization, however, led to the Tripartite Aggression — by the UK, France and Israel — against Egypt on 29 October 1956.
"British intelligence had prepared two surprises: one, if they managed to reach Cairo and topple Nasser, was to install an Egyptian government in London; the other — worse still — was that they had printed Egyptian paper money in London to replace the Egyptian pound. That was reported in the writings of renowned journalist Ahmed Bahaa El-Din," El Tamimi explained, adding that this was not a new tactic. In 1940, he noted, Italian troops on the outskirts of El Salloum advanced to Sidi Barrani and reached the oasis, bringing with them new Egyptian pound notes printed in Italy.
"The two pillars of power in any country are the government and the economy," he added.
7 nights and a day
The evening delved into the great efforts of civil resistance that defeated the Tripartite Aggression, commemorated in a song declaring that all the men and boys of Port Said should be proud, generation after generation, for defeating the invaders in seven nights and a day.
The evening concluded with a mixture of patriotic songs by some members of the Sout El Bahr troupe from Port Said. Fatma Moursy, Egypt’s first lady to play the ancient folk music instrument of Semsemya, took the floor with her playing the Semsemya instrument, which is registered on UNESCO’s intangible cultural heritage.
“Part of our mission is to practice a form of resistance that we have inherited from our ancestors, but we are resisting unawareness, and we should keep the words and names as they are. The National Day of Port Said was first called the Festival of Victory because it’s true: we won over 3 countries that wanted to invade us,” he concluded.
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