Fayek is one of those names that, when mentioned in Africa or in international fora dealing with the continent, is recognized as one of the most prominent figures to have left a profound mark through his contributions to the liberation of African countries, the strengthening of their independence, and the pursuit of their economic and social development.
His name likewise stands out in Arab, African, and international circles concerned with human rights, as he is regarded as a pioneer who helped raise awareness and stimulate engagement with human rights issues regionally and globally.
This comes in addition to his significant historical roles in several senior positions at the heart of Egypt’s national decision-making process throughout the Nasserist era and until May 1971.
Every chapter of these memoirs deserves presentation and discussion, as they all address important and central topics. The author’s narrative style is engaging and captivates the reader to the extent that one finds it difficult to stop reading before finishing the entire book.
However, within the limits of this space, we will focus only on selected sections of the memoirs, according to themes we deem most relevant and worthy of reflection, while leaving others for a possible future occasion.
To begin with, it is essential to acknowledge some of the characteristics that set these memoirs apart from many other political memoirs published by Arab politicians over the past decades.
The first of these characteristics is the author’s serious effort to be objective when mentioning other figures, including his political opponents within Egypt as well as Egypt’s adversaries abroad during the Nasser era.
In some cases, Fayek even tries to explain the motives that may have driven those opponents to adopt the positions they took.
The second distinctive characteristic is his deep sense of gratitude toward numerous individuals who accompanied him throughout different stages of his seven-decade political and public journey. He acknowledges their merits and highlights the important roles of figures who sacrificed for Egypt and Africa but, in his view, have not yet received due recognition in history.
The third characteristic is his use of external references and sources for certain pieces of information, without claiming them as his own, a relatively rare phenomenon in previously published memoirs by many other Arab politicians.
Turning to the Egyptian context as recounted by Fayek, the first major topic he covers is the “national liberation war” against British occupation following former Prime Minister Mostafa El-Nahhas Pasha’s unilateral abrogation of the 1936 Anglo-Egyptian Treaty in October 1951. Fayek highlights the role of several members of the Free Officers Organization, who later led the 23 July 1952 Revolution, in leading the popular resistance against British camps in the Suez Canal Zone.
He also recalls his own role and that of other figures such as Kamal Eldin Rifaat, Mahmoud Abdelnasser, Abdelfattah Abulfadl, Saad Afra, Wagih Abaza, and Samir Ghanem, among others. He then sheds light on the renewed leadership by those same figures of the popular resistance in the Suez Canal Zone during the Tripartite Aggression (British-French-Israeli) against Egypt in October–November 1956.
The second national topic, particularly significant given Fayek’s central role in it, concerns the events of May 1971, which the late President Anwar Sadat called the Corrective Revolution.
Sadat’s Nasserist and leftist opponents, however, referred to it as a coup or counter-revolution.
Some political scientists and historians have tried to view it more objectively and have described it as a power struggle between Sadat and leading figures of the Nasserist era, among them Mohamed Fayek himself.
In his memoirs, Fayek rejects the characterization of those events as a power struggle or conspiracy, explaining instead that the mass resignations submitted by key ministers and senior political figures to Sadat in May 1971 were meant to express opposition to his unjustified delay in launching a war to liberate the territories occupied by Israel in June 1967, as well as disagreement with several of his other policies.
These included, Fayek notes, his “hasty” pursuit of unity with Libya, Syria, and Sudan—using it as a pretext to postpone the liberation war—as well as what Fayek describes as Sadat’s secret exchanges with American officials and his preparation to undermine Egypt’s then-alliance with the former Soviet Union, which at the time was providing Egypt with vital military and economic support.
Between those two historic points, Fayek dedicates several chapters to recounting his experience as Egypt’s Minister of Information during the Nasser years and up to May 1971.
He reviews the achievements made in the fields of radio and television, including the State Information Service (SIS), the Middle East News Agency (MENA), and other institutions under his ministry.
I would like to add a personal note here: almost a decade ago, at a celebration at the American University in Cairo (AUC), I had the honour of being seated at the same table with former Minister Mohamed Fayek and the late distinguished TV anchor Leila Rostom. Throughout the event, Rostom praised the many deep and diverse accomplishments Fayek achieved during his tenure as Minister of Information.
Moving from the national to the foreign arena, some of the most engaging parts of the book reveal aspects of Egypt’s role in Africa’s liberation and its efforts to help newly independent African states strengthen their sovereignty, resist neo-colonialism, and maintain their territorial integrity, despite Egypt’s own challenges at the time.
Fayek recounts, for example, Egypt’s position during the revolution in Zanzibar and its subsequent unity with Tanganyika to form Tanzania.
Despite the sensitivity of the situation, given the strong Arab—particularly Omani—presence in Zanzibar, Nasser chose to support the revolution and the unity, while ensuring guarantees for the safety of Arabs living there.
This decision angered Omanis, and their resentment continued even after Nasser’s death. He also recalls Nasser’s response to Nigeria’s appeal for Egypt to send Egyptian military pilots to help defeat the Biafra separatist movement, despite Egypt’s difficult circumstances following the 1967 defeat.
Egypt nevertheless answered the call.
One of the most fascinating stories Fayek recounts is how fate prevented a planned meeting between the late South African leader Nelson Mandela and the late Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser shortly before Mandela’s arrest and imprisonment in South Africa in the early 1960s.
Where domestic and international concerns intersect, Fayek recounts his human rights journey—especially after spending ten years imprisoned under President Sadat on charges he insists were false—and his refusal to seek early release by apologizing for a “crime that never occurred.”
His human rights activism spanned decades, from leading the Arab Organization for Human Rights (AOHR) since its founding, to fighting for legal recognition of the AOHR and its branches, to persuading Arab leaders that human rights benefit both rulers and the ruled.
He later held senior international and African positions in the field of human rights and eventually served as Vice President and then President of the National Council for Human Rights (NCHR) in Egypt.
In his memoirs, Fayek offers examples of his independence and impartiality during his human rights journey, refusing to compromise or yield to pressure while handling human rights issues nationally, regionally, or globally.
Undoubtedly, former Minister Mohamed Fayek’s memoirs constitute an invaluable legacy from which Egyptian and Arab readers—and indeed, readers everywhere—can draw inspiration.
These memoirs should be translated into other languages, allowing audiences across Africa and the world to benefit from the lessons and experiences they contain, lessons crucial for shaping better approaches to the challenges of the present and future faced by Egypt, the Arab world, Africa, and humanity as a whole.
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