Imagine Africa

Imagine Africa. Published by the Pirogue Collective. Brooklyn, NY and Dakar, Senegal: Island Position, 2011. If you do a Google search for the phrase “Imagine Africa,” the results are not encouraging. Among the most popular results, you will find a company operating under that name offering “luxury safaris and beach holidays” in Africa. You will also encounter a project originating out of the University of Michigan under the name “IMAGINE Africa,” which in this case stands for “IMplementing A Global Internet Network in Africa,” a project intended “to bring Internet access to the rural population of Africa.” Another popular result is for an exhibition called “Imagine ...

Knowledge and Power in Algeria: An Interview with Daho Djerbal on the Twentieth Anniversary of NAQD

It is still very possible to work on Algeria without ever passing through the Contrôle Passeport in Algiers. For a host of reasons—archival, bureaucratic, historical and, perhaps, psychological—Algeria remains on the margins of its own historiography. Arriving in September, I expected to get many questions from scholars who have worked here in the past, pertaining to the current conditions of research, the upcoming legislative elections, and the finally-completed metro (thirty years in the making). Instead, the one question I was most consistently asked by friends and colleagues was: Do you know Daho Djerbal? Unlike the scholars who are hesitant to come (some of them ...

Thanks and Appreciation from the Syrian National Council to the Saudi Kingdom

This is Damascus

Never has Damascus been so gloomy. A quiet sadness hovers over the streets and alleys. The voices of people are strangulated, broken, and oppressed. The sound of a guilty conscience rings in their remorseful voices. The sound of death drowns out all other noise, creating a miserably hushed rhythm. The faces are somber. Even fights over gas cylinders are noiseless, with people clashing with their hands and eyes. They scramble to get hold of a blue gas cylinder but remain silent as they battle for it. Only a few cars drive through Omawiyeen Square, which seems deserted as never before. A large screen set up in the square to broadcast programs from the official Syrian ...

Anniversary of a Revolution in Mansoura

January 25th in Mansoura, though replete with its own unique set of revolutionary characters, had all the trappings of protests against the Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF) in Egypt, and in some ways, was a decent portrayal of the year in activism: the requisite frustration with military rule, surprisingly optimistic outlooks on the future, vague platitudes, carefully-focused demands, witty commentary, and of course, graffiti; all colored the day. Below, graffiti sprayed on the side of Mansoura’s muhafaza (governorate administrative building) was part of the city's participation in “Mad Graffiti Week,” a loosely coordinated but viral campaign—which ultimately went ...

In Colonial Shoes: Notes on the Material Afterlife in Post-Oslo Palestine

A strange and unexpected kind of waste fell across my path as I set out to research what I had neatly packaged for myself as “the politics of waste management in the West Bank.” It was late 2009 when an American friend introduced me to it on one of my first days in Jenin. “Oh, you are interested in trash? You’ll love this place, it is full of it!” And we were off. What struck me most when we finally made our way through an orgy of fresh fruits and vegetables, sold-off stands and carts in Jenin’s hisba market, was the scene of what my friend called the toilet bowl graveyard: rows and rows of porcelain bowls, no seats, out on the open concrete. Most were white, a couple ...

A Year in the Life of Egypt's Media: A 2011 Timeline [Updated]

[This timeline is part of a series on Egypt's media after Mubarak. Click here to read "Free at Last?"] FEBRUARY 10: Thousands of protesters converge from different areas in Cairo and Alexandria on the Ministry of Defense and the Northern Military Area, respectively. Demonstrators called for an immediate end to military rule and set up a screening of online-to-offline campaign Kazeboon's (Liars) videos in front of the ministry to showcase violations during SCAF's rule.  Free Egyptians Party MP Mohammed Abou-hamed, a vocal critic of SCAF,  Keep Reading »

Video: The Revolution Lives on in Marches Throughout Cairo

The revolution lives on in marches throughout Cairo, 25 January 2012.  

Genocides-R-Us

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The Revolutionaries Will Return on January 25

While 25 January 2011 marks the first anniversary of Egypt’s revolution, for many Egyptians, January twenth-figth is not a day for celebration but a day to complete unfulfilled promises of the revolution they started a year ago: bread, freedom, and social justice. Produced by the Mosireen collective, the following clip highlights different voices from Egyptian society affirming their determination to continue the revolution they began on 25 January 2011.  

25 January Anniversary Demonstrations: All Roads Lead to Tahrir

Activists map out locations from which they plan to march towards Cairo's Tahrir Square Wednesday on the first anniversary of uprising that toppled Mubarak. Activists have established multiple starting points from which scheduled marches will set out towards Cairo’s Tahrir Square on the occasion of the first anniversary of Egypt’s 25 January Revolution on Wednesday. The day is expected to witness dozens of separate demonstrations, in which participants plan to hold up pictures of slain activists, Egyptian flags, and lists of outstanding revolutionary demands. A map provided by the fifty-five revolutionary movements involved in the planned demonstrations shows at least ...