The Sufferers Then and Now

June 12, 2007

The words of Taha Hussein at the beginning of The Sufferers, a collection of stories and polemics, sound oddly familiar. Looking back at Egypt's time under the monarchy Hussein writes:

...Egyptians formed two groups. One represented the great majority of the wretched, who burned with a yearning for justice in wakefulness, in sleep, and in the darkest hours of night. The other represented the small minority, which cowered from justice when confronted by the light of day... [1]

Hussein goes on to further develop this central contrast between the two Egypts.. one for the poor and one for the wealthy. Transpose America for Egypt and you could almost have a campaign speech by presidential candidate John Edwards!

This central contrast enlivens the short stories of The Sufferers. The story "Saleh" is a portrait of two boys, one prosperous and the other poor as can be. Saleh is the poor one, but Hussein makes sure to point out that Egypt is filled with boys like Saleh. Then in the second story "Qasim" we encounter a poor family left worse off than before after an uncle takes advantage of the seventeen year old daughter Sekina. Her mother Amuna beats her when she learns of their trysts. Hussein then addresses his Egyptian reader:

But the reader does not need me to portray these misfortunes. For it is very easy for him to observe his tumultuous life around him. He will recognize many 'Amunas' and 'Sekinas,' who can be counted not in hundreds and thousands, but in hundreds of thousands or perhaps in millions. [49]

It is bracing to read The Sufferers and to encounter such a clear call for social justice.. but in the back of my mind there is a nagging issue: the world of poverty that Hussein is describing sounds a lot like modern Egypt. In 1955, just three years after the revolution, Hussein could call those earlier days of injustice "distant". Judging by Egyptian films, the 50s and 60s were years of cultural optimism. Clearly Taha Hussein was a part of that broader optimism.

The government of Hosny Mubarak understands itself as a direct descendent of the 1952 revolution. Taha Hussein as a supporter of Gamal 'Abd al-Nasser is to some extent co-opted by the current government of Egypt. And so results one of the ironies of national histories. A writer who stood strongly for justice and equity has been made part of the intellectual heritage of a government that has largely ceased to care about those issues.. except in name. I have to remind myself that Hussein could not foresee where history was trending.

In the introduction to The Sufferers Hussein mentions the early confiscation of his book in Egypt and its subsequent printing in Egypt. He saw this as an embarrassment to Egypt. How would he respond now to the jailing of dissidents and bloggers? One hopes and trusts he would still write:

To these burning with their yearning for justice
And to those rendered sleepless by their fear of justice
To these and those together
Do I direct these words