You’re probably aware of this already, but shit’s going off in Cairo. A lot of people there are registering their discontent at decades of state repression and corruption by staging running battles with police in the streets. There are reports coming through of government aircraft taking off without warning from Cairo airport, which probably means that North Africa’s revolution is as real and as reckless as the hype has suggested. After Tunisia’s Ben Ali was deposed on January 15th, Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak is on the brink of being the second African despot leader booted off his throne into the sea in as many weeks. If I were Colonel Gaddafi, I’d be in a plane bound for Brazil with my head buried in the vast bosom of my Ukrainian nurse by now.
Anyway, the clashes in Cairo have already found iconic framing in clips like this that have snuck through the government’s internet lock down:
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Scenes like this are repeating themselves every half hour across Downtown Cairo, so it’s not hard to see why some people are referring to the protests as Egypt’s own ‘Tiananmen Incident’. But whereas China’s Beijing Student Massacre was confined to one nation, the unrest in Tunisia and Egypt is perhaps just the start of a process that will see North Africa’s autocratic regimes toppled like dominoes. Who knows. This might be the start of a whole new continent.
I spoke to my friend Shima who was at yesterday’s riots with her sister. While they were lying on the ground getting trampled over and choking on tear gas, this US-made gas canister ricocheted off her and she started bleeding:
“I’ve never seen so many Egyptians gathering together since I was born,” she said. “I couldn’t believe it. They said that these numbers are the biggest for more than three decades.
“There were about 70,000 in Tahrir Square where I went for the main protest. I could say we were even more than this, you could see on the horizon people of all classes and backgrounds and everything was happening very spontaneously. There were no opposing political parties and I can say it was a people’s revolution as a whole, lead by teenagers.
“The government media is announcing false information all the time, and the newspapers still insist on calling us a minority, which is frustrating.
“I’ve always felt bad about being an Egyptian – I felt always weak, oppressed, pessimistic and shameful but this day changed all my feelings and perspectives 180 degrees. For the very first time I feel truly proud of myself and my people and I’m very optimistic about the days ahead.
“It’s only after experiencing all this that the fear, hopelessness, shame and anger I used to have towards my country and people have disappeared. I will keep going out onto the streets.”
I wonder what Israel makes of all this. Thinking about the end of the world is fun, isn’t it? Here are some more photos to help kick your imagination along a bit.
WORDS: ALEX HOBAN
PHOTOS: BELAL KAMAL, AL-SHIMAA’ HAIDAR AND ZUPHIT FIDELMAN
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TikTok for download on the Apple App Store — Credit: Gabby Jones/Bloomberg via Getty Images