Sunday, November 13, 2011

Egypt, mother ship



Painted in 22 July 2011, by the artist Shehab. The street art is on El Shiehk Rihan street, behind The Mugamma.
Translation: "Egypt, mother ship: You will dock on the land and you will not sink with us [the Egyptians]."
There is a second, unrelated, piece of street art written above, "Yes, to the honorable 25 January Revolution."

The first piece of street art references a famous Egyptian song "Egypt, mother ship" written by Ahmed Fouad Negm (his nickname is Al Fagomy) in 1967 after the "nkba" [catastrophe], i.e. Israeli victory of The Six-Day War in which Israel seized the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt. The song was originally sung by the late Sheikh Imam.

Egypt is once again in turbulent waters. Egypt will land once it has a parliament and a president and a constitution, I can see her in the distance now.


Ahmed Fouad Negm is a reknonwed Egyptian poet. He is the father of Nawara Negm-- a journalist who writes the popular blog Gabhet El Tahyees El Shaabeya (The Popular Front of Sarcasm).
Ahmed Fouad Negm and Sheikh Imam often collaborated. Both spent time in prison for their songs which criticized the Egyptian government.

Here is a link to the song, preformed in the famous Egyptian movie "Tareq Ila Eliat" (The path to Eliat) which commemorates the Egyptian victory over Israel in the 1973 war (October 6th [the first day of the 1973 war] is a national holiday in Egypt).
The video includes English subtitles

Here is a link to Sheikh Imam singing the entire song.


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