AFRICA THE BEGINNING : EGYPT

AFRICA OBJECT OF MY STUDY

My AFRICA begins with EGYPT

Background: 

Africa covers 6 per cent of the surface of the Earth

 and provides 20.4 per cent of Earth’s landmass. 

Occupying this massive and significant territory there are 1.1 Billion people. 

Africa is the second largest and second most populous continent on Earth.

We begin by studying Egypt.

Set in the North Eastern corner of Africa, Egypt at once presents us with an anomaly – a significant portion of its territory –Sinai- is not in Africa but adjacent to it.

Unlike much of Africa, the recorded history of Egypt is exceptionally long and detailed by world standards, and is characterised by  super abundance of ruins, artifacts and written records. Although Egypt is largely desert, the rich fertile soil of the Nile Valley and the regularity of its annual inundation, provided the means to encourage and support a mighty civilisation thousands of years B.C. It was a civilisation that was to become the object of the keen interest of the Romans, because it held out the promise of abundant, regular grain supplies.

Egypt became familiar to Western civilisation not only through its interaction with Roman and Greek civilisation, but more importantly through its integration into the story of the Old and even the New Testaments. These associations created and kept alive a strong interest in matters Egyptian, whether it be regarding Joseph and his coat of many colours or Moses and the Exodus and the watery end of Pharaoh’s Army, or Kadesh ,and then finally, the Flight into Egypt which appealed as a  perpetual mystery as to detail. 

In the 18^th and 19^th Centuries exploration of Egyptian ruins and tombs exploded in the most unscientific way, further titillating the popular imagination. Then came the Corsican Corporal – the Emperor (self-styled) Napoleon Bonaparte  and his team of more scientific researchers and artists to record their findings. Egyptology had arrived! In 1799 the French soldier Bouchard discovered what has become known as the Rosetta Stone. This stele is rightly famous for with its triple inscription in Egyptian Hieroglyphs, Demotic Script and Ancient Greek, it provided the key to understanding ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphs after Champollion perfected the translation. This in effect, unlocked the whole of millennia of Egyptian ruins and tombs and the civilisation that produced them, to our understanding. Later archaeological activities by the British and the Americans , each with their successive waves of wealth, saw the most intense levels of activity in Egypt. But no doubt the height of interest was achieved by the discovery of the still richly endowed tomb of the minor Pharaoh Tutankamen son of the “heretic” Pharaoh Akhenaten . Although the tomb had been disturbed in antiquity, it had been hastily but effectively re-packed with nearly all its treasures, sealed up and undiscovered until Howard Carter located it in 1922.

  

But the “modern” history of Egypt is something else again.

POLITICS

After a long period of relative stability under the successive Governments of Nasser, Sadat and Mubarak – all autocratic with strong military backing, the country was swept by a popular revolutionary sentiment sympathetic to the so-called Arab Spring movement. In fact the powerful Muslim Brotherhood was at work seeking to ensure that its interests benefited in the process. There was an interim Government for a year. The Muslim Brotherhood was pleased to see Muslim Mohammed Morsi elected as the first ever democratically elected Head of Government in Egypt’s long history. Their glee was short-lived when the Army forced him out promising fresh elections in the future. It is quite clear, even at the level of popular demonstrations that the country is strongly divided between Islamist and anti-Islamist opinion.

African though she is, Egypt has played a vital role in the Middle Eastern political scene following World War II and the establishment of the modern State of Israel  in 1948 by United Nations fiat. This action set off a chain reaction which continues until to-day. The action led to the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their ancestral homes. Their grievances and the sympathetic reaction of the surrounding Mohammedan States, including Egypt, led to many conflicts and reached a peak in the "Six Day War" of 1967 which was started by a pre-emptive strike by Israel against Egypt which was outstandingly successful and subsequently successful attacks on Jordan and Syria when they endeavoured to come to Egypt's aid. In 1978 the Camp David Accords brought a prolonged period of relative peace and Egypt and Israel became mutually wary but non- belligerent neighbours.

People

A surprisingly high proportion (91%) of the population is ethnically Egyptian – surprising given the cosmopolitan nature of much of North Africa and the Middle East. Some 923,000 Egyptians live in neighbouring Saudi Arabia, and 332,000 Egyptians live in Libya Egypt’s African neighbour to the West. In 2013 the Egyptian population was 84 Millions making the country the most populous in the Middle East and the third most populous in Africa.

Given its size and very long recorded history, Egypt is remarkable in having retained its integrity as a country through the whole time, having changed its religion three times –pagan, Christian and then in bloody conquest, Mohammedan.

Economy

The country has a reasonably diverse economy, but it must be remembered that it is heavily buttressed by United States foreign aid which in recent years has run at the rate of US 2.2 Billions per annum. Tourism has been a long term strength of the economy bringing in around US 10 Billions per annum. Egypt exports Coal – mined in Sinai, Natural Gas –of which she has large reserves, hydro electric power is generated from the great Aswan High Dam and the historic agricultural output of the Nile Valley remains a significant part of her wealth.

Summary

So much for Egypt! It was an interesting exercise, bringing together much that I always knew supplemented by research on the Internet for specific dates and numbers. The most important result, has been to fix firmly in my mind the actual geographic location of Egypt, which I "knew" but somehow never had fixed "photographically" in my memory.

Next we take a step to the West and look at neighbouring Libya - a very different kettle of fish!

Till next week!