Between books and politics: Cairo International Book Fair as a field configuring event

ABSTRACT

This article analyses the Cairo International Book Fair as a “field configuring event” (FCE), namely, as a recurrent mass event that both reflects the social fields surrounding it and contributes to the shaping of these fields. More specifically, it is argued that the Cairo International Book Fair constitutes a major FCE in Egyptian society, which plays a significant role, not only in the publishing field and in the cultural and economic fields at large, but also in the political field. Focusing on the political field, the article traces how the Cairo International Book Fair in recent decades both reflected key struggles and developments in the Egyptian political field and affected these struggles. In the 1980s, the fair served as a platform for voicing and negotiating various positions toward Egypt’s relations with Israel; in the 1990s, it served as a platform for negotiating the relations between Islamists and Liberals; and in the 2000s, it served as a platform for negotiating the “permitted” level of criticism toward Mubarak’s regime. The article thus shows that the Cairo International Book Fair constitutes a useful prism for examining developments in the Egyptian political field over the years.

KEYWORDS:

• Cairo book fair
• field configuring event
• political discourse

Acknowledgements

In writing this article I benefited greatly from input by Israel Gershoni, Yoram Meital, Eyal Ben Ari, Ursula Woköck and Tamar Parush. I also wish to thank the anonymous reviewers of History and Anthropology for their useful comments on an earlier version of this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. This description is based on ethnographic fieldwork I conducted in the twenty-eighth fair, 1996. For similar descriptions that highlight the diversity of activities at the book fair, its mass attendance and its lively ambiance, see, for example, Albin (1983), Mehrez (2001), Wassmann (2008) and Naaman (2010, 446). In addition, dozens of similar references to the Cairo book fair may be found in popular websites, such as Touregypt.net (http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/bookfair.htm) and al-Ahram weekly (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2007/830/cu6.htm).

2. This agency was established by a presidential decree (no. 1813), issued by President Nasser in 1961. At the time of its establishment it was called “The General Authority for News, Publishing, Distribution and Printing”. The name and the delineation of its task were changed several times, until it received its current name—GEBO—in 1994. In the Egyptian media it is known, however, as “The Book Organization”. For a detailed account of its history, see its official website: http://www.gebo.gov.eg/.

3. For further information, see the very informative website of the Cairo book fair: http://www.cairobookfair.org

4. Cairo was established by the Fatimids in 969.

5. On the uprising and its importance in the Egyptian national imagination, see Goldberg (1992).

6. Although Egyptian media are preoccupied with the “statistics of the fair”—for example, the number of publishers participating in it, the number of countries represented by them, the number of visitors attending the fair and so on—it is very difficult to obtain reliable figures. The Book Organization website does provide some information, but it is partial and vague. For example, the website presents a graph showing a gradual and impressive increase in the number of publishers participating in the Cairo book fairs from 1982 to 2004 (from 130 publishers in 1982 to 3150 in 2004). However, the graph also indicates a dramatic drop in the number of participating publishers in 2005 and in the subsequent years, to the range of 500–600 publishers. This drop is a mystery, as it cannot be explained as an outcome of apparent political, economic or organizational processes. It is therefore reasonable to assume that the method of compiling the statistical data, for example, the criteria for assessing who counts as a publisher, were somehow altered (for the Book Organization graph and for a discussion of this issue, see CAIROBOOKSTOP – a website dedicated to finding books in Cairo: http://cairobookstop.wordpress.com/find-a-book-in-cairo/cairo-international-book-fair/).

7. The huge significance of the fair for the Egyptian book industry is partly explained by the weakness of the book distribution systems in Egypt, and in the Arab world at large (See Abou Zeid 2013; Helle 2016). Given the dearth of distribution channels, publishers in Egypt are especially dependent on the fair for selling their books and for initiating partnerships with publishers, distributors and agents in other Arab countries (Zeid 2013). It appears that small publishing houses, whose distribution systems are particularly limited, are the ones most dependent on the fair. For small publishers such as al-Ḥaḍāra Publishing or Dār al-ʿAyn li'l-Nashr, the income from book sales during the days of the fair may constitute up to 70% of their annual revenue. See http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContentP/18/11047/Books/Egypts-publishing-industry-between-suffering-and-h.aspx.

8. See, for example, al-Shaʿb, 26 January 1992, 8, and al-Ahalī, 6 March 1996, 2—two oppositional newspapers that lament the so-called deterioration of the book fairs that were held in 1992 and 1996; in contrast, government-affiliated newspapers such as al-Ahram, 25 January 1992, 1, and al-Akhbār, 26 February 1996, 4 – celebrate the success of these very same fairs.

9. The fair’s role in the Egyptian book industry, as well as its role in the cultural field, for example, in the field of Arabic literature, are beyond the scope of this article. I plan to deal with these issues elsewhere.

10. It is interesting to compare FCEs with national and religious holidays. While both holidays and FCEs have ritual and dramaturgical elements, holidays are much more scripted and leave much less room to open-ended negotiation and contestation. Consequently, political authorities can easily use national holidays as a political tool in processes of state-building and nationalist indoctrination (see, e.g. Kertzer 1988). In the context of the modern Middle East, Podeh (2011) has recently shown how twentieth-century Arab regimes have devised elaborate national holidays for the purpose of developing national identity, consolidating collective memory, and achieving political legitimacy (see also Wedeen 1999). While state-sponsored FCEs, too, may serve such purposes, they are less ritualized than holidays and allow more room for negotiation of both cultural and political values.

11. The repetition of themes, speakers and debates was criticized, occasionally, in the Egyptian media (see, e.g. al-ʿArabī, 4 March 1996, 2; al-Shaʿb, 5 February 2002, 11). It should be noted, however, that despite this repetition, close analysis of the fair’s central themes throughout the years does reveal some transformations. This issue is beyond the scope of this article.

12. See also the official publication: Cairo a Life-Story of 1000 Years 969–1969, and al-Ahram’s celebrative volume on the 1919 revolution: Khamsīn ʿawm ʿalā thawrat 1919 (with an introduction by Muḥammad Ḥasanayn Haykal).

13. As mentioned, in 1994, the name of this agency was changed to “General Egyptian Book Organization” (GEBO).

14. The new Egyptian Opera House was built in the location of that fairground in 1988, after a new international fairground had been built in Madīnat Nāṣr (see below).

15. A review of references to the Cairo book fair in leading Egyptian newspapers (al-Ahram, al-Ahalī, al-Akhbār, al-Shaʿb) reveals that in the years 1981–1986, more than 60% of the references were related to the Israel debate.

16. Mubarak was absent only from a handful of fairs (e.g. in the years 1984, 1985, 2004 and 2009), and whenever this happened, the officiating Prime Minister attended instead.

17. About ʿAmr Khālid, an accountant who became a popular preacher, see Bayat (2007, 149–155).

18. See, http://www.islamweb.net/ramadan/index.php?page=article&lang=A&id=8024. See also Bayat (2007, 147). According to his sample, which included 466 female visitors to the 2001 fair, 80% of the attending women were wearing ḥijābs.

19. See al-Ahram, 5 February 1988, 7.

20. See, for example, al-Ahram, 3 February 1981, 1; al-Ahalī, 5 February 1981, 4. For a detailed account of the events surrounding the Israeli presence at the thirteenth fair, see Anis (1985).

21. See, for example, Har’even (1996), who reports about the massive presence of Israeli students and buyers in the 1996 fair.

22. See accounts of this incident in Ruz al-Yusuf, 4 March 1996, 2; al-ʿArabī, 4 March 1996, 8; Oktober, 17 March 1996, 15.

23. See al-Ahram, 23 January 1999, 10. See also a report on this occurrence in Peace Monitor, 1999, 122.

24. On the tacit agreement between the Egyptian government and the opposition with regard to the attitude toward Israel, see Ebeid (1990, 26); Albrecht (2005).

25. For an illuminating review of Farag Foda’s liberal thought, see Hatina (2007).

26. For a similar conclusion, see Ajami (1998, 201–203), Berman (2003, 262) and Abaza 2010.

27. For a similar reference to the role of the Cairo book fair in general, and of Mubarak’s traditional encounters with the muthaqafīn in particular, in “structuring” and controlling the intellectual field in Egypt, see Jacquemond (2008, 25).

28. See also a report about this incident in al-Ahram al-Masāʾi, 4 February 1993, 11.

29. According to al-Shaʿb (23 February 1996, 3), “The state committed a major crime in banning the great master (al-ustadh al-kabīr) Muḥammad Ḥasanayn Haykal from taking part in the Cairo book fair  …  Haykal is a giant, and the people who criticize him are dwarfs”. In contrast, a governmental periodical did not fail to retort that

[The opposition] forgot that the list of speakers in the book fair was presented to a committee of Egyptian thinkers and writers, of which Samīr Sirḥān (the head of the Book Organization) is not a member  …  Haykal is a representative of an insignificant intellectual trend, which recent developments—such as the dissolution of the Eastern block—has left behind, and there was no reason whatsoever to invite him to the book fair. (Oktober, 17 March 1996, 10).

30. Kifāya, The Egyptian Movement for Change, was a protest movement challenging Mubarak’s presidency, which came into existence in the context of the constitutional referendum and presidential election campaigns of 2005 (see El-Ghobashy 2005; Meital 2006). Yellow stickers emblazoned with the word “Kifāya” (enough) and taped over the mouths of activists became the “trade mark” of Kifāya (see Clarke 2011).

31. “April 6” was an Egyptian activist group established in the spring of 2008, in support of workers in the industrial city of al-Maḥallah al-Kubrā, who were planning to strike on April 6. “We are all Khalid Saʿīd” was a prominent Facebook group created by Wael Ghonim in June 2010, following the brutal murder of Kalid Saʿīd—an Egyptian man who was dragged out of an Internet Café and beaten to death by the police. On these protest movements, which made ample use of new media, the Internet and social networks, see Ottaway and Hamzawy (2011), Khamis and Vaughn (2013).

32. According to Ḥilmī al-Namnam, the Egyptian Minister of Culture, the volume of book sales in the forty-seventh fair was greater than in previous fairs during the last decade. See, http://en.albawabhnews.com/78964. This statement was not supported, however, by any formal data. According to other media reports, 850 publishers participated in the forty-seventh fair, and the number of visitors exceeded two million people. See, http://magnificentonline.com/3666/culture-on-the-frontline-cairo-international-book-fair/.

33. See, http://www.youm7.com/story/2016/1/24/%D9%83%D8%AA%D8%A8-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AA%D8%B7%D8%B1%D9%81-%D9%88%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A5%D8%A8%D8%A7%D8%AD%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%83%D8%AA%D8%A8-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%AD%D8%B1%D9%85%D8%A9-%D8%B4%D8%B9%D8%A8%D9%8A%D8%A7-%D9%81%D9%89-%D9%85%D8%B9%D8%B1%D8%B6-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%82%D8%A7%D9%87%D8%B1%D8%A9-%D9%84%D9%84%D9%83%D8%AA%D8%A7%D8%A8/2552763.