Mike Rogers, the Marine, came to our house and he was in no mood to joke around. I knew that he was making the rounds of all the mansions here with his men in a military jeep that hadn’t been ruined by sewage. He said we should not leave our homes unless it was necessary. He said that we shouldn’t worry. Everything was under control.
That expression by itself (‘we’re not worried and everything is under control’) meant that we needed to be very worried.
Mourad asked him what the matter was. He said that the poor were rising up. The rebels were advancing across the desert in organised throngs.
‘I don’t want to alarm anyone,’ he added with a meaningful tone, ‘but at any moment we may ask you to evacuate.’
‘When?’
‘When the helicopters we’ve asked for get here.’
Mourad said to him tensely, his lower lip beginning to quiver, ‘You must protect me. I’ll pay you a special reward.’
‘I get paid to protect all of Utopia, and that’s enough for me,’ Mike replied in his American, imitation-cowboy manner, ‘Don’t worry.’
I almost yelled at Mourad: Why are you shaking?
Why don’t you show some more pride?
Why aren’t you more dignified?
What I expected from my father was anger, not fear. To show disdain, not quiver. To get furious, not nervous. To curse, not blame. Leaving?
Scattering in all directions?
That won’t happen. This was my land and this was my world. I was born here. If my father stole these rights, then they had become my birthright, and I wouldn’t give them up for the likes of Gaber, beggars and street whores.
I hurried to the entrance gates.
Larine called me.
Germinal called me.
Rogers warned me to keep away.
But I made my way between the soldiers who had taken up their battle-ready positions and had prepared the gas bombs and bazookas.
None of them dared to stop me because they knew who I was. But they tried to prevent me, without enthusiasm.
I raised my head to look outside the gates.
I gasped.
I saw them there, advancing along the horizon. They were carrying torches and shouting in anger.
They would be here in fifteen minutes.
They would be among us.
Bayoumi and Mitwalli and Abd el-Zahir and el-Sirgani and Safiya and Awatif and Azza and Mina and Zenhom and Shehata and Abbas and Safwat and Abdallah and Mursi and Adnan and Zalata and …
All of them here.
Mike told me, ‘Get away from here now. OK? A few rounds will quell their fervor. After the first five hundred casualties, they’ll see things differently.’
I wrenched the machine gun from the hands of a Marine standing beside me, and aimed it at the mass of humanity advancing on the horizon. I ignored the fact that I had never done this before, and the forceful slam I received in my upper arm from the recoil didn’t weaken my courage.
So I started to shoot.
I shoot.
I shoot.
That’s the moment I really love you
Put your neck, my little one
Put your neck on the sacred stone
I shoot
I shoot
Beat the crap out of me and ruin my life
We have seen beyond our differences
Arrest me or let me go and walk all over me
We have seen beyond our differences.
Glossary
abaya: a loose-fitting full-length robe, usually back, traditionally worn by some Muslims in the Middle East, particularly in the Arabian Gulf region
Abdel Rahman el-Abnoudi (1938–): a very popular contemporary poet known for writing in the Egyptian dialect rather than in formal Arabic. Originally from Upper Egypt, he is frequently considered a spokesman for Egypt’s poor and marginalised
Ataba Square: a busy square in central Cairo
Bab el-Shaareya: a poor urban neighbourhood in downtown Cairo, located near the northern wall of the medieval city
barghouta: a game often played by men on the streets of Cairo, involving a cup and a backgammon board. The game is associated with the urban poor, and has a slightly seedy reputation, like shooting craps in the US
bey: an Arabised Ottoman rank (formally bek) that has become a general term of respect
Hajj: the annual pilgrimage to Mecca prescribed as a religious duty for Muslims. Term also used for a man who has performed the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, or as a respectful form of address for elderly men
jinn: one of a class of spirits that according to Muslim demonology inhabit the earth, assume various forms, and exercise supernatural power
Gamal Hamdan (1928–1993): an Egyptian scholar and geographer, known for his books on Egypt’s geography and its people
Hijaz: the western coastal region of the Arabian Peninsula; here referring to the cities of Mecca and Medina, site of the Hajj pilgrimage made annually by millions of Muslims
Kuthayyir Azza: an Arabic poet from the first century of Islam – he reputedly died in the year 105 of the Islamic era (723 AD) – who was famous for his love poems addressed to a married woman named Azza
Saint Theresa: a neighbourhood in Shubra, north of downtown Cairo; also the name of a Cairo underground station in the same area
SAVAK: name of Iran’s notorious state intelligence agency in the pre-revolutionary government of Shah Muhammad Pahlavi. SAVAK’s reputation for the abuse and torture of suspects was a major source of anger among Iranians against the Shah’s reign
Shubra: a large, working-class district north of downtown Cairo known for its rough character
Stefan Rosti (1891–1964): a star from Egypt’s black-and-white film era. With his pencil-thin moustache, he was known for playing elegant villains
Yusuf bey Wahbi: an actor and director (1898–1982) from Egypt’s ‘golden age’ of black-and-white cinema
A Note on the Translator
Chip Rossetti is the translator of the novels Saint Theresa and Sleeping with Strangers by Bahaa Abdelmegid (AUC Press, 2010). A book editor, he holds a degree in Greek and Latin from Harvard and is currently a doctoral candidate in modern Arabic literature at the University of Pennsylvania.
First published in Arabic, 2009,
as Utopia by Dar Merit, Cairo
First published in English in 2011 by
Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Publishing
This electronic edition published in 2012 by
Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Publishing
Qatar Foundation
Villa 3, Education City
PO Box 5825Doha, Qatar
www.bqfp.com.qa
Copyright © 2009 Ahmed Khaled Towfiq
Translation © 2011 Chip Rossetti
The moral right of the author has been asserted
ISBN: 978 9 9921 9430 0
Abdel Rahman el-Abnoudi, excerpts from 'The Poem of Ordinary Sorrows', 1981. Reproduced by permission of the author.
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Utopia is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
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