Page 220 - Features of an Era
P. 220
desire to build a monument to Nasser in the heart of Tahrir Square. Actually, the
pedestal of this monument was built, though the statue of Nasser was never put up.
The pedestal remained there until it was finally removed for the construction of the
Metrolines.»(31)
Thus, the first pages of the history of the statue of Isma’il’s stone pedestal were
erased in Dr. Asfour’s article. But why did Dr. Asfour write about the statue of Isma’il’s
pedestal that was witness to the end of the statue, although the article was primarily
dedicated to the poet Amal Dunqul(32)?!
Another new chapter of the significant creative link bringing together two
masterworks, a poem and a sculpture, is revealed on discovering the destined
wondrous events of history, combining the ingenuity of artists from different fields
during the intense political movement in Egypt. The stone pedestal of the statue of
Isma’il became a national symbol around which the youth of Egypt united, inspiring
Dunqul with one of his best poems, better known as the Song of the Stone Cake(33),
a title drawn from the shape of the granite pedestal. Its base consists of overlapping
scaled circles, like birthday cakes, such a revolutionary birthday cake adorned with
lively candles of the youth of Egypt longing for a movement at a political turning
point started in .1972
The article of Dr. Asfour recalls some events of this revolutionary uprising, and
its connection with Dunqul’s beautiful poem, the Song of the Stone Cake. He wrote
that students were tired of Sadat’s delay in starting the battle to liberate the land from
Israeli occupation. They held their protests until Sadat announced that 1972 was a
foggy year, unsuitable for action and vision. The free students protested in the most
violent demonstrations of 1972. Sadat closed the universities, but students of Cairo
and Ain Shams Universities rushed to Tahrir Square and demonstrated around the
statueless pedestal that Dunqul saw as a stone cake. They decided to sit in, protesting
against Sadat’s inaction on the war of liberation and stayed around the pedestal for
days, coping with the cold and hunger, determined to continue the sit-in. The Sadat’s
security forces refrained from intervention, waiting for their enthusiasm to calm down.
However, it did not dampen, and Tahrir Square became a mecca for all protesters.
Sadat ordered to disperse forcefully the sit-in while the students were sleeping. At
5:00 am, the police forces attacked the students sitting in around the pedestal. Many
students were injured, and some were killed. At sunrise, the sitting-in students were
sent to the hospitals and prisons; however, the wall of silence that the Sadat regime
attempted to impose on people was collapsed by the angry, rough voice of Dunqul
(31) Asfour, Gaber: Recalling Amal Dunqul, Al-Ahram newspaper, May 29th, 2011.
(32) A famous Egyptian nationalist poet, Amal Dunqul was born in 1940 into a Nubian family at Qala’a
village, Qift, Qena in Upper Egypt. He died in 1983 at the age of forty-three. He published six collections of
poetry: Weeping before Zarqa’ Al-Yamama (1969), Commentary on What Happened (1971), The Murder of
the Moon (1974), The Coming Testament (1975), New Documents about Basous War (1983), and The Papers
of Room No. 8 (1983).
(33) Ibid. 19
220
pedestal of this monument was built, though the statue of Nasser was never put up.
The pedestal remained there until it was finally removed for the construction of the
Metrolines.»(31)
Thus, the first pages of the history of the statue of Isma’il’s stone pedestal were
erased in Dr. Asfour’s article. But why did Dr. Asfour write about the statue of Isma’il’s
pedestal that was witness to the end of the statue, although the article was primarily
dedicated to the poet Amal Dunqul(32)?!
Another new chapter of the significant creative link bringing together two
masterworks, a poem and a sculpture, is revealed on discovering the destined
wondrous events of history, combining the ingenuity of artists from different fields
during the intense political movement in Egypt. The stone pedestal of the statue of
Isma’il became a national symbol around which the youth of Egypt united, inspiring
Dunqul with one of his best poems, better known as the Song of the Stone Cake(33),
a title drawn from the shape of the granite pedestal. Its base consists of overlapping
scaled circles, like birthday cakes, such a revolutionary birthday cake adorned with
lively candles of the youth of Egypt longing for a movement at a political turning
point started in .1972
The article of Dr. Asfour recalls some events of this revolutionary uprising, and
its connection with Dunqul’s beautiful poem, the Song of the Stone Cake. He wrote
that students were tired of Sadat’s delay in starting the battle to liberate the land from
Israeli occupation. They held their protests until Sadat announced that 1972 was a
foggy year, unsuitable for action and vision. The free students protested in the most
violent demonstrations of 1972. Sadat closed the universities, but students of Cairo
and Ain Shams Universities rushed to Tahrir Square and demonstrated around the
statueless pedestal that Dunqul saw as a stone cake. They decided to sit in, protesting
against Sadat’s inaction on the war of liberation and stayed around the pedestal for
days, coping with the cold and hunger, determined to continue the sit-in. The Sadat’s
security forces refrained from intervention, waiting for their enthusiasm to calm down.
However, it did not dampen, and Tahrir Square became a mecca for all protesters.
Sadat ordered to disperse forcefully the sit-in while the students were sleeping. At
5:00 am, the police forces attacked the students sitting in around the pedestal. Many
students were injured, and some were killed. At sunrise, the sitting-in students were
sent to the hospitals and prisons; however, the wall of silence that the Sadat regime
attempted to impose on people was collapsed by the angry, rough voice of Dunqul
(31) Asfour, Gaber: Recalling Amal Dunqul, Al-Ahram newspaper, May 29th, 2011.
(32) A famous Egyptian nationalist poet, Amal Dunqul was born in 1940 into a Nubian family at Qala’a
village, Qift, Qena in Upper Egypt. He died in 1983 at the age of forty-three. He published six collections of
poetry: Weeping before Zarqa’ Al-Yamama (1969), Commentary on What Happened (1971), The Murder of
the Moon (1974), The Coming Testament (1975), New Documents about Basous War (1983), and The Papers
of Room No. 8 (1983).
(33) Ibid. 19
220
