Humanist

Recently I watched and listened to a video clip in which Dr. Nawal Sa’dawi expressed how she gets upset when her country, Egypt, is referred to as part of the Middle East.

And I thought, wait a minute, I am among the majority who have sheepishly accepted the categorization “middle east” as though it were a neutral and acceptable term. But it really isn’t neutral nor acceptable.

“Middle east” seems intentionally used to curve Egypt out of Africa to perpetuate propaganda, to the extent that many who have accepted this Eurocentric identification believe Egypt is not part of Africa.

Why go to such great lengths?

Among proclaimed major justifications for the colonization of Africa was “civilizing” the “uncivilized”. A narrative spectacularly debunked not only by the actions of the colonizers, which necessarily revealed how uncivilized they were.

Plundering and destroying civilizations of Africa is an uncivilized thing to do, for example. Often we lament about the genocide – killing of people, but we lament less, if at all, about ethnocide – destruction of civilizations and cultures.

For example, what is happening in Palestine currently is much more than genocide. It is also systemic destruction of the culture of the people of Palestine, ethnocide. It is preparation for Israel’s total annexation and erasure of Palestine.

Call to Action

Henceforth, I refuse to normalize the constructive dispossession of my motherland, Africa. If I want to regionally refer to Egypt, I will, as Dr. Sa’dawi guided, use “North Africa”. For that is the only truth.

As Uganda is in East Africa, so is Egypt in North Africa.

As Dr. Sa’dawi does, in addition, I too reject the categorization “the Arab world” when describing Egypt, for it robs me, an African of my heritage, ancient civilization of my African people.

Egypt is of Africa and its ancient civilization – pyramids, pharaohs, complex society and all, which existed pre-colonization, too are of Africa.