Official Stories: Politics and National Narratives in Egypt and Algeria

293 Pages·2014·1.53 MB·English

by  Laurie Brand

Official Stories
Stanford Studies in Middle Eastern and Islamic Societies and Cultures
Official Stories
POLITICS AND NATIONAL NARRATIVES
IN EGYPT AND ALGERIA
Laurie A. Brand
Stanford University Press
Stanford, California
Stanford University Press
Stanford, California
©2014 by the Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University. All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system without the prior written permission of Stanford University Press.
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free, archival-quality paper
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Brand, Laurie A., author.
Official stories : politics and national narratives in Egypt and Algeria / Laurie A. Brand.
pages cm — (Stanford studies in Middle Eastern and Islamic societies and cultures)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 978-0-8047-8960-8 (cloth : alk. paper) — isbn 978-0-8047-9216-5 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Egypt—Politics and government—1952-1970. 2. Egypt—Politics and
government—1970-1981. 3. Egypt—Politics and government—1981- 4. Algeria—Politics
and government—1962-1990. 5. Algeria—Politics and government—1990- 6. Propaganda—
Africa, North—History—Case studies. 7. Authoritarianism—Africa, North—History—Case
studies. I. Title. II. Series: Stanford studies in Middle Eastern and Islamic societies and
cultures.
dt107.827.b73 2014
962.05—dc23
2014021438
isbn 978-0-8047-9232-5 (electronic)
Typeset by Bruce Lundquist in 10/14 Minion
CONTENTS
Preface vii
A Note on Qawmiyya and Wataniyya xi
Acronyms xiii
1 Restor(y)ing the State:
National Narratives and Regime Resilience i
2 Egypt under Nasser: The Evolution of Revolution 27
3 Egypt under Sadat and Mubarak:
Rescripting Revolution, Redefining Legitimacy 69
4 Algeria from the Liberation Struggle through Boumedienne:
Historic to Revolutionary Legitimacy 117
5 Algeria from Bendjedid to the Dark Decade:
The Narrative Fractures 153
6 Narrative Rescriptings and Legitimacy Crises 187
Epilogue
The Official Narrative and the “Arab Spring”:
The Limits of Revolution 201
Notes 217
Select Bibliography 243
Index 259

PREFACE
As my 2009–10 sabbatical drew near, my research plan was to devote time to
developing a better understanding of the periods of transition from colonial
rule to the first independent Middle Eastern and North African governments. I
became particularly intrigued by what seemed an interesting puzzle: why was it
that, while nationalist movements often had memberships and programs that
suggested an intertwining of religious and less religious (perhaps secular) ele-
ments, it was largely nonreligiously oriented leaderships that came to power
following the independence struggles. Gradually, however, the project shifted
and expanded into a quest to understand the components of postindependence
national narratives and, more specifically, how state elites construct and recon-
figure them to serve the goals of regime consolidation and maintenance.
Since I began this project, the use of the term “narrative” has proliferated
both within but also outside academia to a degree I could not have imagined.
That said, most references to or discussions of “the narrative” are short, super-
ficial, and underspecified. For my study, I elected a comparative-case approach
because I felt it could potentially tell us more than a single case about what
has been at work: the dynamics behind change and the forces that have pro-
moted (or been unable to disrupt) continuity in official narratives. Over a year
into the project, I finally had the good sense to take my spouse’s advice and re-
duce the number of case studies from three to four, leaving Lebanon behind,
in hopes that I might actually finish it before I became eligible for social secu-
rity. And as I moved to finalize the manuscript for publication, I had to remove
yet another case, that of Jordan, for considerations of length. Still, the cases left
out have helped to inform my analysis, even in this study of just two countries.
I am deeply indebted to the Carnegie Corporation for an “Islam and Mus-
lim Societies” fellowship 2008–10, which enabled me not only to have time off
from teaching, but also to make trips to Algeria, Egypt, and Jordan to conduct
research for this project. I am also grateful to Carnegie for their understanding
viii PREFACE
along the way as the study’s case composition narrowed and the focus of the
project shifted. Then, to complete the first draft of this manuscript, I was privi-
leged to have a writing fellowship at the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Cen-
terin Bellagio, Italy. I am most thankful for the support of the Center and its
wonderful staff, as well as of my fellow residents, during this period of reflection
and intensive writing. The Dornsife College at the University of Southern Cali-
fornia also provided significant support, from a sabbatical semester in fall 2009
and an Advancing Scholarship in the Humanities and Social Sciences (ASHSS)
grant for course release in spring 2011 (which was then completely overwhelmed
by my attempts to keep up with falling Arab dictators) to course release to en-
able me to take the Bellagio writing residency, which did not coincide with a
normally scheduled sabbatical. Also critical for my ability to make progress,
in spring 2011 when I was floundering, USC’s Center for International Studies
sponsored a research meeting to help me rethink the direction of the project. I
am indebted to my faculty colleagues—Macarena Gómez-Barris, Deniz Cakirer,
Robert English, Sarah Gualtieri, Dan Lynch, Ayşe Rorlich, Ramzi Rouighi, Ann
Tickner, and Diane Winston—who took the time to look at a mass of empirical
notes and comment on a draft theory chapter that, on reflection, must have read
like everything plus the kitchen sink. I would also like to thank USC’s School of
International Relations for providing me with a research assistant for the final
stages of preparation of the manuscript, and to Youssef Chouhoud for his tre-
mendous help in this capacity.
In addition, even though I was ultimately forced to omit Jordan from this
book, I am no less grateful to Kimberley Katz, who shared with me stacks of
photocopied Jordanian textbooks when at first it appeared that the textbook
museum in Salt, Jordan, would not be accessible. I also owe a very deep debt of
gratitude to Nathan Brown, who had heard through the grapevine that I was
working on Jordanian textbooks and forwarded me a link to an article in the
Jordan Times announcing the reopening of the textbook museum. I would also
like to thank my colleagues Nathan Brown, Jason Brownlee, and Robert Parks,
who read and commented on the various country chapters once they were in
relatively presentable form.
Then there are all the centers along the way. Robert Parks and Karim Ouaras
at the Centre d’études maghrébines en Algérie (CEMAT) in Oran, Algeria, pro-
vided scholarly and moral support, and critical entrées into Oran’s and Algiers’
academic communities; indeed, they even tracked down textbooks for me.
Special thanks goes to the indefatigable Abdennebi Mebtoul (‘Ammo), who, as
PREFACE ix
a former educator, took a special interest in my project and helped keep me
going when it appeared that I might be foiled by the powers that be at the Acadé-
mie d’Oran. Mr. Mohamed Tiliouine, the chef de service at the Archives in Oran,
helped open what appeared hopelessly closed doors, and Mme. Khalida Attou
assisted me with materials at the Archives, while making additional suggestions
for sources. I am also indebted to Hassan Remaoun and Nouria Benghabrit-
Remaoun for their help with my project though the wonderful Centre de recher-
che en anthropologie sociale et culturelle (CRASC) in Oran. In Cairo, my thanks
go first and foremost to Nadine Sika (and to Bahgat Korany for introducing me
to her). Nadine made the contact with the general in security, whom I never met,
who (apparently) issued a letter, which we never saw, on the basis of which I was
given access to the library of old Egyptian textbooks at the Museum of the Min-
istry of Education. The whole story is filled with one serendipitous event after
another, but quite simply, without Nadine’s help, there could have been no Egypt
case study in this book. Thanks in Cairo also go to Lisa Anderson, president of
the American University in Cairo, to Mustafa Kamel al-Sayyid, also of AUC, and
to my dear friends Lisa White and Muhammad al-Qawasmah. Finally, in Jor-
dan, thanks to my always supportive friends at the American Center of Orien-
tal Research (ACOR) in Amman, especially Humi Ayyubi and Nasreen Amin, to
Fatimeh Mar‘i at the Jordan Museum, to Ni‘meh Nsour at the Jordan Textbook
Museum in Salt, and to the staff at the Jordan National Library in Amman.
Also critical, particularly in the final stages of manuscript revision and
preparation, were the keen eye, wisdom, and patience of my editor at Stanford
University Press, Kate Wahl. Her help and support as I grappled with more ef-
fective ways of framing and presenting my argument were invaluable. I am also
most grateful to Peter Dreyer, whose work on this manuscript to catch my mis-
steps and improve my prose went well beyond mere copyediting. Last, but by no
means least, my husband, Fayez, helped in ways both large and small all along
the way, from advice on case selection and discussions of his own work on au-
thoritarian resilience to helping me secure access and materials in Amman to
holding down the home front to enable me to carry out field research in the re-
gion and take up the Bellagio residency.
The final research and writing of this project took place in the aftermath of
the dramatic changes brought by the uprisings and demonstrations that began
in winter 2010–11. As the initial euphoria of the swift dispatching of Ben ‘Ali and
Mubarak began to recede, I was reminded of a time in the late 1980s when sev-
eral countries in the region had also appeared to be on the verge of a new era.