The Sons of Adam by Alan Mackie

Muswell Press, 370 pages, £13.99

Whatever happens in Egypt affects the whole Arab world. It is by far the most populous Arab state, and has a strong tradition of providing intellectual leadership for the region. Whatever the outcome of the Islamist President Mohammad Morsi’s struggle with the liberals and the military to gain control of the state, there is no changing the fact that the extraordinary outburst of people-power in the spring of 2010 toppled a dictator and changed the Middle East for ever.

Therefore, it is important to understand what the Egyptian people want, and how they express themselves, both at moments of great stress and also in their quieter private lives, which form the foundation for those great public events.

There is a rich Egyptian literature which offers all sorts of insights into Egyptian daily life, such as Naguib Mahfouz’s “Children of our Alley” and Ala’a Al Aswany’s “Yacoubian Building”. But there is also a valuable place for the foreigner who looks into Egypt with fresh eyes and offers new insight on what makes its people tick. This is where British journalist and long-term resident of Cairo, Alan Mackie, succeeds with “The Sons of Adam”, which is a personal diary of his early years in Cairo, when he first came to the city in 1965, returning in 1972 for a much longer stay that also included the heady and traumatic days of the 1973 October war with Israel.

For anyone who loves Cairo, with all its chaotic and vibrant sense of life, “The Sons of Adam” should join previous must-reads on the bookshelf, along with Max Rodenbeck’s “Cairo” and Desmond Stewart’s “Mother of the World”. All these books were written by well-informed writers who genuinely lived in Cairo and became part of the city. They did not just fly in and turn their first impressions into a hasty social analysis.

A special plus to Mackie’s book is the tour de force of the 30-page foreword, a delightfully clear overview of the underlying forces shaping the political situation in the Arab world in the light of the revolutions of the Arab Spring in 2011. The foreword was written in 2012 and so is able to take cognizance of the latest developments, such as the election of Morsi as Egypt’s first democratic president, while also paying attention to the expectations of the Egyptians themselves.

Mackie points out that after the revolution of 2011, “the main change was within the Egyptians themselves. In facing down Mubarak’s intimidating security machine, Egyptians overcame their fear as they had done in the October War …. Just as in 1973, they experienced for a few exhilarating days what is was like to control their own destiny.”

The heart of “The Sons of Adam” is the highly detailed and personal story of how the author sinks into Cairo life in 1972, living first in the Golden Hotel on Talat Harb, close to the legendary Café Riche and other famous city-centre landmarks. After some months of relishing the odd characters eking out their living, the author moved on to lodge with a family in Shoubra — Am Mohammad Al Jamal, along with his wife, two daughters and son. Mackie becomes one of the family, joining them on their annual Sham Al Nessim expedition to one of Cairo’s huge parks in the spring, and getting involved in the inevitable ins and outs of the their personal life.

The tales of daily life in Cairo is the main joy of the book, but it all springs into sharp focus when Mackie starts to describe that extraordinary day on October 6, when the Egyptian army crossed the Suez Canal and defeated the Israeli army by storming the Bar Lev line and driving them deep into occupied Sinai.

As news spreads that the country is at war, and of the astonishing success in crossing the canal, Mackie records the “general disbelief that Egyptians could have gone over without any ostensible opposition”. Over the following days, a strong sense of pride creeps into Cairene life, as the realisation dawns that the government is not lying and its communiqués can be trusted when they say that Egyptians are now in Sinai.

But within a few days the Israeli counter-attack gains momentum and widespread fear in Cairo of Israeli saboteurs makes Mackie anxious as they become suspicious of any foreigner. He is hauled into police stations, grilled regularly, and even in the streets where he is known, there is a sense of near-hysteria.

He moves back to the Golden Hotel and waits out the rest of the war with all of Cairo keeping eyes and ears glued to the TV and radio for announcements. As the success of the Egyptian armed forces sinks into the popular imagination, Mackie sees Anwar Sadat — the president who beat the Israelis — become a political force in his own right. This new mood gave Sadat the political strength to take Egypt in his own direction, stepping out of the shadow of Jamal Abdul Nasser.

Mackie ends the book by linking the renewed sense of nationalism in Egypt after October 1973 to the events of 2011, pointing out that what was going in Tahrir Square was the defeat of an autocratic regime and an attempt to restore the rule of law and human dignity — a struggle that the West also shares as it deals with the excesses of neoliberal capitalism.

Mackie sums up the shared sense of humanity he gained while living in Cairo when he ends the book by commenting that “the principle of equity runs deep in Islam. No place better epitomises in its humour, arts, literature and life in the daily round than Egypt, the idea that we are all the Sons of Adam”.