When 26 year old Mohammed El-Bouazizi set himself on fire in the Tunisian central city of Sidi Bouazid, he never reckoned with how far the flames of his self immolation would go. Soon, the conflagration spread to Yemen, Jordan, Algeria and then Egypt. It was in Egypt that that the wind of cha...nge appeared to blow the hardest. The government of Hosni Mubarak relying on the successful demobilization of previous mass protests, especially the March 3, 2003 anti-war processions, hardly took the demonstrators serious. That became his undoing! The pro democracy groups and the young people of Egypt were prepared for their moment in history and they seized the opportunity with very open hands. Together, they marched defiantly in solidarity until Mubarak fled.
After taking over by default from the slain Anwar El Sadat, Muhammad Hosni Sayyid Mubarak like all dictators went on a populist drive, riding especially on a wave of popularity occasioned by his heroics and gamesmanship in the Egypt-Israel October war of 1973. However, not long after, he started indulging in a past time that all military despots share in common; acute thirst for authoritarian rule, absolute power, abuse of institutional governance, unbridled corruption, censorship of open media, intolerance of opposition and brutal suppression of dissent. While the local and foreign bank vaults of accounts of Mubarak and his acolytes blossomed, Egypt and its people famished. Mubarak’s economic policy was such that the few rich got incredibly richer while the majority poor got miserably poorer.
In the spring of 2008, workers in El Mahallah El Kubra, an industrial town, resolved that enough was enough. They decided to give teeth to their angst against increasingly deteriorating work conditions, poor wages and de-humanizing social welfare policies. They were supported by some youths led by Ahmed Maher and Ahmed Salar. The young people deployed modern social media tools like facebook, flickr, twitter in organising and mobilizing the populace in solidarity with the agitating workers. The youth movement came to be later known as the April 6th Movement, named after the day the trade unions in El Mahallah El Kubra called out workers on a general strike.
After the strike, the youth movement continued conscientising, sensitizing and mobilizing the Egyptian populace against the dictatorial tendencies of the Mubarak government. It was not long before the April 6th Movement mobilized the biggest political followership on facebook; their membership hitting above 70, 000 fans by January, 2009. Egypt would never remain the same. The group became a rallying point for the disenchanted young people of Egypt who grew increasingly restive as unemployment rendered millions of Egyptian youth population idle. The facebook page of the April 6th Movement came to be later described by the New York Times as the political facebook page in Egypt with the most dynamic discussions. The discussions on the April 6th Movement page were heated, animated and informed.
Taking a cue from the Otpor Group; the movement that brought down the strongman of Serbia; Slobodan Milosevic, the April 6th Movement preached non-violent struggle for social emancipation. The debates on their facebook page centred on free speech, nepotism in government and the political cum socio-economic stagnancy that the Mubarak regime had foisted on Egypt. The group also campaigned for the release of imprisoned journalists through public rallies. Their message gained current and in no time, Egyptians found a rallying point with an agenda they could identify with. Their calls for mass protests were answered at first by hundreds of Egyptians and then thousands and then the millions that thronged Tahir Freedom Square, Alexandria, Suez and other big cities in Egypt in the run up to the eventual demystification of Mubarak.
Like every despotic regime, the government of Hosni Mubarak came down on the April 6th Movement. Websites that supported the movement were simultaneously attacked by persons suspected to be linked to the disgraced administration of Hosni Mubarak. This was followed up by massive clampdown, arrests, detention and torture of the leaders of the April 6th Movement. In May 2008, the leader of the group; Ahmed Mahal was arrested and incarcerated by security agents on the orders of the state. That only generated unsolicited publicity for the April 6th Movement and swelled its membership.
When on January 8, 2011, 26 year old Asmaa Mahfouz, a human rights activist and one of the leaders of the April 6th Movement, posted a video blog on her facebook page rallying on the conscience of her compatriots for change, hardly did she know that she had set in motion events that would eventually crystallize into the eventual dethronement of the Mubarak political dynasty. A few days earlier, she had been beaten up alongside with three young men at Tahir Square. The three young men, aggrieved at the brutality of the state, set themselves on fire in front of the Parliamentary building in Cairo. When that fire like the El-Bouazizi fire fully blossomed, it ignited the whirlpool of protests and demonstrations that became the people’s revolution in Egypt.
Elsewhere in Algeria, Yemen, Jordan and Iran, the fire had already been ignited. The reactionary forces in those climes are currently doing all they can to snuff out the will of the people for freedom and open societies. But can they stop the wind? They can only hold out momentarily as they watch in ignominy as the wind of change blows further south bringing hope and relief to impoverished people everywhere. Rejoice, Mother Africa for a great light upon thee would soon dawn!
Finally, to all change thirsty Egyptians; this is your momentous moment! To the brave young people of Egypt; you couldn’t have been born at a better time!! To the martyrs of the struggle, you would forever live in the hearts of all of us who cherish freedom, justice and participatory democracy!!!
Comrade Echezona Asuzu
Youth Activist
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