Shahaama: Five Egyptian men tell their stories. By Nayra Atiya. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2016. Pp. xxxv, 154. ISBN: 9780815610618 (paperback).
Nayra Atiya, the author of this book, is an American oral historian, writer, and translator who was born in Egypt. She is currently living on the Canaveral Coast of Florida, but she had visited her homeland, Egypt, in 1976 with her seven- and nine-year-old son and daughter. They stayed in Cairo for twelve years before they moved back to the States in 1987. This book includes a preface by Atiya describing her experiences when she moved back to Cairo as an adult and how during her stay she started to observe the lives of people around her, spoke with women, recorded, and transcribed the conversations which then turned into her first book, Khul Khaal, with stories from five Egyptian women. That book won a UNICEF prize in 1990. Her interviews with men presented in this book took place in Egypt, Europe, and the United States. Atiya has chosen three Muslims, one Jew, and one Copt who were all born in Egypt; some never left their home country and some chose to live in other countries for different reasons. The author has not used the real names of the storytellers and the places mentioned in the stories in order to protect their identities, as requested.
The title of this work, “Shahaama,” means the sense of honor in Egyptians’ culture which represents the cultural values they were raised in. It is a symbol of helping hands and an evidence of loyalty and generosity to one another.
The chapters of the book includes the life stories of five men with their own descriptions; some focused on their childhood, some on their adulthood, their family, and the home they grew up in. What they all have in common is the social changes they witnessed as they grew up as a result of globalization, industrialization, capitalism, and the political turbulence. They also have an unforgettable recollection of their happy childhood.
Nader Ali, a Muslim attorney, has the first and longest chapter of the book, in which he describes his childhood among his seven sisters and brothers in a peaceful and modest family. In his stories, he gives a few examples of bribery and how some people were able to manipulate others and give bribes or misspeak about others to destroy their reputation for the benefit of themselves. Nader Ali grew up in Egypt and never left his country.
The second story is about Nader Bestawros, who was born to a traditional Egyptian Coptic family. He shares stories of his childhood, as well as some traditions in Egyptian families such as the bond of marriage among cousins. He was among those fortunate children whose families could afford to provide education to their children. He graduated from Cairo University but experienced religious discrimination when pursuing his master’s degree. Later on, he found his way to the United States and eventually was able to receive his master’s degree in education and Arabic studies.
Yusuf Salman was born in Alexandria to an Algerian father and a Moroccan mother. Their parents went to a Jewish school in Alexandria around 1910. At a very young age he started some Zionist activities. He kept this secret from his parents until a few years after the end of the Second World War, when he was arrested and taken to a detention camp in Egypt. The detention camp, he acknowledges, was nothing like the German concentration camps. He has fond memories of the Egyptian keepers and guards at the camp and he shares stories about camp life such as an incident of shahaama he experienced with one of the guards at the camp. After a year in camp, he was forced by the government to leave Egypt and has been living in France since then. Even with a life at the heart of the Jewish community, he remembers the welcoming years he had with the kind-hearted Egyptians.
Ali Kamal, who was born in Cairo into a traditional but open-minded Muslim family, mostly shares stories about his home and family, and the middle-class neighborhood he grew up in. Looking back, he remembers the 1952 coup in Egypt as well as the war with Israel years later. As a young boy, he attended a Catholic school with some Italian nuns. Later on, he found his way into the film industry and worked as an Egyptian production manager on foreign films in Egypt. When he was thirty-five years old he went to a film school where he met his future wife. He briefly talks about his wife’s decision to wear the hijab quite a short time after their marriage. Although he was against her decision he accepted it, and they have been able to live peacefully together.
Mohammad Maghrabi, the first man who was actually interviewed by the author, appears to be the last storyteller in this book, a fisherman in the Nile. Maghrabi mainly talks about the techniques and the tools he uses for fishing. He also speaks about his family, his parents, and how a typical day looked in the small village he grew up in. He shares the struggles he and his family have gone through in their lives, including his daughter and her first marriage.
In general, this is a unique work that captures the lives of five men with different social statuses in Egypt. These male storytellers share the challenges along with the political and cultural changes in their rural or urban lives. Although male figures seem to be in power, yet they had their own complexities and hardships to reach a desirable economic status.
This work is a perfect fit for any type of library setting. It can be considered a modern literary fiction and an appropriate source for any academic or literary reading with a focus on oral history and Egypt.
Shahrzad Khosrowpour
Chapman University