The Cotton Plantation Remembered

Mona Abaza

Description

The story of one family's relation to the land and cotton in a time of social change
Cotton made the fortune of the Fuda family, Egyptian landed gentry with peasant origins, during the second part of the nineteenth century. This story, narrated and photographed by a family member who has researched and documented various aspects of her own history, goes well beyond the family photo album to become an attempt to convey how cotton, as the main catalyst and creator of wealth, produced by the beginning of the twentieth century two entirely separate worlds: one privileged and free, the other surviving at a level of bare subsistence, and indentured.
The construction of lavish mansions in the Nile Delta countryside and the landowners' adoption of European lifestyles are juxtaposed visually with the former laborers' camp of the permanent workers, which became a village ('Izba), and then an urbanized settlement. The story is retold from the perspective of both the landowners and the former workers who were tied to the 'Izba. The book includes family photo albums, photographs of political campaigns and of banquets in the countryside, documents and accounting books, modern portraits of the peasants, and pictures of daily life in the village today.
This is a story that fuses the personal and emotional with the scholar's detached ethnographic reporting-a truly fascinating, informative, and colorful view of life on both sides of a uniquely Egyptian socio-economic institution, and a vanished world: the cotton estate.

Sujets

• Middle Est
• Histoire
• History

Informations

• Publié par: The American University in Cairo Press
• Date de parution: 01 octobre 2013
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781617973697
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 52 Mo

Extrait

THE COTTON PLANTATION REMEMBERED

THE COTTON PLANTATION REMEMBERED

First published in 2013 by The American University in Cairo Press 113 Sharia Kasr el Aini, Cairo, Egypt 420 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10018 www.aucpress.com

Copyright © 2013 by Mona Abaza

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Dar el Kutub No. 7417/12 ISBN 978 977 416 571 9

Dar el Kutub Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Abaza, Mona  The Cotton Plantation Remembered: An Egyptian Family Story/ Mona Abaza.—Cairo: The American University in Cairo Press, 2013.  p. cm.  ISBN 978 977 416 571 9  1. Egypt—History I. Title 962.055

1 2 3 4 5 17 16 15 14 13

Designed by Amr El-Kafrawy Printed in China

To my mother. The‘izbabecame her asylum, herHeimat, her refuge, and her loneliness. Laila Fuuda died on June 17, 2003 at three o’clock in the early morning, after a long struggle with cancer. Whenever I stay in the decrepit house, she visits me in my dreams.

Contents

Acknowledgments

CHAPTER ONE: Therapeutic Photography The Village and Me Vignette: The Living Memory of the ‘Izba—Shaykh Zakariya ‘Abd al-‘Aziz

CHAPTER TWO: In the Beginning There Was Cotton Iqta‘(Feudalism) A Domain–Labor Camp is Born: Da’irat al-Balamun Luxury ‘Izbas as Total Institutions Back to 1927 Between Scientism and Authoritarianism The Mansion, the Hamlet, and the Workers Vignette: Mansura

CHAPTER THREE:A‘yans, ‘Umdas: Getting Down to Wealth Genealogy of the Fuuda Family The Beginning of Power and Wealth The Second Half of the Nineteenth Century Hassan, the‘UmdaAdventurer The MotherDa’iraof Kafr Tanbul A Portrait The Politics of the Octopus The Next Generation Vignette: Mother

CHAPTER FOUR: The Organization of Labor The Offices, Spaces of Fear TheWakil al-Da’ira TheNazir al-Zira‘a TheKataba TheKhulis TheAnfar Machines, Railways, and Bridges The Preeminence of Oral History The Reality behind the Records A Capitalist Farm with Continuing Feudal Ties The Transfer of Food, Goods, and People Salaries and Payment in Kind TheTarahil More and More Account Books Classification of the Documents Vignette: Hagg ‘Abd al-Meguid ‘Abd al-‘Aati ‘Abd al-‘Aal

CHAPTER FIVE: Violence and Banditry A Context of Violence Murders More on theDa’ira’s Bandits A Rifle and a Pistol