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Commemorating Victory: The 1973 October War Panorama, the National Army Museum, and the Politics of National Identity in Times of War
Abstract
“Our heroes had recorded history, therefore, it is a must to record their struggle. The great October victory will remain a light to be followed by our future generations. It will always shine as far as martyrs dedicated and devoted their life with a strong will.” The reverse side of the entry ticket to the Panorama of the 1973 October War in Cairo declares in simple language that a victorious history must be preserve and passed down to successive generations. Constructed in cooperation with the North Korean government of Kim Il Sung in 1983, the 1973 October War Panorama was originally designed to be a major tourist destination in the heart of Cairo. However, the Panorama spectators are almost exclusively Egyptian school children and local weekenders. As such, the Panorama has become a powerful tool in defining Egyptian identity to a mass, native audience. This paper seeks to investigate the war memorial, in combination with the reinforcing depictions of the National Army Museum, which serves as a true tourist destination for illustrating Egyptian identity, as a microcosm of the quest of Egyptian elites after 1973 to give a tolerable meaning to the war. Specifically, I will demonstrate how these memorials show conflicts and perplexities through a lens that embraces both ancient and modern myths to articulate a national identity rooted in duty to the country’s leader through sacrifice linked directly to a well-defined territorial demarcation. With the demise of Nasserism, Sadat and the new “re-emerging” Egyptian middle class shifted custodianship of core national identity from Egypt’s Arab heritage and Third World leadership to stress upon Egyptian identity stretching back to Pharaonic times and its uniqueness, which rested on a civic duty of military participation seeking the goal of liberation and justice. The Mubarak presidency had sought to continue this emphasis through “governmentality” by instilling images that produced disciplinary aspects of modern politics through microtechnologies of power in the context of everyday social life. The 1973 October War Panorama fills such role as a targeted tool to demonstrate the double-edged relationship of nationalism that looks inward to emphasis a shared public culture and specific linkage to territory, while also allowing for an outward view of a differentiated group that threatens social justice and individual liberties.
Discipline
History
Geographic Area
Egypt
Sub Area
19th-21st Centuries