Nasser and Company in Kodachrome

Egypt celebrates the 71st anniversary of the Free Officers Movement on Sunday. I have nothing more to say than what I have said in the past years: that movement proved to be a big failure for Egypt, despite its achievements. 

Its failure has been deeply felt in Egypt to this day and will continue to impact future generations unless a miracle happens.

Late President Gamal Abdel Nasser in a speech on MayDay at Abu Zaabal 
steelwork factory in May 1970. It was his last MayDay speech 

In 2023, we know firsthand that military coups do not bring democracy, social justice, or economic justice. We had a not-so-prefect level of freedom of speech and political freedom on 22 July 1952, that no other country in the Arab world currently enjoys. 

In 1951 if I am not mistaken the Egyptian House of Representatives rejected a request from Abdeen Palace to get extra money to renew the "Queen’s bedroom” so a new bedroom could be bought for Queen Nariman, King Farouk's second wife.

The coloured photo Royal Family of King Farouk I and Queen Nariman 
on 6 May 1951 at the famous Throne hall of Abdeen Palace in Cairo

During then, the MPs said that Egypt would not pay for the bedrooms of his brides wherever his majesty decided to remarry every time. This looks like another Egypt in a parallel universe. Again I know it was perfect then. 

King Farouk's royal procession at the state opening of the Egyptian 
Parliament in 1945 in Cairo 

Yes, King Farouk could not rule Egypt as he should have. Aside from being a weak ruler who could not take a correct decision without Ahmed Pasha Hassenein, everyone was against him, including the royal family itself and the political class. 

However, history remembers that he could have easily squashed the officers' movement with his orders. But he was leaving Alexandria for good, and he told General Naguib that he wished that the officers would succeed in what he had failed to do. Naguib would know in a bitter that it was a cursed mission that would follow and follow his sons.

Mohamed Naguib and his sons in their house in Cairo
in October 1952

The Free Officers Movement had a brief period of success. They overthrew the monarchy and implemented some progressive reforms. However, they soon became or rather Gamal Abdel Nasser launched a repressive dictatorship. It suppressed freedom of speech, jailed political opponents, and nationalized businesses.

 They promised to bring democracy and social justice to Egypt, but they ultimately failed to deliver on their promises.

The story of the Free Officers Movement is a cautionary tale about the dangers of military coups. They may seem like a quick fix for a country's problems, but we know how it ended. 

Egypt in 1955 at some public meeting and from left to right starting with the officer 
looking to the camera yet blurred: Zakaria Mohi El-Din then Gamal Salem then 
Gamal Abdel Nasser then Abdel Hakim Amar and Salah Salem laughing 

Farouk knew that he had failed, and he actually left without a fight. This is a rare event in Egyptian history, as rulers typically do not admit that they are wrong, and they will not leave unless they are dead or killed.

Ironically, Farouk was one of the few Egyptian rulers who broke this cycle. He died in Rome a decade later, but he at least had the courage to step down when he realized that he was no longer fit to rule.

In any case, I feel like I am repeating myself here, but on the occasion of commemorating the Free Officers' coup, which we are still living with its impact, I decided to share with you some photos of Gamal Abdel Nasser and his comrades in colour as I have done above. 

Nasser and his wife Tahia Kadem at their house in Cairo hours 
before the wedding of their daughter Hoda in 1964 
That photo is from Hoda Abdel Nasser's family album 

Recently, historical photography fans in Egypt discovered that Getty Images had shared a cache of Kodachrome photos from Egypt. These photos are beautiful, and they offer a new perspective on Egypt's past. In a surprise, it seems that Hoda Abdel Nasser shared some of the family photos involving Nasser and her mother, the late first lady Tahia Kadem, with Getty Images. 

Nasser and his first granddaughter Hala Sadek who was born in 
winter 1970 so I assume that photo was taken before his death 
shortly. 

I used to see Egypt in the old days in black and white, but the Kodachrome photos are on another level. They are so vibrant and colourful, and they really bring history to life.

The General Nationalist Conference of 1969 in Cairo
Nasser left that legacy of endless conferences with bottomless talk 

I am one of those people who could never imagine what Gamal Abdel Nasser would look like in colour photos. He always appeared in my mind in the black-and-white version.

Nasser with the chairman of USSR Premier Alexei Kosygin in Port Said in 
1966

Now I attack Nasser most of the time due to his internal political and economic policies but I have to say that his foreign policies were not all wrong especially when it comes to supporting African countries and other third world countries. Again we depend on that legacy in Africa now. 

       USSR Premier Nikita Khrushchev with Nasser of the UAR and late President Ben Bella   

    at Karnak Temple in Luxor in May 1964

Supporting other countries' independence was another plus despite Egypt had paid a price for it whether in 1956 during the Suez canal war or beyond. 

 British prime minister Harold Macmillan and President Gamal Abdel Nasser after the first
meeting of its kind after the Suez Crisis in September 1960 in New York 

Being a founding member of the Non-Alignment Movement is another strong foreign policy that is needed now more than ever. 

 

Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru on left with President of Egypt Gamal
Abdel Nasser during bilateral talks in Egypt in November 1960.

For me NAM was like any other Nasser policy, a great idea that can't be achieved in the long run or medium run in our world. 

Needless to say, to be far as I hinted above, Nasser's anti-colonialism, as well as socialist policies, did not make the West in the 1960s very open to him. 

President Eisenhower in his meeting with Nasser, in the presidential suite
 at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel on September 26, 1960, on the sideline of the United Nations
General Assembly meetings 

Anyhow these Kodachrome photos are a nice treat for me.

Nasser was an amateur photographer and videographer
FYI

FYI, history is like life itself, not black and white thing but rather a mix of colours.