When violence was consuming Kenya in early 2008, I posted a question on this blog: "Is it so hard to organize people on a mass level to produce positive change?" After yesterday's amazing scenes from Tahrir Square, let no one ever wonder about this again.
The bravery that the Egyptian people have shown the world over the past three weeks has been extraordinary. Like other great nonviolent activists before them, they assembled defiantly and steadfastly until their previously unthinkable demands were met. The backlash of the Mubarak regime, particularly on the night of February 2, paralleled similar thuggish responses by repressive governments throughout history, including the British Raj in India and the American government (especially local law enforcement) during the civil rights movement.
However, as Gandhi and King would have urged, the Egyptian people did not turn to violence. They did not meet hate with hate, but instead with love and moral force. This love of God, family, community, dignity and freedom reached its ultimate expression in the celebrations that erupted the moment after Omar Suleiman announced that Mubarak was stepping down. As tens of thousands cheered, danced, cried and waved Egyptian flags, thousands more bowed down in unison and pressed their foreheads to the 18 day-old battleground the people had so bravely occupied.
As I watched the live video from Al Jazeera on my laptop here in London, I deciphered the word 'rais' (the word for 'president' in Swahili) in Suleiman's announcement, and thought about the impact that cultures, and people, have on one another. Swahili was born of the meeting of Arabs and Bantus, and so the language, beliefs and customs of East Africa are flavored with Arabic. Now the wave of protests that began in Tunisia and spread to Algeria, Jordan and Yemen, has dethroned a modern-day pharaoh, a dictator no one thought assailable. How was this possible, especially without a leader to unify the movement? Consider the power of modern communications technology; cell phones, satellite TV and the internet have been crucial in organizing and fueling this revolution. What impact will this have on the rest of the Arab world? The rest of Africa? World history?
My small contribution is to write down my thoughts and click 'publish.' Am I an author? No. Does my voice matter? Yes. This will be one of Egypt's lasting lessons to the world. For the past 30 years, ordinary Egyptians were told that their voices didn't matter, or worse - that their voices could get them killed. Now, those voices have proven more powerful than Hosni Mubarak, his billions of US dollars, and his white-knuckled grip on his people's freedom.
