Witnessing Egyptian history (February 11, 2011)

Cairo, Egypt

This past Friday, I was on a hostel roof talking with a Hungarian journalist when a tremendous roar, straight out of the lungs of tens of thousands of Egyptians, swept through the streets and over Cairo’s Tahrir Square. We stood and ran to a better vantage point to see if the sound meant something good or — just as probable — something bad. Soon we learned its origin: Egypt’s president, Hosni Mubarak, had resigned, and one of the largest street parties in human history had just begun.

I had been in Cairo ten days, photographing the seismic events taking place. It had often been stressful and sometimes dangerous. It had also been deeply inspiring.

I will share more thoughts and observations about events in Egypt in future posts. In this post I’ll just say that one of the greatest overseas experiences I’ve ever had was being in the streets with Egyptians as they celebrated on Friday night. Downtown was a sea of smiles and “v-signs”, of jubilation and relief. People told me such obvious things – “I am Egyptian!” or “I was born in Egypt!” – and I loved hearing it as much as they loved saying it. Old women and small children shouted “horreyah” (freedom) and people cried and kissed the ground. Some, like the man in the photo above, stood silently taking it all in.

For sure I will always associate Egypt with the Nile, the Pyramids, and too much falafel for breakfast. But burned in my memory will also be the night I watched a city explode in happiness. Egyptians had just put down another marker in history, and they knew it.

If interested in more images from the past two weeks in Cairo, you can find them on my flickr set called Cairo, Egypt (2011). I also posted a short video clip of the celebratory night on youtube.