On the morning of January 25, 2111 – otherwise known as National Police Day – the inhabitants of Cairo wake up to find that Tahrir Square is no more. In its place stands Rome’s Colosseum, newly grafted on to the city through the latest cutting-edge technology. Wrestling is the nation’s favourite sport and this majestic sporting arena is the president’s gift to his people.
Abdel Moula, a celebrated prizefighter who has killed everyone he has confronted, is asked by the chief of police to do what he does best and take part in a “death match” on the opening day of the Colosseum. Moula is proud to participate. But after this “veritable god of homicide” destroys his opponents, a final, unexpected combatant enters the ring – the country’s president. Does Moula brutally dispatch him as he did his other victims or does he make the ultimate sacrifice?
Welcome to the future. Or at least the future as imagined by Alexandria-born Ahmed El-Fakharany in his lively tale Everything is Great in Rome. El-Fakharany is one of 12 contemporary Egyptian authors who have written stories for a new collection. Some of those writers are practitioners of science fiction, others are renowned for their literary realism or political satires. Each of their stories is a creative response to a simple, intriguing question: what might your country look like in the year 2111?
Egypt + 100 is the fourth book in a laudable series from Comma Press. The stories in all four books are set a century on from a seismic national event. With Iraq + 100 it was the invasion of 2003, with Palestine + 100 it was the Nakba and with Kurdistan + 100 it was the short-lived Republic of Mahabad. For the latest impressive instalment, the commissioned writers were tasked with envisaging Egypt 100 years after the unsuccessful revolution in Tahrir Square – a time when, in the words of one contributor, “hundreds of thousands of people gathered, shaking the sky and the buildings with their angry voices”.
The stories encompass a range of styles, genres and outlooks. Mohamed Kheir’s The Mistake unfolds in an age in which people are protesting against their government by not having children. A man embarks on a journey to track down his missing wife, but to do so he must travel with his young daughter – “my life’s mistake” – and endure the disgust and disapproval of those around him.
A father and daughter are also at the centre of Azza Sultan’s The Sky Room. The daughter navigates the many regulations enforced by the New Republic – people are permitted to go outside just once a week, are allowed only six square metres in which to swim and can have no more than two friends – all while trying to understand the mindset of her parent.
Some fantastical stories read like shrewd allegories. Drowning by Heba Khamis plays out in Alexandria during an annual catastrophe. An aged woman who has seen too much reveals how every October swarms of insects surge out from under the Grand Mosque, seawater floods the streets and turns blood red, and then a beast awakens and emerges from beneath the city, “bringing with him the spirits of all those who departed a century ago”. After portrayals of carnage, both past and present, Khamis serves up a satisfying sting in the tale.
As with the best science fiction or dystopian fantasies, there are stories here which, while showing glimpses of the future, tap into and reflect current concerns and crises. They depict environmental disasters, political upheavals and societal breakdowns. They take us into brave new worlds featuring robots, sky-high buildings and omnipresent surveillance.
All of the above is on display in the book’s longest and most substantial story. Award-winning author Mansoura Ez-Eldin presents a terrifying future in The Wilderness Facilities. Divided into several sections and revolving around various characters, the tale, set in “the New Age”, deftly explores how “progress jostles and juxtaposes with barbarism”.
After a woman smashes up the electronic equipment in her home, she is found stabbed to death in her bed. Shihab investigates her murder. The professor contemplates his fate in one of the labyrinthine correctional facilities on the edge of the city. Dhai, a former rebel who has been banished to the ruins outside the urban sprawl, decides to escape and rejoin civilisation. Ez-Eldin brings these lives together in what is a compelling miniature drama.
Not all the stories hit the mark. The shorter ones are mere sketches and one comprises more a backwards glance than a forward leap. However, the majority manage to be both immersive and inventive. They conjure up bold new realities where electric trains criss-cross the sky, VAR in homes resolves marital disputes and technology calculates not only life expectancy but also how long it will take for a country to see change.
But throughout the book, imprints of the world around us are always discernible. For as Ahmed Naji puts it in his introduction, these stories offer “a series of visions of the future inspired by the dreams and nightmares of the present”.
Egypt + 100 is available now
