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Artists Make Remarkable Impact in Egyptian Presidential Elections

Egypt's President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi speaks while meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, at Al-Ittihadiya Palace in Cairo, Oct. 15, 2023. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, Pool)
Egypt's President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi speaks while meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, at Al-Ittihadiya Palace in Cairo, Oct. 15, 2023. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, Pool)
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Artists Make Remarkable Impact in Egyptian Presidential Elections

Egypt's President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi speaks while meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, at Al-Ittihadiya Palace in Cairo, Oct. 15, 2023. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, Pool)
Egypt's President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi speaks while meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, at Al-Ittihadiya Palace in Cairo, Oct. 15, 2023. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, Pool)

Egyptian artists showed support to President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi during the presidential elections that concluded on Tuesday night.

A large number of artists backed Sisi since he announced his plans to run for another term in early October. Among those are Karim Abdelaziz, Ahmed el-Sakka, Nelly Karim and Salah Abdullah. Others showed their support in short videos that were shared on his campaign’s Facebook page, including Yasser Galal, who played the role of President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi in “The Choice” series.

“Artists’ support of President Sisi and his reelection reflect the stance of the majority of the Egyptian people,” said Ehab Fahmy, vice president of the Syndicate of Acting Professions. He told “Asharq Al-Awsat” that his colleagues’ support of President Sisi stems from their observation of “the achievements he has accomplished and their will to see him continue.”

Egyptian artists have played a growing role in the political landscape since the January 25 uprising in 2011; their participation in the protest at the ministry of culture alongside intellects and academics on June 30, 2013, helped overthrow the rule of the Muslim Brotherhood; they have also had remarkable contributions in the different elections and referendums since then.

Many artists boasted their support of the president during the elections including Wafaa Amer, who confirmed that she voted to “the one who has loved Egypt and lifted it since 2010”, in reference to Sisi; other like Nadia al-Gendy, Nabila Ebeid and Leila Taher said explicitly that they voted for him.

In the recent elections, Abdel Fattah El-Sisi competed with Farid Zahran, head of the Egyptian Social Democratic Party; Abdel Sanad Yamama, head of the Wafd party; and Hazem Omar, head of the Republican Peoples' Party.

Some of the artists who backed president Sisi urged people to vote, including Yousra, who said in a statement that she believes that “one vote can make a difference”, while Laila Elwi called on Egyptian citizens to vote for “the continuity of the path.”

Art critic Majida Khairallah said that artists’ support of president Sisi is a good thing. “They are citizens and have the right to participate in the different political events,” she told Asharq Al-Awsat, adding that “this political participation isn’t limited to Egyptian artists and has been seen among celebrities around the world.”

Egyptian artists are used to taking part in the political life through elections or by contributing to major political developments, like the donations Umm Kulthum made for the benefit of the Egyptian army after the war of 1967. Some were even involved directly in the political work, such as late Hamdi Ahmad, who was elected as a member of the parliament, and Yehia el-Fakharany, who was appointed in the Senate.

The artists’ participation in the elections saw some pitfalls. The cast of “Al Atawla” series, including Ahmed el-Sakka, Salah Abdullah and Bassem Samra had to vote at the Expats Committee in Alexandria because they were in the city to shoot some outdoor scenes.

Actress Lebleba committed a legal violation for voting twice; one at the Egyptian consulate in Jeddah and the other in Al Doqi district.

Ehab Fahmy highlighted that artists were keen to take part in the elections “because they are aware of the importance of this election and the critical circumstances in the region,” noting that he saw the same eagerness among the majority of the Egyptian people.

But Critic Majida Khairallah believes that the most important thing is “for artists to believe in their stance and not using it for personal gains.”

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Varieties

Giant Sloths, Mastodons Coexisted with Humans for Millennia in Americas, New Discoveries Suggest

New York State Museum and State University of New York Orange staff unearth a complete well-preserved mastodon jaw, as well as a piece of a toe bone and a rib fragment, that were discovered by a man who spotted two giant teeth while gardening at his upstate New York home, near Scotchtown, NY. (New York State Museum via AP)
New York State Museum and State University of New York Orange staff unearth a complete well-preserved mastodon jaw, as well as a piece of a toe bone and a rib fragment, that were discovered by a man who spotted two giant teeth while gardening at his upstate New York home, near Scotchtown, NY. (New York State Museum via AP)
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Giant Sloths, Mastodons Coexisted with Humans for Millennia in Americas, New Discoveries Suggest

New York State Museum and State University of New York Orange staff unearth a complete well-preserved mastodon jaw, as well as a piece of a toe bone and a rib fragment, that were discovered by a man who spotted two giant teeth while gardening at his upstate New York home, near Scotchtown, NY. (New York State Museum via AP)
New York State Museum and State University of New York Orange staff unearth a complete well-preserved mastodon jaw, as well as a piece of a toe bone and a rib fragment, that were discovered by a man who spotted two giant teeth while gardening at his upstate New York home, near Scotchtown, NY. (New York State Museum via AP)

Sloths weren’t always slow-moving, furry tree-dwellers. Their prehistoric ancestors were huge – up to 4 tons – and when startled, they brandished immense claws.
For a long time, scientists believed the first humans to arrive in the Americas soon killed off these giant ground sloths through hunting, along with many other massive animals like mastodons, saber-toothed cats and dire wolves that once roamed North and South America, The Associated Press reported.
But new research from several sites is starting to suggest that people came to the Americas earlier – perhaps far earlier – than once thought. These findings hint at a remarkably different life for these early Americans, one in which they may have spent millennia sharing prehistoric savannas and wetlands with enormous beasts.
“There was this idea that humans arrived and killed everything off very quickly – what’s called ‘Pleistocene overkill,’” said Daniel Odess, an archaeologist at White Sands National Park in New Mexico. But new discoveries suggest that “humans were existing alongside these animals for at least 10,000 years, without making them go extinct."
Some of the most tantalizing clues come from an archaeological site in central Brazil, called Santa Elina, where bones of giant ground sloths show signs of being manipulated by humans. Sloths like these once lived from Alaska to Argentina, and some species had bony structures on their backs, called osteoderms – a bit like the plates of modern armadillos – that may have been used to make decorations.
In a lab at the University of Sao Paulo, researcher Mírian Pacheco holds in her palm a round, penny-sized sloth fossil. She notes that its surface is surprisingly smooth, the edges appear to have been deliberately polished, and there’s a tiny hole near one edge.
“We believe it was intentionally altered and used by ancient people as jewelry or adornment,” she said. Three similar “pendant” fossils are visibly different from unworked osteoderms on a table – those are rough-surfaced and without any holes.
These artifacts from Santa Elina are roughly 27,000 years old – more than 10,000 years before scientists once thought that humans arrived in the Americas.
Originally researchers wondered if the craftsmen were working on already old fossils. But Pacheco’s research strongly suggests that ancient people were carving “fresh bones” shortly after the animals died.
Her findings, together with other recent discoveries, could help rewrite the tale of when humans first arrived in the Americas – and the effect they had on the environment they found.
“There’s still a big debate,” said Pacheco.
Scientists know that the first humans emerged in Africa, then moved into Europe and Asia-Pacific, before finally making their way to the last continental frontier, the Americas. But questions remain about the final chapter of the human origins story.
Pacheco was taught in high school the theory that most archaeologists held throughout the 20th century. “What I learned in school was that Clovis was first,” she said.
Clovis is a site in New Mexico, where archaeologists in the 1920s and 1930s found distinctive projectile points and other artifacts dated to between 11,000 and 13,000 years ago.
This date happens to coincide with the end of the last Ice Age, a time when an ice-free corridor likely emerged in North America – giving rise to an idea about how early humans moved into the continent after crossing the Bering land bridge from Asia.
And because the fossil record shows the widespread decline of American megafauna starting around the same time – with North America losing 70% of its large mammals, and South America losing more than 80% -- many researchers surmised that humans’ arrival led to mass extinctions.
“It was a nice story for a while, when all the timing lined up,” said paleoanthropologist Briana Pobiner at the Smithsonian Institution’s Human Origins Program. “But it doesn’t really work so well anymore.”
In the past 30 years, new research methods – including ancient DNA analysis and new laboratory techniques – coupled with the examination of additional archaeological sites and inclusion of more diverse scholars across the Americas, have upended the old narrative and raised new questions, especially about timing.
“Anything older than about 15,000 years still draws intense scrutiny,” said Richard Fariña, a paleontologist at the University of the Republic in Montevideo, Uruguay. “But really compelling evidence from more and more older sites keeps coming to light.”
In Sao Paulo and at the Federal University of Sao Carlos, Pacheco studies the chemical changes that occur when a bone becomes a fossil. This allows her team to analyze when the sloth osteoderms were likely modified.
“We found that the osteoderms were carved before the fossilization process” in “fresh bones” – meaning anywhere from a few days to a few years after the sloths died, but not thousands of years later.
Her team also tested and ruled out several natural processes, like erosion and animal gnawing. The research was published last year in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
One of her collaborators, paleontologist Thaís Pansani, recently based at the Smithsonian Institution, is analyzing whether similar-aged sloth bones found at Santa Elina were charred by human-made fires – which burn at different temperatures than natural wildfires.
Her preliminary results suggest that the fresh sloth bones were present at human campsites – whether burned deliberately in cooking, or simply nearby, isn’t clear. She is also testing and ruling out other possible causes for the black markings, such as natural chemical discoloration.
The first site widely accepted as older than Clovis was in Monte Verde, Chile.
Buried beneath a peat bog, researchers discovered 14,500-year-old stone tools, pieces of preserved animal hides, and various edible and medicinal plants.
“Monte Verde was a shock. You’re here at the end of the world, with all this organic stuff preserved," said Vanderbilt archaeologist Tom Dillehay, a longtime researcher at Monte Verde.
Other archaeological sites suggest even earlier dates for human presence in the Americas.
Among the oldest sites is Arroyo del Vizcaíno in Uruguay, where researchers are studying apparent human-made “cut marks” on animal bones dated to around 30,000 years ago.
At New Mexico's White Sands, researchers have uncovered human footprints dated to between 21,000 and 23,000 years ago – as well as similar-aged tracks of giant mammals. But some archaeologists say it’s hard to imagine that humans would repeatedly traverse a site and leave no stone tools.
“They’ve made a strong case, but there are still some things about that site that puzzle me,” said David Meltzer, an archaeologist at Southern Methodist University. “Why would people leave footprints over a long period of time, but never any artifacts?
Odess at White Sands said that he expects and welcomes such challenges. “We didn’t set out to find the oldest anything – we’ve really just followed the evidence where it leads,” he said.
While the exact timing of humans’ arrival in the Americas remains contested – and may never be known – it seems clear that if the first people arrived earlier than once thought, they didn’t immediately decimate the giant beasts they encountered.
And the White Sands footprints preserve a few moments of their early interactions.
As Odess interprets them, one set of tracks shows “a giant ground sloth going along on four feet” when it encounters the footprints of a small human who’s recently dashed by. The huge animal “stops and rears up on hind legs, shuffles around, then heads off in a different direction."