Blood, Pride, and Hope:
How Generation Z Remembers the Revolution
How Generation Z Remembers the Revolution
20 December, 2020
A child chanting at a protest. Photograph: Mosa'ab Elshamy
"It is the purest thing that happened in my life
and I am proud to have been part of it."
and I am proud to have been part of it."
He spoke with a fastidious tone about what happened, making sure not to miss any of the details. He was avoiding my eyes while his own eyes were tearing up. He recalled clearly the Battle of the Camel, and the pride he felt when he knew that people were not scared anymore, and that when he thought that people would back down, they rose up with greater power. He reminisced about how the masses filled the squares when they saw the injustices happening to other people, and how it changed him forever. At such a young age like 14, no one expects you to carry cold weapons, to chant in the square at the top of your lungs, or to see bodies dropping dead right next to you. But that is what A.R. saw when he participated in the 25th of January revolution.
They Were There Too
When the 25th January revolution erupted in Egypt, millions of people gathered in the streets to protest. They chanted “Bread, freedom, and social equality”. People tend to assume that only older people or adults were the ones who filled the squares during the revolution, but what they fail to notice is that young people who were not over 15 years old yet were right next to them, screaming at the top of their lungs with them, and avoiding the live bullets with them.
Researchers from the Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania define generations as a group of people who are weaved together by their common life experiences and common values. The explain that even though people within the same generation can have very different experiences, there are still common themes that overlay those experiences. Generation Z consists of people who are born from the mid-1990s to the late 2000s, and they are often thought of as being lazy, impatient, uncommitted, and irresponsible, so thinking that members of generation Z have participated in such a life-changing event like this often throws people off.
Farah, an 18-years-old languages student who was present from the beginning of the revolution till the end, has said, “Being part of the revolution made me feel that even if I am very young, I can drive change, and that I belong to something big and pure that wants good for the people.”
Feeling powerful enough to derive change was common among the young people who attended the protests. Rana, a 19-years-old management student said that what moved her the most was the unity between people. “It was amazing to see such a big crowd have the same goal and who chant together against one entity that they hate: the government. I felt like I was part of a big community and that I made a difference.”
Feeling the Hit Later On
For some people, the change they had anticipated was not immediate, however, it manifested years later. “The revolution lit a fuse in me that I did not know existed before. It strengthened my morals feelings about how I should resist injustices and that I should sacrifice myself for my country. This was the first and biggest motive for me to join any protest afterwards,” says O.T, a 20 years old engineering student who was not in Egypt during the revolution. “At 16, I joined the protests that took place after [President] Sisi took office. I felt like I belonged to the Egyptian people, and that any injustices towards my country was an injustice towards me personally, and I had to show that I will not stay silent and that I do not acknowledge him [El- Sisi] and that I will always stand with what is right.”
For others, the change did not manifest in a revolutionary way, but in a rather educational and eye-opening way. Ibrahim, a 19-years-old engineering student says. “Even though I had a small interest in politics, the revolution gave me a push to get more involved and educated on it and to always updated be on what is happening in the world.” Another student stated that before the revolution, they did not even know who the president was, but after the revolution they wer more aware of local and international politics.
This educational effect is echoed in other people’s experiences too, but Haidy, a 19-years old pharmacy student, had a different story. For her, the change and was more personal. “Before the revolution I almost never studied, but during the revolution, one of my teachers gave us a very influential speech that inspired me to study and ever since I have been acing my classes and I was even the valedictorian.”
They Were There Too
When the 25th January revolution erupted in Egypt, millions of people gathered in the streets to protest. They chanted “Bread, freedom, and social equality”. People tend to assume that only older people or adults were the ones who filled the squares during the revolution, but what they fail to notice is that young people who were not over 15 years old yet were right next to them, screaming at the top of their lungs with them, and avoiding the live bullets with them.
Researchers from the Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania define generations as a group of people who are weaved together by their common life experiences and common values. The explain that even though people within the same generation can have very different experiences, there are still common themes that overlay those experiences. Generation Z consists of people who are born from the mid-1990s to the late 2000s, and they are often thought of as being lazy, impatient, uncommitted, and irresponsible, so thinking that members of generation Z have participated in such a life-changing event like this often throws people off.
Farah, an 18-years-old languages student who was present from the beginning of the revolution till the end, has said, “Being part of the revolution made me feel that even if I am very young, I can drive change, and that I belong to something big and pure that wants good for the people.”
Feeling powerful enough to derive change was common among the young people who attended the protests. Rana, a 19-years-old management student said that what moved her the most was the unity between people. “It was amazing to see such a big crowd have the same goal and who chant together against one entity that they hate: the government. I felt like I was part of a big community and that I made a difference.”
Feeling the Hit Later On
For some people, the change they had anticipated was not immediate, however, it manifested years later. “The revolution lit a fuse in me that I did not know existed before. It strengthened my morals feelings about how I should resist injustices and that I should sacrifice myself for my country. This was the first and biggest motive for me to join any protest afterwards,” says O.T, a 20 years old engineering student who was not in Egypt during the revolution. “At 16, I joined the protests that took place after [President] Sisi took office. I felt like I belonged to the Egyptian people, and that any injustices towards my country was an injustice towards me personally, and I had to show that I will not stay silent and that I do not acknowledge him [El- Sisi] and that I will always stand with what is right.”
For others, the change did not manifest in a revolutionary way, but in a rather educational and eye-opening way. Ibrahim, a 19-years-old engineering student says. “Even though I had a small interest in politics, the revolution gave me a push to get more involved and educated on it and to always updated be on what is happening in the world.” Another student stated that before the revolution, they did not even know who the president was, but after the revolution they wer more aware of local and international politics.
This educational effect is echoed in other people’s experiences too, but Haidy, a 19-years old pharmacy student, had a different story. For her, the change and was more personal. “Before the revolution I almost never studied, but during the revolution, one of my teachers gave us a very influential speech that inspired me to study and ever since I have been acing my classes and I was even the valedictorian.”
Photograph: Mosa'ab Elshamy
Children of The Revolution
Generation Z has not witnessed any revolutions before, they may have read about them in history books, or heard tales about them from their grandparents, but they never knew what it really meant until that glorious day in 2011. One day, the kids who were once playing video games and running around in the streets were now holding cold weapons and standing in neighborhood watch groups to protect their people and their property overnight when the police was absent.
Why do not we allow children to watch horror films? The simple answer is that it will give them nightmares and make them violent. The complicated answer is that children do not have the psychological mechanisms needed to distinguish what is real and what is fictional. Their reality can easily get distorted when they cannot differentiate between a murder scene in a film or an actual murder happening in the street.
Sometimes, the reality is worse than any horror film, and there is a whole generation who knows this well. Suddenly, the blood is not red paint anymore, the dead people are not actors, the bullets kill for real, and there is no director to yell “cut!” after each scene. Undergoing something like that can be traumatizing. As A.R. said, “The revolution made a whole generation mature before their age, and even if they did not participate in the revolution, they would have known someone who did, and they would have also seen blood at a young age.”
According to a Report of the Commission to Investigate the Facts of the 25th of January Revolution, 846 Egyptians were killed and a total of 6467 participant were wounded between 25 January and 16 February 2011.
Three years later, when Mubarak was ruled innocent, a small number of protesters gathered in Abdel Moneim Riad Square to protest the ruling, which ended up with 3 people getting murdered, and A.R. witnessed the death of one of them, “they closed all the exist routes in the square so that no one could leave the square and they began shooting at us, so we had to climb over a wall to save our lives,” A.R. continued, “I was five seconds away from getting shot and dying. We were climbing over a wall when the guy below me took a bullet to his back and died, while I managed to climb over the wall and run for my life.”
It Is Not Over Yet, And Change Is Still Around the Corner
Something that was predominantly agreed upon by everyone involved in this story is that the revolution is not over yet. Rana called it a “continuous action” while Farah said that she acknowledges that revolutions take time and that change does not happen overnight. Others, like O.T. and A.R. have expressed their contempt with the Egyptian people and their silence on the current situations, even though they understand why people are silent, they cannot hide their anger with the ongoing situations. Everyone was also proud of being part of this revolution. A.R. stated that he is grateful for the revolution, “It is the purest thing that happened in my life and I am proud to have been part of it.” Others share similar feelings, with O.T. saying, “I am very proud that I belong to the revolution, and I would do it 100 times over if I had the chance to.”
It is clear that regardless of their age or their degree of participation, the revolution had an effect on a lot of generation Z kids. For some, it was a turning point and a moment of pivotal change, and for others it just gave them a push in the right direction. Regardless, it is naïve to dismiss young people’s experiences because of their young age, because even if half of them were not fully aware of what was going on during the revolution, they felt that change in their lives at the time and in the following years, and it is an experience that will be imprinted in their collective memories forever.
Generation Z has not witnessed any revolutions before, they may have read about them in history books, or heard tales about them from their grandparents, but they never knew what it really meant until that glorious day in 2011. One day, the kids who were once playing video games and running around in the streets were now holding cold weapons and standing in neighborhood watch groups to protect their people and their property overnight when the police was absent.
Why do not we allow children to watch horror films? The simple answer is that it will give them nightmares and make them violent. The complicated answer is that children do not have the psychological mechanisms needed to distinguish what is real and what is fictional. Their reality can easily get distorted when they cannot differentiate between a murder scene in a film or an actual murder happening in the street.
Sometimes, the reality is worse than any horror film, and there is a whole generation who knows this well. Suddenly, the blood is not red paint anymore, the dead people are not actors, the bullets kill for real, and there is no director to yell “cut!” after each scene. Undergoing something like that can be traumatizing. As A.R. said, “The revolution made a whole generation mature before their age, and even if they did not participate in the revolution, they would have known someone who did, and they would have also seen blood at a young age.”
According to a Report of the Commission to Investigate the Facts of the 25th of January Revolution, 846 Egyptians were killed and a total of 6467 participant were wounded between 25 January and 16 February 2011.
Three years later, when Mubarak was ruled innocent, a small number of protesters gathered in Abdel Moneim Riad Square to protest the ruling, which ended up with 3 people getting murdered, and A.R. witnessed the death of one of them, “they closed all the exist routes in the square so that no one could leave the square and they began shooting at us, so we had to climb over a wall to save our lives,” A.R. continued, “I was five seconds away from getting shot and dying. We were climbing over a wall when the guy below me took a bullet to his back and died, while I managed to climb over the wall and run for my life.”
It Is Not Over Yet, And Change Is Still Around the Corner
Something that was predominantly agreed upon by everyone involved in this story is that the revolution is not over yet. Rana called it a “continuous action” while Farah said that she acknowledges that revolutions take time and that change does not happen overnight. Others, like O.T. and A.R. have expressed their contempt with the Egyptian people and their silence on the current situations, even though they understand why people are silent, they cannot hide their anger with the ongoing situations. Everyone was also proud of being part of this revolution. A.R. stated that he is grateful for the revolution, “It is the purest thing that happened in my life and I am proud to have been part of it.” Others share similar feelings, with O.T. saying, “I am very proud that I belong to the revolution, and I would do it 100 times over if I had the chance to.”
It is clear that regardless of their age or their degree of participation, the revolution had an effect on a lot of generation Z kids. For some, it was a turning point and a moment of pivotal change, and for others it just gave them a push in the right direction. Regardless, it is naïve to dismiss young people’s experiences because of their young age, because even if half of them were not fully aware of what was going on during the revolution, they felt that change in their lives at the time and in the following years, and it is an experience that will be imprinted in their collective memories forever.
Mariam Mamdouh
Journalism student
© 2020 Mariam Mamdouh. All Rights Reserved.
maryam.mamdouh@msa.edu.eg
maryam.mamdouh@msa.edu.eg
