Translating the Egyptian Revolution: Activist Use of Translation to Connect with Global Publics and Protest Movements

This study examines one aspect of the 2011 Egyptian Revolution which has received no attention in public or academic circles so far, namely, the language-based practices that allow Egyptian protestors to contest dominant narratives of the Revolution and, importantly, to connect with, influence and learn from regional and global movements of protest, including the Tunisian uprising and the 'Occupy' movement. More specifically, the study focuses on the use of translation by various groups of well educated and committed Egyptians who have the language resources to provide an alternative interface with global audiences, one that projects a different account of the Revolution than can be found in mainstream sources and simultaneously questions hegemonic, patriarchal narratives circulating within Egyptian society, for example by video-recording the testimonies of women who have been active in the Revolution and disseminating them on the web to question male-centred accounts of the uprising.

A cornerstone of the political activities of such groups is the circulation of written documents and audiovisual material that are originally produced in Arabic, to contest mainstream domestic narratives. These documents (press releases from activist groups, news not reported in mainstream sources, short documentary films) are then translated, primarily into English, in order to reach a wider global public and intervene in shaping narratives of the Revolution that circulate internationally. The study aims to offer a nuanced, empirical account of how these groups function, how they mobilise volunteer translators, how they see their relationship with global movements of justice, and what their modes of practice, including the selection of texts and audiovisual material to translate, might reveal about the extent to which they are embedded in the culture of global movements of collective action. In doing so, it sets out to demonstrate that translation is a key and pervasive mode of interaction that exercises significant influence on the way we come to understand the events unfolding around us at any moment in time. As a major tool of contestation, it is also increasingly used to connect activists across the world, and to demonstrate that local and global grievances cannot be addressed separately but must be negotiated and contested jointly across national and linguistic boundaries.

The main beneficiaries of this research fall into the following groups:

(a) Policy makers in government organisations, e.g. Commonwealth & Foreign Office, have an intrinsic interest in understanding how different groups of Egyptian activists work, how they connect with other activists worldwide, and what narratives of the Revolution they are invested in promoting.

(b) Think tanks and interest groups with an interest in political movements in the Arab World, including the Egyptian Revolution, e.g. Foreign Policy Centre, Chatham House and Arab Reform Initiative, will benefit from findings about progressive, grassroots initiatives that offer alternative models of citizen-led mobilisation and contestation of mainstream narratives.

(c) Independent news services such as Democracy Now and Indymedia, as well as networks of bloggers and citizen journalists, such as Global Voices Online, which focus on circulating reports from blogs and other sources of citizen media in order to give space to voices that are not ordinarily heard in international mainstream media. These will benefit from findings about local Egyptian groups with compatible agendas.

(d) Non-profit and charitable media trusts such as One World Media, which support global media communities that promote dialogue, democracy and fair government worldwide will be interested in the findings for similar reasons.

(e) The wider British and European public. Perhaps more than any other political movement in the region, the Egyptian Revolution has captured the imagination of the general public everywhere. The outputs of this research will reveal a novel aspect of the Revolution that is hardly covered in mainstream media and will give exposure to the groups under study and their contribution to elaborating a different set of narratives of the Egyptian uprising.