Seconded By: Riccardo Magherini,
The first seeds of my identity were planted in El Mehalla Al Kobra, home to me and Egyptian cotton. Known as the citadel of industry, it was one of the most popular cities in Egypt for the harvesting and spinning of white cotton. My great grandfather was a merchant of silk and wool, one of the first in El Mehalla to lead the initial stage of the popular manufacturing textile trade at the time. My cotton threads extend back to three generations. In 1969, my grandfather established his textile factory and my father joined him in the 1980’s.
My story is as big as Egypt. With my own photographs and the abundance of materials I have gathered during years of research from personal and found archives, artifacts, documents, objects, oral histories, soundscapes. I am weaving a narrative that draws on my family history, personal stories, industrial landscapes, the experience of my past, maps and interviews all to tell a very personal story that also amplifies the story of the identity-building of a nation state.
White Gold examines the intersection between my family’s history and the official narrative of the Egyptian cotton industry. What began as a search for my roots, has expanded into an investigation of cotton’s real history – how cotton is a colonial relic; imposed and was not native to Egypt, yet it became absorbed into our cultural identity while its origins were forgotten.
Originally a seed from India, the cotton plant was discovered by a Fenchman in Cairo. Later thriving under the reign of the ottoman ruler Mohamed Ali and flourishing under the British occupation when the American civil war erupted in 1861 making way for the Egyptian cotton to take over the global market. The British turned to Egypt for their cotton supplies, transforming the country into their own cotton farmland and occupying Egypt in 1882. It was not until 1927, when the Egyptian economist Talaat Harb founded one of the largest and first industrial facilities built in the 20th Century under the British rule on the grounds of El Mehalla Al Kubra. Following the independence in 1952, cotton was used as a lucrative weapon and symbolized into a nationalistic icon.
This story is challenging the dominant narrative of Egypt’s cotton history that is often framed through colonial, economic, or governmental perspectives, leaving behind personal narratives of those who lived and worked within it. My work actively counters this erasure by presenting first-person narratives, personal and found archives, documents, objects, oral histories, alongside my photographs, reviving lost stories, and trying to reconnect communities to their own histories.
For almost five years, White Gold has evolved beyond myself. My fieldwork took me across Egypt to several sites that were once thriving industrial hubs and central to the global cotton trade, such as Alexandria’s Minet El Basal’s industrial district.With the abundance of materials I gathered, I have been weaving a multi-layered narrative, drawing on my family’s stories, industrial landscapes, maps and interviews of employees.
I try, through this work, to reconnect and recollect what is left of our withering seeds of cotton. Exploring what used to be one the most important industries embedded in our collective memory. Beneath these layers, unfolds the lineage of Egypt, from past to present. What could have been, what have we lost and what could still be?
Self Portrait
A self-portrait taken standing holding a bouquet of cotton flowers covered by a veil in my grandmother’s kitchen at our family’s old home. Uprooted and extracted from its ground, I see myself reflected in the cotton journey, both of us, plant and human, lost, fragmented trying to weave our common threads. Enduring change internally and externally trying to adapt to the outside world.
21,Jan,2021
My Aunt
My grandparent’ bedroom with my aunt sitting on the bed.
Through my aunt’s words: “[El Mehalla] the city was formed around the Misr Spinning and Weaving company. Your great grandfather owned one of the largest spinning stakes in the company… Everyone used to come to Mehalla. King Farouk used to own a cafe in what is now called a “colony” which used to be housing for the workers of the factory. The most elegant homes. I’m not sure why they call it a ‘colony’ المستعمرة maybe… because it comes from the Arabic word ‘occupation’ الإستعمار. ”
30 April,2021
Warda
Warda meaning ‘Flower’ in arabic. A blooming soul who works tirelessly and religiously through the harvest. A very labor intensive crop, farmers have to work in the scorching sun up to 10 hours per day. They struggle through the heat and the burning sun as they race to finish their shift picking cotton under the watchful eyes of their field supervisors.The growth of the cotton crop from a seed until its spun and woven into threads, requires a lot of hands in it.
29 September, 2020
Time of our Life
The former general director of the Misr Spinning and Weaving Company stands inside one of four power plant stations. Four power plant stations located on the premises of the Misr Spinning and weaving Company, they are what powers the machines and provide power to the factories as well. I was told that up until a certain time they used to power for the whole area of El Mehalla.
13 January, 2021
1894
An interior shot of one of the oldest ginning factories in Egypt and around the world. Built in 1894, during the reign of Mohamed Ali Pacha’s family. Located in Qanatir Al Khayriyyah, on the Delta embankments.
7 january, 2021
The Ghost Machine
In todays Egypt, a young boy standing inside one of the main rooms of Misr Ginning Factory as he feeds ‘the Ghost Machine’ with cotton. Named Ghost Machine because they often devour workers’ arms without them being aware of it, these fearful monsters are still in use a hundred years after their installation, amplifying the harsh working conditions of older ginning factories. The Egyptian government aims to replace and develop these facilities. El Mehalla al Kubra, Egypt.
10 February 2021
Between Shifts
Inside Haj Ali’s Home. Haj Ali is the headmaster of our farm in El Mehalla El Kubra I’ve known him all my life. Since my grandfather’s time he has been harvesting Egyptian cotton since the 1960’s. “we used to say, whoever wants to wed their children they should wait until the harvest season. Everything was tied to the cotton. If you wanted to build a house, it was after you sold your cotton… This was a time when people would sell cotton to buy land, now they are selling whatever they have to pay the debts of the cotton.”
1 june 2021
A mountain of Cotton
An employee is pushing the raw cotton through the floor openings that lead to underground tunnels, where it is suctioned into the ginning system.The ginning processes separates the cotton fiber (lint) from its seed.The Misr Ginning Factory in El Mehalla was established in 1924 when Egypt was one of the main suppliers of cotton to Britain.
10 february , 2021
Empty Office with a portrait of Sadat
Interior shot of Alexandria Press Company in El Qabary neighborhood which extends from Minet El Basal neighborhood. Formerly owned by Abdel Fattah Yehia Pasha, A former Egyptian prime Minister and one of the main Cotton merchants at his time (1876 – 1951). Later nationalized. El Sadat’s portrait appears in the main office of the company. During his reign in the 70’s he started the open door policy, strengthening the private sector while affecting the public sector. This created in a decline in the cotton industry and the focus shifted to other industries.
28 december 2022
A Mountain of Archives
Am Ibrahim, stands on a mountain of archives thrown in one of the main rooms that was used as employees offices.
This photo portrays the state of our archive and the state of our understanding of our own history.
23 August , 2022