Cairo's long-awaited Naguib Mahfouz Museum disappoints
It took Egypt 13 years to create a museum dedicated to literary giant Naguib Mahfouz and now that it has finally opened, many find it not worth the wait.
“Forgetfulness is the plague of our alley,” Egypt’s Nobel laureate Naguib Mahfouz famously said in his 1959 novel, “Children of Gebelawi.” The “alley” was Egypt itself.
Nevertheless, Egypt has never forgotten its best-known writer, who died in 2006 — nor the plans to open a museum about him. It took more than 13 years, with one postponement after another and endless disputes with the writer’s family on what would be featured there. Finally, the museum was opened on July 14, with the ministers of culture and antiquities as well as members of the Egyptian intelligentsia in attendance. But both opening and the museum itself were harshly criticized, leading some writers to comment that perhaps the plague of Egypt was not forgetfulness, but sloppiness.
