Africa gets an apology from the Egyptian people but no such luck from the government

In a touching show of contrition for sins that are not their own, the Egyptian people have taken to Twitter to apologise to the rest of the African continent for offensive remarks made by their deputy minister for Environment. As This Is Africa has reported, the as yet unnamed deputy minister is alleged to have called Sub-Saharan Africans “dogs and slaves” within earshot of other African representatives at a United Nations Environmental Assembly meeting held in Nairobi last week.

In situations like these, a full-throated apology usually goes a long way in making amends for hurt feelings. While stressing that the views of the deputy minister in no way resemble their own, many Egyptians have been doing exactly that.

I hereby declare that the Egyptian minister that made those racist comments does not represent me #wearesorryafrica

— Ahmed Adel (@click_mobinil) May 31, 2016

https://twitter.com/Loooooooby/status/737578699923431426

Dear Africa, we Egyptians apologies for what the environment minister said.#WearesorryAfrica

— Mohammed Elsayad (@msayad2) May 31, 2016

#WearesorryAfrica for what that rude raciest man said.Please do not take the lame to all Egyptians,there's so many decent people Here.

— Khaled Soliman (@KhaledSAlnaggar) June 2, 2016

#WearesorryAfrica and most of all we are sorry to ourselves.This ignorant racist man does not represent us Egyptians pic.twitter.com/AUUEeU4GVj

— Yehia El Gammal (@YehiaMelGammal) May 31, 2016

Egyptians = Africans

As is plain to see in the comment section on our reporting about the deputy minister’s statements, part of the fallout has involved many people wondering aloud if Egyptians even feel African at all or whether – mostly due to their country’s geographic position – they feel a greater kinship with their Arab neighbours in the Middle East. The heartfelt reactions on the #WeAreSorryAfrica thread should put those concerns to rest because they make it clear that Egyptians feel like they are part of the African family.

https://twitter.com/Nagy_Bahnan/status/737639467515838464

Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba on 1961 #Egypt stamp. A main street was named after him in Egypt. #WeAreSorryAfrica pic.twitter.com/8JYPXriKop

— Amro Ali (@_amroali) May 31, 2016

Those racialist words doesnt represent Egyptians opinions,Egypt is part of Africa we're all Africans #EgyptiansAreAfricans #WeAreSorryAfrica

— Gucci Gang (@GehadElSaadouny) June 1, 2016

…they make it clear that Egyptians feel like they are part of the African family.

No, you apologise

The reaction of the Egyptian government couldn’t be more different from that of its people. Instead of a mea culpa, Egypt’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has lashed out at calls for it to step down from representing Africa at any level that were made by the African Diplomatic Corps (ADC) Technical Committee in reaction to vile insults used by the deputy minister.

“And In any case, it is categorically unacceptable to generalize and make feeble accusations against the state and people of Egypt, questioning Egypt’s belonging to Africa and its ability to fulfill its responsibilities in representing African interests.”

As you see in the rest of the statement reproduced below, besides the tough talk, the ministry also said it would “investigate” the affair.

The biggest take away from the statement from the Ministry is “No, you apologise”. The irony hasn’t been lost on people in Egypt.

Instead of making apology..#Egypt demands apology for ‘allegations’ of racist remarks #WeAreSorryAfricahttps://t.co/QmYLLAfNWe

— Amr Khalifa (@Cairo67Unedited) June 1, 2016

Advertisement

https://twitter.com/basildabh/status/737631807932338176

Some Egyptians though think the issue has been blown out of proportion and no apology is due especially because there hasn’t been any tangible proof yet about what actually transpired.

https://twitter.com/IbrahimNegm/status/738138237948940288

https://twitter.com/IbrahimNegm/status/738136906689482752

Some Egyptians though think the issue has been blown out of proportion

In the meantime, Yvonne Khamati, the Chairperson of the African Diplomatic Corps (ADC) Technical Committee, who essentially spilled the beans on what happened at the Nairobi meeting, has been giving more details about how exactly the deputy minister came to be overhead.

He spoke to his delegation in Arabic in the presence of African delegates. That speak:understand Arabic

— AMB Yvonne Khamati -Yahaya (@YvonneKhamati) May 30, 2016

Seems like this is developing into a real “he said, she said” diplomatic spat.