CAIRO - More than two million Egyptians thronged into Cairo's iconic Al Tahrir Square on Friday to celebrate the popular 18-day uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak's regime on Feb 11. As part of the political culture of the Arab world's most populous country, the jubilant Egyptians celebrated the historic event with banners and posters for a certain leader, or company, or governorate that presumably played an active role in the revolt. During that important rally, the famous square breathed a little harder now that a ‘banner war had been declared in a country where political posters and banners usually outnumber advertising billboards. "It will be a relief when the Egyptians drop the culture of banners," said Assad Shami, a 40-year-old shop owner in nearby Falaqi Square. Shami said he wished that all posters and banners would disappear from the streets to defuse political tensions and eliminate a cause for fights and arguments among the protesters. The young people, after the Friday celebration, took down their posters simultaneously around Al Tahrir Square, and political graffiti were cleaned off walls in the nearby streets. The same effort is being exerted in the city's suburbs, the airport highway and elsewhere in Cairo. Some banners in many governorates are also coming down. Posters and banners have historically been a marker of political rivalry in Egypt. The ubiquitous portraits have taken on greater weight since 1954, when the country was torn by a power struggle between pro- and anti-Gamal Abdul Nasser supporters, the architect of the 1952 Revolution that toppled King Farouk. But, during the 2010 parliamentary elections and the January 25 revolution, they included statements of support for the candidates and the young people. On Friday, the young people as well as workers who took centre stage, raised posters of their governorates and factories or the victims killed in battles with the riot police during the protests, which reached their peak on January 28 and Feb 2. It was lamentable that the young people of Sharquia Governorate vied with their peers of Minya Governorate. Pictures of Sharquia victims went up to counter portraits of the slogans of Minya supporting the Egyptian revolution, which restored pride to the country. Since the young revolutionaries are mostly regionally based, the posters could be seen as claiming power for one governorate over another. A banner by workers showed the name of their factory above a Qur'anic text reading ‘Prepare for them with as much might as you can'. Many portraits of the young people carried the slogan ‘Egypt First', a dig at the political parties or the country's ties to the West. To avert potential for political or regional strife during future rallies, Ahmed Khalil, a university student, said that all Egyptians should launch a poster or banner of disarmament campaign. "However, not all of them should go. The proposed campaign should not include divisive posters and banners that carry the names of the martyrs of the revolution or the demands of the young people," Ahmed said. He also said that the banners should show pro-unity slogans such as ‘No to strife among Egyptians' and ‘Yes to Muslim-Christian unity'. Shopkeeper Gamal Mekkawi is skeptical that patriotism or Egypt's love can grow from posters or banners. "What's needed," he said, "is that all Egyptians should work to rebuild their country to prove their love for it."
