Art Moves Africa – Retracing Roots and Tracing New Routes: Mobility and Touring in North Africa

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Country-Specific Information
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IMPEDIMENTS
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Repression of civil society organizations
· NGOs in Egypt have been facing increasing
harassment, censorship, raids and persecution.
They are being required to navigate increasingly
complex bureaucratic mechanisms, with
permissions required for nearly all activities.
We don’t use state theatre or big theatres because
we have issues with censorship. We don’t
want any of our works to be censored. We try to
work with cultural institutes to avoid censorship. –
Adel Abdelwahab, Artistic director, Hewar for Independent
Theater & Performing Arts, Alexandria
· The most relevant laws, in terms of mobility,
are those that require CSOs to apply for permission
to host foreign artists.
For example, if a Moroccan artist wants to come
to Reflection Arts, I have to get a permission
for him to work with me. If there are any fees,
income from a performance, etc., I have to get
a permit. If we do the project and I’m still waiting
for permission, I also have to get another
permit to send money abroad. – Ahmed Eldeeb,
Co-founder – Director, Reflection for Arts Training
& Development, Alexandria
· Because laws are often passed fast and in
secrecy, cultural operators and artists can
easily be caught in legal traps.
Restrictions on receiving foreign funding
· The regulations on receiving foreign funds are
placing particularly tight constraints on artists’
mobility. According to Freedom House, “all
NGO funding and basic management decisions
are also subject to regulators’ approval.” Artists
report that this process can be extremely
lengthy.
We have to report every step that we take and every
grant that we get. The last one we got was from
SouthMed CV, but we didn’t get it immediately,
because we needed permission from the
authorities. We applied for the permission in
January 2017 and waited until October. The
whole time we were managing our relationship
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with SouthMed CV. They asked us “what is your
action plan?”. We said, “don’t worry”. We only
got the permission and the grant in the last 3
months. We didn’t have the chance to use the
funds wisely, as we had planned earlier. – Ahmed
Eldeeb, Co-founder and director, Reflection for
Arts Training & Development, Alexandria
· Faced with this situation, funds are ceasing
operations in Egypt, leaving artists in an even
tighter spot.
Visa restrictions
· Entry to Egypt has gotten increasingly difficult
in recent years, with lengthy application
processes at embassies abroad and arbitrary
refusals.
· Several respondents noted particular difficulty
for Tunisians to enter Egypt (corroborated by
respondents in Tunisia – see Tunisia section)
Egyptian embassies abroad are hard to deal
with when it comes to asking for visas for Arab
citizens. Tunisians and Moroccans have such
a hard time getting into Egypt – they get many
rejections. – Basem Abuarab, Executive director,
Al Moharek Booking Agency for Independent
Arabic Music, Cairo
· Moreover, Egyptians themselves must obtain
permissions to travel to certain countries and/
or security clearance at the Cairo airport.
Travel restrictions for men and women
· Young men from the military service age need
to get permission from military in order to travel.
· Women need to get a permission/confirmation
from their families that they are travelling to
certain countries.
Ambivalent identification with Africa /
Discrimination
· Many respondents noted that Egyptians do
not identify as Africans, noting in particular
Egypt’s unique geographic positioning and
greater identification to the MENA region
· Racism is also extremely prevalent in Egypt,
targeting in particular the Nubian and Sudanese
communities as well as African migrants.
Nubian resistance movements are frequently
met with violence and repression.