Feature: Who is Actually Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa?

Library > Community Presentations

Presenter: Mahdi Blaine

Delivered: DC on January 8, 2023

In this afikra feature, Mahdi Blaine explores who the indigenous people of the Middle East and North Africa were. He also talks about Pharonicism, Arabism, and genetics.

Sources & Future References

• James McDougall, History and the Culture of Nationalism in Algeria (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), 28-32.

• Surkis, J. “Hymenal Politics: Marriage, Secularism, and French Sovereignty.” Public Culture, vol. 22, no. 3, Jan. 2010, pp. 531–556. 

• Stein, Sarah Abrevaya. Saharan Jews and the Fate of French Algeria. The University of Chicago Press, 2014. 

• El Shakry, Omnia S. The Great Social Laboratory: Subjects of Knowledge in Colonial and Postcolonial Egypt. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2007.

• Loomba, Ania. "Race and the Possibilities of Comparative Critique." New Literary History 40, no. 3 (2009): 501-22.

• Robinson, Cedric, Forgeries of Memory and Meaning: Blacks and the Regimes of Race in American Theater and Film before World War II (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2007)

Note: All community presentations are prepared & presented by non-experts on the subject. They are sharing information in the hopes of spurring interest in that subject.

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About Afikra Community Presentations

Delivered and prepared by afikra Community members, the presentation’s goal is to showcase the presenter’s curiosity and research and share some knowledge on a ‎topic related to the Arab world’s histories and cultures. The presentation is the ‎culmination of the afikra coaching process to help identify a topic, find research, and develop the ‎presentation. afikra presentations come in two forms, a long question-driven afikra Feature, and a short afikra FWD with the purpose of sharing something interesting.