Sheikh Imam & Ahmed Fouad Negm: The Iconic Duo That Addressed Injustices Through Music & Poetry 

Music
Written By Blog at afikra

Words by Donya Zikry

Sheikh Imam and Ahmed Fouad Negm have shaped and influenced Arabic political song until the present day. The iconic duo has created resistance songs against the establishment, which landed them not only in prison several times, but also earned them popularity and respect across several segments of society in Egypt and beyond. Reflecting on the political and societal development they lived through – always speaking for and with the Egyptian people – Imam and Negm have become more than a mouthpiece for the poorest of the society. The strength of their transformative art has had a long-lasting impact, and the poetry and music of the duo were revived during the Arab Spring in 2011.

Who Were the Two Artists & How Did They Become Such a Phenomenon?

Sheikh Imam

Sheikh Imam was born Mohammed Ahmad Eissa in 1918 to a poor family in Abu al Numrus in Egypt (south of Cairo). He lost his eyesight at the age of five months. When he was 11 years old, his father took him to Cairo to study at the Sunni Religious Association at the famous Al Azhar Mosque. Remarkably, Imam memorized the Qur’an at the age of 12 and started working as a Qur’an reciter in Cairo. One day, when he allegedly listened to the Qur’an on the radio, he was expelled from Al Azhar. Employment possibilities were challenging due to his blindness. Later, he started working occasionally at weddings and other private events as a Qur’an reciter. In the 1930s, Imam met the influential composer and singer Sheikh Zakaria Ahmed, from whom he learned how to play the oud and whose compositions he supported for a while. Imam’s beautiful voice and remarkable memory of text and song were quickly noticed, which led him to a few radio performances as a singer in 1945, mainly at the Egyptian State Radio, however, he quit his position shortly after. 

Ahmed Fouad Negm

When Imam met Ahmed Fouad Negm in 1962, Negm had just been released from a three-year imprisonment on charges of forgery (he later confirmed publicly that he was guilty). In prison, Negm met intellectuals and novelists, such as Abdel Hakim Qasem, who introduced him to poetry. During his time in prison, Negm started developing his love for poetry and wrote poems. After his release, he stated that his time in prison was “three years in which I discovered the poet who became the talk of the people afterwards.” In 1962, he also published his first collection of verse, called “Images from Life and Prison” (translated). While his poetry was not political in the beginning, it became so, especially after the humiliating defeat of the Egyptian and Arab militaries against Israel in 1967. Negm came to be known as a respected figure, a virtuoso of the Egyptian working class, always in dissent vis-á-vis the establishment, the ruling classes, and the rich elite.
 

The Duo Imam-Negm: Contextualization & Chronology of Songs

When Imam and Negm started to get to know each other and work together, Negm would write the poetry, and Imam sang and played the lute. At first, they started to play in local cafés and at private houses in Cairo. After Negm’s move to Cairo, they lived in the famous district of Ghuriyya (Old Islamic Cairo, close to Al-Azhar Mosque and University), and later on shared an apartment. In the early days of their collaboration, they composed a song in tribute to the death of Che Guevara called Guevara Mat (Guevara is dead), which contributed to the rising popularity of the duo, particularly among the student movement and leftist intellectuals in Egypt. Shortly after the war in 1967, which was followed by the annexation of the Sinai Peninsula by Israel, the song Baqara Ha ha was released, which lambasted the Egyptian military for their heavy failures during the war. This event contributed to a new turn in Negm’s poetry, leading to a greater focus on the political dimension in his songs. This is also reflected in the song Alhamdullilah Khabatna (thank god, we knocked beneath our armpits). The song was a direct and blatant criticism of the back-then Egyptian president Nasser, under whose regime the Egyptian military experienced this humiliating loss. 

The music spread even more, especially through concerts and airing on the radio in 1969, as the radio was the main channel of music transmission at that time. The concerts by Imam – particularly the ones at Cairo University and Ain Shams University – were attended by a mass audience and students in particular. At the same time, authorities became increasingly suspicious of the duo and their revolutionary tendencies, which eventually led to the re-imprisonment of Negm and, shortly after, of Imam. Both were released one year after Nasser died in 1971. This constant imprisonment and release became almost a default procedure. Some say, whenever Negm or Imam or neither would show up for a concert or meeting, the audience knew that they had been arrested. A remarkable story refers to how the song Etgamao el Oshaa (The lovers will reunite) has been produced: while Negm was imprisoned, he wrote a poem on tobacco paper that he had with him in prison and managed to smuggle out by rolling the paper and putting it into a tangerine. Outside of prison, somebody read the poem to the blind Imam, who composed the music and sang the lyrics. This is how their vocalism and political resistance continued to be transmitted through various channels, tools, and supporters.

The 1970s were characterized by political turmoil and unrest in Egypt and the Arab Region: with the death of Nasser, the military rule of Anwar Al-Saddat began in Egypt, and with him the introduction of more neoliberal and the so called “Open Door” policies. The civil war in Lebanon started and the situation of Palestinians under Israeli occupation continued to be a concern in the whole region. Among others, the song Sharaft ya Nixon Baba (1974) is a famous one produced in this decade. It was a sarcastic response to Richard Nixon’s visit to Egypt in 1973, which can be understood as a mockery of the visit itself (Nixon was welcomed under a huge military parade) and criticism of the normalization of the Egyptian-American relationship at that time. Meanwhile, Imam and Negm had an impact on the student movements which spread a revolutionary momentum. They were also invited to perform concerts in Egypt and beyond, like in France and Germany, through which they gained popularity in the Arab diaspora.  

The duo split up in the 1980s for reasons not widely known. Imam passed away in 1995 at the age of 76, and Ahmad Fouad Negm passed away in 2013: he had turned 84. Continuously, one could hear their political songs being sung on the streets at Tahrir Square during the Arab Spring in 2011 and even during the Lebanese uprising in 2018-2019, rendering their impact visible until the present day. It is difficult to pay sufficient tribute to the two individuals who became this epic duo whose songs influence resistance music substantially in the Arab region and beyond. 

More on Their Song “Baqaret HaHa Al-Nataha”

"Baqaret HaHa Al-Nataha" (or The Head-Butting Cow of Haha) began as a traditional Egyptian folklore song, enjoyed as a playful tale for children. It tells the story of a cow named Haha, who became notorious in her village for her aggressive and quirky behavior. The song humorously describes a series of exaggerated incidents where Haha causes chaos to ultimately deliver a moral lesson to children about the consequences of such behavior. Despite the chaos she caused, Haha was still beloved by the villagers.

In the turbulent aftermath of the 1967 events in Egypt and political unrest, the renowned "Poet of the People" Ahmed Fouad Negm, reimagined the lyrics of this folk classic, maintaining its original structure but infusing it with a politically charged sentiment. In his version, the cow "Haha" symbolizes the stubbornness and absurdity of the ruling authorities, who are portrayed as blindly and aggressively imposing their will without regard for the people.

Sheikh Imam later composed and performed this reimagined version, turning it into one of the many satirical songs they both go on to creating and delivering as a duo. The song became widely popular and serves as a brilliant example of how folklore and traditional tales can be repurposed to reflect contemporary issues, using familiar stories as powerful vehicles for political dissent.

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