John Ninet and the foreign struggle

Abstract EN

John Ninet (1815-1895), or the Swiss farmer, as he was nicknamed, is a controversial figure and a face of many masks.

From the time he was brought to Egypt during the era of Muhammad Ali to advance agriculture, in 1839, until his departure from it, in 1882, this Swiss writer became the spokesman for the Egyptian peasant and even the defender of the entire Nile State in the face of Europe.

Thanks to his stay in Egypt, which lasted nearly 42 years, Ninet was able to chronicle the economic life in the country from the time of Muhammad Ali Pasha until the Urabi revolution.

His anger at the injustices and corruption of the Turkish Khedives and their European vassals prompted him to take upon himself the responsibility of defending the Egyptian cause and the peasant people to expose the Western scheme to exploit this country and impoverish its people.

These two plays are a testament to an era when the major colonial powers were the loudest voice.

In these two plays the author directs a scathing criticism of European diplomats, sometimes to the point of condemnation.

He also revealed their ambitions in the Egyptian state, which ended in losing its balance and entering into a series of debts from which Egypt has not recovered until now.

These two plays depicted what the author called the dark period or the "sad days", which began from the rule of Said Pasha and continued until the British occupation of Egypt in 1882.