The Unfinished Emancipation of Egyptian Youth in the 2011 Uprising

Abstract

Abstract This essay explores how emotions, understood as social rather than individual phenomena, catalyze or suppress new youth-led group identities in the second phase of decolonial emancipation. Decolonial emancipation is understood as a long process that begins with national liberation from colonial oppression and continues, into a second phase, as independent nations experiment with forms of self-actualization. Egyptian youths’ aspirations, actions, and attempts to realize a second phase of decolonial emancipation are studied through two key events: the 2011 mass uprising that centered on Tahrir Square and which prized open the Egyptian political sphere, and the 2013 military intervention which curtailed full emancipation. Emotions as social phenomena were fundamental to youth emancipation in the period 2011–2013, catalyzing historical momentum for youth to imagine a different society through a form of enlightenment, but also stalling the revolution through social and historical trauma and misplaced trust.