Floats are part of the visual memory of the Egyptians associated with black and white films, as their presence is immense in the history of this memory. But not only is this the only and most important representation, these floats have a different story, as they play a political role in appointing governments and overthrowing others. A long history of resistance to oppression by the authorities from 1966 to the present. Today, the Egyptians are only hours away to erase this memory of the change that shook Egyptian society centuries ago. This brutality resulted in the destruction of 477 to 500 buoys due to the Egyptian government’s decision to remove houseboats or buoys from the Nile River.

Thus, Egypt will erase an important witness in its history. For example, buoy number 66 is owned by artist Munira al-Mahdiya, who interacted with senior officials during an important historical period from 1914 to 19 May. , 1919. Mahdia is associated with the then Prime Minister Hussein Pasha Sedki, who controlled the fate of five ministries from 1914 to 1919. He recorded this hadith in his diaries, cited by the writer Essam Nabil in a file called “The History of the Floats on the Nil al-Mahrus”. There was a famous platform called “Queen of the Floods” owned by Hikmat Fahmi, a famous German spy dancer Johann Ebler against the Allies during World War II until he and Ebler were arrested by a French night girl. He was also accompanied by Sadat, who assisted him in organizing the intelligence and control service.

Badiya Masabni, artist Najib Al-Rihani and singer Farid Al-Atrash lived here.

Many artists have had floats, and these floats are evidence of stories of love and revenge. Among the most well-known houseboat artists are Lebanese dancer Badia Masabni and his wife, artist Najib Al-Rihani, and singer Farid Al-Atrash, who composed his best song from the heart of his houseboat. Habib al-Omar. A girl drowned there. He wrote about this exciting life in his novel Gossip Over the Nile in 1966, the same year Interior Minister Zakaria Mohieldin issued a decision to move the floats from Zamalek and Aguza to Imbaba and Kit Kat. This decision did not satisfy the bartenders living on the rafts to leave these buoys, leaving them to their fate, without anyone knowing. The buoys that survive today are located at the end of the Imbab Bridge, inhabited by people who sell all their belongings for it, dreaming of a comfortable life. In 2016, the official dispersal of buoys began. Previously the fee was per cubic meter, now per square meter. Writer Ahdaf Sueif, who lives on one of the boats, tells us: “Since 2018, there has been a clear stagnation against us that we are unaware of. We always had good intentions and didn’t think the goal was to remove the buoys, even after the decision made in January 2020 not to renew the license for the buoys, I don’t know what to do. ”
Now we are on the brink of another tragic end to an important part of Egyptian history, or, as Naguib Mahfouz said in the words of one of his heroes: “Anything, anything. Here, Zakaria Mohieddin decides to face the floating, and this is the mouth of the people living on floats today.