The Egyptian singer and the poet who became the icons of dissent

Oud player Sheikh Imam and poet Ahmed Negm were the most-famous musical duo in Egypt in the 1960s and 1970s. They were celebrated in Cairo’s literary circles but also in the streets. The pair wrote stinging rebukes of the country’s autocrats, which often landed them in jail. Decades later, their music was sung by those trying to topple Egypt’s autocratic leaders in 2011. The story comes to us from the Kerning Cultures Network.