Figure 1: Free Spirit by the British artist, Josie Appleby
One must not be under any illusion: the struggle to revive Coptic – that is the struggle that you, your family and friends speak Coptic as a mother’s tongue – is a liberation struggle. We, the Copts, know that; and they, the Arabs of Egypt who hold political power exclusively in their hands, know it. Learning, speaking and writing Coptic as first language is about liberating us from Arab and Muslim culture. This is a matter one can safely say most Copt would support. This is also why the Arabs and Muslims of Egypt will try to fight attempts to revive Coptic, for they perceive, like all other oppressors, that their political dominion over us will not be complete without cultural domination.
But they cannot prevent us from working to revive Coptic. Our work, as a nation, on this matter can be said to be unstoppable despite its humble start. If the cataracts could block the flow of the Nile towards its final destination, or Apip, lurking in the labyrinths of the underworld, could prevent the sun from rising up again, let the Arabs and Muslims of Egypt try to block our natural aspiration to revive Coptic. It may take decades, or even a century, but the day will surely come. The matter of Coptic revival really depends on us not on others; and in this we are encouraged.
Every one of us is called to join this sacred struggle for the revival of Coptic – to learn and speak Coptic fluently, and write in it. Once we do that we liberate ourselves culturally; and our culture, thus retained and protected by our language, will stand strong against the onslaught of foreign cultures brought into our families and homes. It will mean the end of the Arabization and Islamisation of our people.
This is a great matter, and once each of us manages to reach a satisfactory level in Coptic he should celebrate the occasion. With that he will be initiated into a new kind of coming of age – into cultural liberty, liberation from the bondage of Arabic, and reversal of the processes that brought about our subjugation to a foreign culture.