Aida: America’s Confederates in Egypt
When “Aida” premiered in Egypt in 1871, it delivered some not-so-subtle messaging in the dramatization of light-skinned Egyptians dominating dark-skinned Ethopians. Within two years, the man who commissioned “Aida,” Egypt’s Khedive Ishmael Pasha, lived out this fantasy of conquest, mobilizing the nation’s army with help from former American Confederate veterans.. […]