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Al-Ahram Weekly 20 - 26 July 2000 Issue No. 491 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 20 - 26 July 2000 Issue No. 491
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Features Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters WORLDS APART:
By Fatma Farag
Experts in Dahab estimate that there are approximately 10,000 Bedouin shepherds in the south of Sinai, but these poorer sectors of Bedouin society enjoy almost no government support. "Their life is very harsh," claims Ehab Farid of EMBAH Travel, which specialises in desert excursions. "Today they are required to buy everything -- including water, which the government sells at LE3 per container." EMBAH maintains a programme aimed at supporting Bedouin life by incorporating Bedouins into the profitable tourism trade.
The large tribes of south Sinai are as follows: the Miziena clan, from Saudi Arabia', who inhabits the area between south Nuweiba through Al-Tor; the Tarabien tribe, who command Nuweiba proper to the Watier Valley and Wadi Arab; the Tayaha, who live in Al-Tih Desert; the Eligat, who live in Sadr; the Gibaliya, who live in Saint Catherine; and, finally, the members of Awlad Said.
Khala (aunt)Umm Rabi' is of the Tarabien and now lives, like the rest of her family members, in a cardboard shack similar to those that make up urban shanty areas. "Tents are expensive," she sighs. "This is what they say is progress." Refusing to be photographed, the old woman suddenly barks, "In our culture, women are modest." She pulls her head-shawl closer around her head and glances at my short sleeves disapprovingly.
To make the money necessary to buy water and live, her son Rabi' takes tourists on his camel for cross desert trips. "It is not easy, because I have to walk next to the camel maybe six hours a day and more, while the foreigner is enjoying the ride," Rabi' explained. He dreams of making a lot of money for his family by winning the Bedouin camel races, which for some reason stopped two years ago.
photo: Thomas Hartwell
As waters sources grow more concentrated in urban centres, the Bedouin are forced to follow. "We have no water," Rabi' explains. "Water in the desert is depleting fast because of the lack of rain. To dig a well costs thousands of pounds. Although there are two members of parliament that come from our tribe, we never see them," Rabi' adds, his doe-like eyes looking out toward the expanse of yellow sand.
"You know, I have never left the desert," Rabi' confides, "I am afraid that if I leave I will get lost and be unable to make it back." His fear, and his mother's hostility, seem to underline their isolation from a powerful world that seems insistent on taking them over.
"These people are the real owners of this land," declares EMBAH's Farid. "Many of the Bedouin who have settled in Dahab and engaged in the selling and buying of land have been coopted into the larger and stronger society of Egypt. Bedouins saw that the Egyptian was educated, that he had a car and a phone, and they wanted the same. But those who remain in the desert live a very different reality."
As the herd moves on, it is sad to realise that these people have no written heritage and hundreds of years of human existence could slowly fade away into the horizon without a trace.
