Manschiyyet Nasser

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Manschiyyet Nasser

Manschiyyet Nasser (also Manshiet Nasser , Manschijet Nasser or Manschijet Nasr , Arabic منشية ناصر, DMG Manšīyat Nāṣir ) is an informal district of the Egyptian capital Cairo at the foot of the Muqattam Hill (المقطّم). Much of the homes and businesses in its area were built without government approval. The district has around 600,000 inhabitants, making it the largest informal district in Cairo.

history

The history of the district began in the 1920s, when the springs dried up in the oases east of Cairo and the wahayas ( Arabic for   'people from the oases'; also called wahi ) who lived there moved to the city. In the absence of other sources of income, they began to work as the city's unofficial garbage collectors, and sold Cairo's waste to the city's baths, which used it to heat the water basins. This business model worked until the bathhouses began to replace waste with oil as fuel.

In the middle of the 20th century, Christians from Middle Egypt moved to the district that is now Zabbalin ( Arabic زبالين ' Garbage picker '). These approximately 60,000 to 70,000 people, mostly of Coptic belief, were often unable to read or write, but had numerous pigs to which the organic waste could be fed. For this purpose, the Zabbalin acquired the right to use the city's rubbish from the Wahayas for a fee. They were subsequently known for driving pigs through the city, which feed on edible, organic waste from the public streets and whose meat was then sold in Coptic shops all over Cairo.

In May 2009, however, the Egyptian government ordered the killing of all pigs across the country because the animals were falsely suspected of causing what is known as " swine flu ". The garbage collectors lost part of their livelihood.

Even today, the Zabbalin people with their highly loaded donkey carts and small trucks not only ensure a very reliable additional garbage collection in Cairo, but also a very comprehensive sorting of garbage and recycling of many materials. Manschiyyet Nasser is therefore often referred to as the so-called “garbage city”. Most families have specialized in sorting a certain type of waste during recycling and are thus still able to earn just enough money for their maintenance despite the introduction of a public waste collection system in Cairo. For this purpose, a large part of the non-organic waste is usually shredded and sold as granules to Chinese companies, especially in the textile industry.

Since 2014, the Zabbalin have been officially commissioned with the waste disposal in three districts of Giza , a neighboring city of Cairo.

Attractions

The Saint Sama'an cave church , used by the Copts in the garbage city, is the largest church in the Middle East with a capacity for 20,000 worshipers. The neighborhood is also known for the 15 meter high Muqattam Rock , which is made of limestone and from which a large boulder broke off in September 2008, leading to many dead and destroyed houses.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c d Sofian Philip Naceu: Acknowledgment for Kairo's garbage collector. Goethe-Institut , accessed on June 23, 2020 .
  2. ↑ a b c d e Martin Wittmann: Swine flu - The dirty work. faz.net, October 25, 2009, accessed June 23, 2020 .
  3. ^ A b Daniel Hechler: Corona in Egypt - The garbage sorter of Cairo. tagesschau.de, April 18, 2020, accessed on June 23, 2020 .
  4. ↑ http://www.lausanneworldpulse.com/urban.php/903/02-2008?pg=2
  5. ↑ Extraordinary Grace in Cairo: The Garbage Village of Muqattam ( Memento from May 16, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  6. ↑ Hundreds of deaths feared: huge rock fall buries slum dwellers under itself. In: Spiegel Online . September 6, 2008, accessed June 10, 2018 .

Coordinates: 30 ° 1 ′ 56.1 ″  N , 31 ° 16 ′ 31 ″  E