Piles of rubbish bags and decayed objects give the streets of Manshiyat Naser a smelly atmosphere that attracts rodents and cockroaches; however, the poorest neighborhood in Cairo is actually a major recycling hub. That is the case because the inhabitants of this slum, the Zabbaleen (Arabic for "Garbage People"), have been separating trash for decades with a well-planned system that is statistically four times more effective than European recycling companies. Additionally, this Catholic minority considers the nearby mound sacred because of a Biblical legend involving a saint. This recycling mentality and catholic devotion in a Muslim country, give Garbage City a special flair.
Historically, the Zabbaleen were wheat farmers in Asyut, a major city next to the Nile. Still, in the 1940s, an abnormally weak monsoon rainfall caused the drought along the Nile, affecting heavily the crops and consequently the economy. This said, the harvesters moved to Cairo with the goal of making some money. Once they arrived there, they were socially rejected and displaced from their homes three to four times, until they were ultimately expelled to an abandoned quarry in the Mokattam Mountain, where the slum of Manshiyat Naser later developed. Faced with extreme poverty, the Zabbaleen couldn't find a better job than earning a small tip by going from home to home and carry the trash of Cairo's citizens to their own neighborhood to recycle it. A straggering 90% of Cairo Metropolitan Area's trash is recycled by the Zabbaleen by means of this primitive and manual procedure.
To begin with, the method is divided into two main steps: the collection and transport of the garbage, which the men do via donkey carts or pick-up trucks; and its separation, a task for women and children. This second part takes place on the ground floor of the Zabbaleen's houses, where three main stations are placed, intended for the division of paper, plastic and metal. The organic waste is fed to pigs that they keep hidden in the backyards due to religious reasons (pork is forbidden in Islam). The garbage collectors also use these animals to earn income by selling them to non-Muslim hotel restaurants. Nonetheless, the structured workspace was disrupted following the regime of Hosni Mubarak.
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| Boys have the task of separating trash (from Wikimedia Commons) |
In 2003, the authoritarian head of state decided to introduce multinational recycling corporations. This didn't really affect the Zabbaleen, who despite this kept doing their job, but rather the residents of Cairo who now had to pay twice: to the garbage collectors and to the cleaning company. The new government removed these services as of 2017, though. What did create a big disturbing effect was the catastrophic decision Mubarak made in 2009, when his popularity was already very low. An epidemic was affecting Cairo, which the authorities linked to swine flu, even though the WHO assured that wasn't the cause. In any case, they didn't listen and ordered the massacre of all the Zabbaleen pigs. The loss was radical: not only were the streets littered with the rests of fruit peels and dirty bread slices, the "Garbage People" also lost the chance of selling their animals, the primary support of their economy (each pig costs over $1,000). Even if the present environmental ministry is supporting the reconstruction of the Zabbaleen's economy, which now is stable again, the past years were difficult for them. But something no one could ever steal them was the Christian faith, as a matter of fact, the very place where Manshiyat Naser lies is one of the most holy places in the Coptic Catholic Church: the Mokattam Mountain.
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| "Perception" is an art project painted on the facades of Manshiyat Naser's buildings. It represents a bright sun and has an Arabic quote that says: "Anyone who wants to see the sunlight clearly needs to wipe his eye first". The purpose is to bring light to the hard-working community (from Wikimedia Commons) |
It is said that many years ago the supreme authority of the Coptic Church, the Patriarch Abraham of Alexandria, was debating with the then-caliph about which was the dominating religion. Abraham got the upper hand in the contest, when the caliph suddenly quoted a Biblical sentence from Jesus: "Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you", asking the patriarch if he could prove the Christian dominance by performing the miracle in less than three days. That same night, Abraham had a vision of the Virgin Mary, who communicated to him that she knew the perfect humble soul that fits for this task. The man she named was Simon, a poor but faithful tanner and shoemaker who was said to supply the whole village with water whenever someone needed it. When he was ordered to pray, a heavy earthquake lifted the mountain three times; stunned, the caliph wanted to award the powerful Simon, but when he went looking for him, he was already gone. St. Simon the Tanner was later canonized and the Zabbaleen would build the largest monastery in the Middle East in his honor.
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| The welcoming chapel at the entrance of the monastery (from Wikimedia Commons) |
Stone-carved in the depths of the Mokattam Mountain and detailed with paintings showing scenes of Jesus' life, the area of the Monastery of St. Simon the Tanner encompasses six churches. The most notable spots are the welcoming chapel at the entrance and the tiered seating rows where the holy mass takes place, resembling an open-air theater. The construction began under curious circumstances as well: as dynamite was illegal in the 1970s, the Zabbaleen had to detonate it secretly, disguising it under the loud rumbling of the fired cannon that marks the end of Ramadan's fast at sunset every day. The Monastery of St. Simon the Tanner serves as peaceful protecting shell over the bustling narrow streets of Manshiyat Naser.
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| The dramatically positioned sitting rows where devotees sit during the mass (from Wikimedia Commons) |
Further Reading:
Sources and Picture Credits:
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International (Learn more)
Picture 1 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Виктор Пинчук
Picture 3: Wikimedia user Ouahidb
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported (Learn more)
Picture 2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Ayoung0131
Picture 4 and 5 https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Участник:Salut
GNU Free Documentation License (Learn more)
Picture 2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Ayoung0131
Picture 4 and 5 https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Участник:Salut
Picture 4 and 5 https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Участник:Salut
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