The Bishari of Gebel Elba
In the desert not far from the Red Sea coast, just north of the Egyptian-Sudanese border, lies Gebel Elba. Numerous wadis (dry riverbeds) dissect the picturesque granite mountain range. The area is rich in biodiversity with plants and animals found nowhere else in Egypt. Its profuse vegetation contrasts sharply with the surrounding arid desert.
Throughout the wadis several hundred nomadic people and their flocks live in small communities among the acacia trees. More inhabit the region between the Nile and the Red Sea, but the main bulk of the Bishari people make Sudan their home. Living in this part of the world for some 5,000 years, Bishari tradition portrays Gebel Elba as their place of origin.
Dark complexion, crisp and frizzled hair, confirm the Bishari are of other racial stock than Arab. Their small figures, oval faces, straight noses and large eyes bear a distinct likeness to the surviving depictions of Ancient Egyptians.
The Bishari of Gebel Elba dwell in small, circular wooden structures covered with hide, cloth, and plastic sheets. They pray towards Mecca and speak a peculiar language, To-Bedawiye, supposedly allied to the idioms of Ancient Egypt. Men wear darkish vests over light-colored, ankle-long shirts and adorn themselves with curved daggers. Almost all carry sticks of about a meter and a half in length, decorated at one end with simple geometric pattern. Veiled Bishari women wear more colorful clothes, gold-yellow, olive-green, crimson-red or coffee-brown.
The Bishari are mostly pasturalists. Known for breeding high quality and fast camels, they also support themselves by tending goats and sheep and by producing charcoal. In the markets of southern Egypt their goods are sold in exchange for corn, wheat, beans, dates, sugar, linen, leather, daggers and other necessities.
Imbued with exceptional tracking skills, a Bishari can easily distinguish the individual tracks of camels and sheep. They know little of navigation by stars but are instead guided by wind direction and the sun. Although physically not very strong, their endurance is legendary.
For the past ten years the area of Gebel Elba is experiencing the effects of a severe drought. The decline of yearly rainfall is threatening both the fragile ecology and the Bisharis’ livelihood. Camels, sheep, and goats are lean and the wells are all but dried up causing many Bishari to suffer from illness and malnutrition. Fetching water in skins is a daily agony of walking long distances over rocky terrain, sometimes up to an hour, to collect the precious fluid that many of us take so easily for granted. Although preferring the life of tranquility of the wadis, the lack of water has forced many to migrate to the nearby coastal town of Abu Ramad where water is more readily available.
The Bisharis’ predicament prompted the Egyptian Desert Pioneers Desert Society into action. Society members and sponsors, including Goredsea.com, were called upon for contributions.
In the morning of 18 September 2001, a convoy of two trucks and four four-wheel-drive vehicles left Cairo for Gebel Elba with the entire aid package: twelve and half tons of flour, two and a half tons of long-lasting cheese, hundred and fifty plastic containers, fifty metal buckets and twenty-five sets of basic tools; for the children, hundred and fifty new and used pullovers, hundred pairs of shoes in good condition and a multitude of school stationary.
Accompanying the expedition were five society members, two geologists whose task it was to identify possible locations for digging wells, and myself as representative of Goredsea.com. Two days and 1,200 kilometers later, the aid party reached Wadi Odeib at Gebel Elba.
Under the watchful eye of Sheikh Hassan, dividing and distributing the goods as fair as possible among his tribesmen took three days to complete. The Bishari were evidently pleased to receive the aid, offering us grilled goat meat and sweetened coffee laced with ginger they call “Gabana”.
Aiming to help preserve their unique culture while surviving in the modern world, the Society further intends to promote self-help projects. The first step was accomplished when the two geologists identified two potential sites for new wells. The second step will be to assist them to develop skills such as well digging, irrigation and gardening techniques.
Whether the young can resist the temptations of modern life still remains to be seen. Shortly before leaving our new friends of Gebel Elba, twenty year-old Isa quietly approached me. “I want to go to ‘Hollanda’” he said. When I asked why he replied: “It has a nice name.” Well Gebel Elba has a nice name too, I thought.
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