Zabbaleen

The Zabbaleen (Egyptian Arabic zabbalin, 'garbage people', a name that is itself a slur) are the families who have collected, sorted and recycled Cairo's household waste for nearly a century. Most descend from landless Coptic peasants of the El Badari district of Asyut in Upper Egypt who came to Cairo in the 1930s and 1940s and bought the right to collect waste from the Wahiya, Muslim migrants from the Dakhla Oasis who held the contracts with building owners. Because the Zabbaleen fed the organic waste to pigs, which Muslims do not keep, the trade became tied to Christians. After eviction from Giza they settled in 1969-1970 in a disused quarry below the Mokattam cliffs, now Mokattam village or 'Garbage City', one of seven Zabbaleen settlements around Greater Cairo. They are not a separate ethnic people: they speak Egyptian Arabic and most belong to the Coptic Orthodox Church. What sets them apart is the stigma of their trade: other Egyptians shun them as dirty, their children are insulted at school or refused, and families have long married within the community. Muslims also live and work in the settlements, especially Ezbet al-Nakhl.

Zabbaleen families work as household units: men and boys collect waste door to door, once with donkey carts and now with small trucks, and women and girls sort it at home into some 16 kinds of material, which workshops in the settlements wash, shred and sell to factories. They recycle about 80% of what they collect, among the highest rates in the world. Homes are several-storey brick buildings whose ground floors serve as sorting rooms and stores. Family life is close and patriarchal, families keep their own collection routes as an inheritance, and marriage within the community has been common. The cave churches of Mokattam, carved into the limestone cliffs, are the centre of community life, with schools, clinics and recycling projects run by the church and by NGOs.

Most Zabbaleen are Coptic Orthodox Christians for whom the church is the heart of the community. The Monastery of St. Simon the Tanner in Mokattam, founded in the 1970s and seating about 20,000, honours the 10th-century saint who, by Coptic tradition, moved the Mokattam mountain by prayer, and draws Copts from across Cairo. Churches in the settlements also run schools, clinics and welfare. Muslim families, including descendants of the Wahiya, live and work alongside them, and fieldwork finds religion matters less than trade and assets in how families fare, though the 2009 pig cull and the 2011 clashes with Muslim neighbours left many Christian Zabbaleen feeling targeted for their faith.

The Zabbaleen are a churched Christian community: the Arabic Bible, the JESUS film and audio resources are available, and the Coptic Orthodox Church, with Protestant and NGO work alongside, serves the settlements. Their need is less access to the gospel than acceptance by the wider church and society that shuns them for their trade.

In April 2009, during the H1N1 influenza outbreak, the Egyptian government ordered the culling of an estimated 300,000 pigs -- making Egypt the only country worldwide to take this action despite having no confirmed swine flu cases. The decision devastated the Zabbaleen community, whose entire recycling system depended on pigs consuming organic waste. Families that previously earned around 450 EGP per pig every six months received only 50-250 EGP in compensation. The cull caused malnutrition and anemia among children who had relied on pork as an affordable protein source. It also triggered a citywide garbage crisis as organic waste piled up on streets without pigs to consume it. Many observers perceived religious bias in the decision, as the Zabbaleen are Christian in a majority-Muslim country where Islam prohibits eating pork. Critics suggested the cull reflected efforts to displace the community and gentrify the Mokattam area for land speculation.

The Mokattam settlement contains seven churches carved directly into the limestone cliffs, making them unique in Egyptian Christianity. The most prominent is the Monastery of St. Simon the Tanner, named after a 10th-century Coptic saint who, according to tradition, miraculously moved the Mokattam mountain through prayer, convincing the Islamic governor Al-Muizz to permit church construction. The monastery's amphitheater seats 20,000, making it one of the largest churches in the Middle East and the largest religious building in Egypt. The caves are adorned with intricate sculptures and carvings depicting biblical scenes. The first church in Mokattam was established in 1975, enabling the community to build permanent structures. These churches serve as both spiritual centers and social welfare hubs providing education, healthcare, and community support.