SHREWD BARGAINERS

Greymouth Evening Star, 19 November 1934, Page 6

SHREWD BARGAINERS

HOW BERBERINES PROSPER Flooding of the Nile incident to the construction of the Assuan Dam by British engineers has indirectly brought great benefits to some 70,000 people who live along the river in Lower Egypt. These are the Berberines, well known in Europe and North Africa through their services as domestic servants. The Egyptian Government felt obliged to compensate these river dwellers when their homes were flooded, and by shrewd bargaining the Berberines are now living in a sort of a golden age. Four years ago the Government began to prepare land above the new high-water mark for cultivation in the hope of inducing the Berberines to settle there. New irrigation canals were dug; the land tax on the new area was reduced. The proposition was discussed by Berberines, but no enthusiasm for acceptance was forthcoming. At last the Government offered land in other parts of Egypt, and fixed the compensation for the property to the expropriated at rates above the market value. The Berberines decided to make the best of their opportunity, and devoted their wits to putting in claims. These claims were duly honoured. Then the Berberines began to think better of the land which was going begging, and bought it up at a fifth of what they got for their old land. They are building themselves new houses further up the slope, using for the construction the doors, window frames, and roofs of their old homes, for which they have been handsomely indemnified. Also, they have retained cultivation rights over their old land, and will able to use it when the reservoir is emptied and get from it an extra summer crop.

CRAFT SECRETS Never before has there been so much money circulated in this stretch of the Nile Valley. Deposits in the savings

banks are reaching unprecedented figures. Berberines are acquiring house property in Cairo and are starting new businesses. Not a few of them, however, have been unable to resist the inclination to self-indulgence. The Berberines are dark-skinned, radically different from the Egyptians, and speak a language which belongs to an African group. Their gift for domestic service, as cooks, waiters or doorkeepers, is widely recognised. They may be seen, resplendent in goldbraided jackets and voluminous Turkish trousers, serving coffee in the lounges of the most expensive hotels in Europe. As cooks they acquire a skill both in European and Arab cuisine and they excel in the arts of laying a table and other domestic work.

The craft secrets are passed down among them from father to son and from neighbour to neighbour. There are no less than thirty-nine Berberine Servants’ clubs in Cairo, representing as many villages between Aswan and Haifa, where news from home is exchanged and prospects of work are discussed.

Berberines leave their villages as boys to learn their trade as scullions or houseboys in the big towns, and as a rule do not return until they have saved enough money to enable them to spend the rest of their days in dignified leisure. The tourist who travels by steamer from Shellal to Haifa will thus find the villages which dot the Nile bank inhabited mainly by women and boys. The few grown men will be retired cooks or doorkeepers. Embedded in the walls of their homes, above the lintels of the doors, are shining white plaques (set there to keep away the evil eye) which can be identified as European dinner plates from houses or hotels where their present possessors have served.