2007年VOA标准英语-Bedouin Culture in Egypt Dying in Drought

By Cache Seel
Shalatin, Egypt
10 July 2007

Facing Drought and the loss of grazing land for their herds¹, many Bedouin of southeastern Egypt are giving up their traditional lifestyle.  The Egyptian Government and aid organizations have stepped in to help, but critics claim they are doing more harm than good.  Reporter Cache Seel has details from Shalatin.

The sword dance of the Ababda is performed in celebrations and is used to welcome guests.  Two men with swords and shields dance in a circle around each other to a drum beat while the gathered men chant and the women ululate.  As the music ends the dancers lay down their swords and back away from each other with their hands held up to show it was all in fun.

The Ababda are one of two main tribes that make up the Bedouin population of Egypt's southeastern desert.  The other is the Besharin.  Although their traditional lands reach from the Red Sea to the Nile, differences in language and their nomadic² lifestyle kept their culture intact and distinct from the rest of Egypt.  Until recently these nomadic tribesmen were little changed by the millennia³.  Today their culture and even their language are dying.

Taha is an Ababda man living in an area called Gambeet.

Taha is explaining to an aid worker that his tribe's once large herds are gone.  Now he says the average family owns at most six goats.

Taha is the only man present in Gambeet when we visit.  The other men are out collecting wood to turn into charcoal⁴.  The charcoal will be sold in Shalatin, the largest town nearby and four days journey by camel.  Charcoaling⁵ has become increasingly important as their herds continue to grow smaller.

Taha says things were not always this way.

In 1964, the Aswan High Dam was completed.  Six years later the reservoir, called Lake Nasser, was full.  An estimated 90,000 people were displaced and more than 5,000 square kilometers of land was submerged. 

The only permanent grazing areas of the Ababda and the Besharin were left under water and the remainder of their lands have suffered from a decades-long drought.

Their camel herds, the traditional measure of wealth for the Bedouin, were decimated and the Ababda and the Besharin were left among the poorest of Egypt's poor.

Two years ago, the Egyptian government and the World Food Program began agricultural projects to offer the nomads⁶ an alternative to life in the desert.

Khaled Chatila, the Project Director for the World Food Program,  has worked on numerous Bedouin settlement programs across Egypt, but the Ababda and the Besharin are unique in the problems they present.

"Because one of the problems we were facing is that they do not speak Arabic.  Most of them will speak the Rotana which is the native language of the place," Chatila said.

The Ababda and the Besharin speak a dialect of Beja called Rotana.  Beja is an Afro-Asiatic language that is spoken among nomadic peoples from Egypt to Eritrea.

Origins of nomadic peoples are difficult to trace as they leave little evidence behind for archaeologists.  The history of the Ababda and the Besharin has been pieced together from travelers accounts and clues from their culture and language.

Accounts of their lives and customs date back to the ancient Greeks.  The 'Lost Book' of Ibn Selim al-Assouani, written in 971 AD, contains similar descriptions of the Ababda and Besharin as those of anthropologists in the 1970s.  

Anthropologist⁷ Shahira Fawzy lived with the Ababda and the Besharin from 1970 to 1985 and retains close ties.  She witnessed the flooding of their homeland and lived with them through much of the drought.  Fawzy is a critic of the agricultural programs and denies the premise⁸ that they are necessary.

"Those people have lived for thousands of years with droughts and with rains," said Fawzy.

As proof of the tribes long existence in the region she says that even today many of  their utensils⁹ and fashions are exact copies of relics¹⁰ found in the tombs of Pharaohs.  Fawzy says the programs designed to give the Ababda and the Besharin a reliable livelihood¹¹ are having the opposite effect.

"In whose interest is it?  What will they gain by switching people who have their own income into beggars?  That's what you do when you change nomads into farmers," Fawzy said.

In Shalatin, the Ababda and the Besharin live in makeshift houses on the outskirts¹² of town.  Most of the men work as laborers¹³ in the camel market, earning less than six dollars a week.  In order to survive this is supplemented with food aid and welfare.

In the past it was governments who relied on them.  They were famous warriors¹⁴.  Pharaohs and Sultans paid them to keep the caravan¹⁵ routes open.  The Beja speaking tribes were the only indigenous¹⁶ people to ever break the British infantry¹⁷ square, a feat¹⁸ immortalized in Rudyard Kipling's poem 'Fuzzy-Wuzzy.'  The last Khedive of Egypt gave them a portion of the road tax to keep the Hajj route safe.

Though some of the Ababda and the Besharin cling to their traditional way of life, the lives of most of them have been as drastically altered as their homeland.

Rahman is Besharin, like all the tribesmen he only offers one name.  For the tribes of the desert names betray family and tribal¹⁹ allegiances which can obligate two strangers to settle a centuries-old blood feud²⁰.  To avoid trouble the Ababda and the Besharin offer only their first names to strangers.  

Rahman is translating Arabic words into Rotana.  Rotana is his first language and his Arabic is accented.  His children, however, were born in Shalatin and don't even speak basic Rotana or know the customs of their people.

Still some customs remain.  They still greet their guests with a ritual serving of thick, ginger²¹ flavored coffee called Jabana and honored guests are still invited to watch the sword dance which only ends when the dancers lay their swords on the ground.  The dance is a ritual greeting for the Ababda but it could also tell their story.

The Ababda and the Besharin who fought off the Pharonic, Roman, and British empires have finally been forced to lay down their swords by the weather.

1 herds   

兽群( herd的名词复数 )； 牧群； 人群； 群众

参考例句：

• Regularly at daybreak they drive their herds to the pasture. 每天天一亮他们就把牲畜赶到草场上去。
• There we saw herds of cows grazing on the pasture. 我们在那里看到一群群的牛在草地上吃草。

2 nomadic   

adj.流浪的；游牧的

参考例句：

• This tribe still live a nomadic life.这个民族仍然过着游牧生活。
• The plowing culture and the nomadic culture are two traditional principal cultures in China.农耕文化与游牧文化是我国传统的两大主体文化。

3 millennia   

n.一千年，千禧年

参考例句：

• For two millennia, exogamy was a major transgression for Jews. 两千年来，异族通婚一直是犹太人的一大禁忌。
• In the course of millennia, the dinosaurs died out. 在几千年的时间里，恐龙逐渐死绝了。

4 charcoal   

n.炭，木炭，生物炭

参考例句：

• We need to get some more charcoal for the barbecue.我们烧烤需要更多的碳。
• Charcoal is used to filter water.木炭是用来过滤水的。

5 charcoaling   

烧炭

参考例句：

6 nomads   

n.游牧部落的一员( nomad的名词复数 )；流浪者；游牧生活；流浪生活

参考例句：

• For ten years she dwelled among the nomads of North America. 她在北美游牧民中生活了十年。
• Nomads have inhabited this region for thousands of years. 游牧民族在这地区居住已有数千年了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 anthropologist   

n.人类学家，人类学者

参考例句：

• The lecturer is an anthropologist.这位讲师是人类学家。
• The anthropologist unearthed the skull of an ancient human at the site.人类学家在这个遗址挖掘出那块古人类的颅骨。

8 premise   

n.前提；v.提论，预述

参考例句：

• Let me premise my argument with a bit of history.让我引述一些史实作为我立论的前提。
• We can deduce a conclusion from the premise.我们可以从这个前提推出结论。

9 utensils   

器具，用具，器皿( utensil的名词复数 )； 器物

参考例句：

• Formerly most of our household utensils were made of brass. 以前我们家庭用的器皿多数是用黄铜做的。
• Some utensils were in a state of decay when they were unearthed. 有些器皿在出土时已经残破。

10 relics   

[pl.］n.遗物，遗迹，遗产；遗体，尸骸

参考例句：

• The area is a treasure house of archaeological relics. 这个地区是古文物遗迹的宝库。
• Xi'an is an ancient city full of treasures and saintly relics. 西安是一个有很多宝藏和神圣的遗物的古老城市。

11 livelihood   

n.生计，谋生之道

参考例句：

• Appropriate arrangements will be made for their work and livelihood.他们的工作和生活会得到妥善安排。
• My father gained a bare livelihood of family by his own hands.父亲靠自己的双手勉强维持家计。

12 outskirts   

n.郊外，郊区

参考例句：

• Our car broke down on the outskirts of the city.我们的汽车在市郊出了故障。
• They mostly live on the outskirts of a town.他们大多住在近郊。

13 laborers   

n.体力劳动者，工人( laborer的名词复数 )；（熟练工人的）辅助工

参考例句：

• Laborers were trained to handle 50-ton compactors and giant cranes. 工人们接受操作五十吨压土机和巨型起重机的训练。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• Wage-labour rests exclusively on competition between the laborers. 雇佣劳动完全是建立在工人的自相竞争之上的。 来自英汉非文学 - 共产党宣言

14 warriors   

武士，勇士，战士( warrior的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• I like reading the stories ofancient warriors. 我喜欢读有关古代武士的故事。
• The warriors speared the man to death. 武士们把那个男子戳死了。

15 caravan   

n.大蓬车；活动房屋

参考例句：

• The community adviser gave us a caravan to live in.社区顾问给了我们一间活动住房栖身。
• Geoff connected the caravan to the car.杰弗把旅行用的住屋拖车挂在汽车上。

16 indigenous   

adj.土产的，土生土长的，本地的

参考例句：

• Each country has its own indigenous cultural tradition.每个国家都有自己本土的文化传统。
• Indians were the indigenous inhabitants of America.印第安人是美洲的土著居民。

17 infantry   

n.[总称]步兵(部队)

参考例句：

• The infantry were equipped with flame throwers.步兵都装备有喷火器。
• We have less infantry than the enemy.我们的步兵比敌人少。

18 feat   

n.功绩；武艺，技艺；adj.灵巧的，漂亮的，合适的

参考例句：

• Man's first landing on the moon was a feat of great daring.人类首次登月是一个勇敢的壮举。
• He received a medal for his heroic feat.他因其英雄业绩而获得一枚勋章。

19 tribal   

adj.部族的，种族的

参考例句：

• He became skilled in several tribal lingoes.他精通几种部族的语言。
• The country was torn apart by fierce tribal hostilities.那个国家被部落间的激烈冲突弄得四分五裂。

20 feud   

n.长期不和；世仇；v.长期争斗；世代结仇

参考例句：

• How did he start his feud with his neighbor?他是怎样和邻居开始争吵起来的？
• The two tribes were long at feud with each other.这两个部族长期不和。

21 ginger   

n.姜，精力，淡赤黄色；adj.淡赤黄色的；vt.使活泼，使有生气

参考例句：

• There is no ginger in the young man.这个年轻人没有精神。
• Ginger shall be hot in the mouth.生姜吃到嘴里总是辣的。