“How can workers in this industry, which dates back to the pharaohs’ time, be chased by police like drug dealers?” asks veteran pottery maker Mohammed al-Dusuqi. He painfully extends his fatigued legs in front of the kiln explaining the paradox. “I have a papyrus letter given to my family by King Farouk when he visited our village in the 1940s to acknowledge our protection of this historic heritage.”
“How can workers in this industry, which dates back to the pharaohs’ time, be chased by police like drug dealers?” asks veteran pottery maker Mohammed al-Dusuqi. He painfully extends his fatigued legs in front of the kiln explaining the paradox. “I have a papyrus letter given to my family by King Farouk when he visited our village in the 1940s to acknowledge our protection of this historic heritage.”
He continues his cantata of unhappiness while shaping a piece of clay with his hands at his workshop in Az-Zaqāzīq city, the capital of Sharkia, 150 km north of Cairo.
The profession is often passed on in families, which is the case for Sayed al-Arabi, a young pottery maker who says that local Egyptians have little interest for their trade. “Our profession has built mosques and churches and now only tourists visit us,” he says. “We’ve turned into a heritage and tourists come to take photos with us as if we were antiquities.”
Sluggish demand
Clay dishes, jars and crocks, once essential in to rural households in the 1940s, have been replaced by metal kitchenware. Today, pottery vessels and furniture are used as accessories or for decorative purposes. Dozens of pottery workshops have close down due to sluggish demand.
Only four workshops still exist, according to Mohammed’s son Shawki. “A common practice now is the regular sit-ins of pottery workers in front of the governor’s office,” he says. “To protest the demolition decisions and for blaming us for environmental violations, as if the whole environment deterioration is caused by these four workshops!”
Does pottery cause pollution?
The struggle to abolish this profession began three years ago when complaints were voiced about the black cloud that hovers over parts of Cairo in autumn during the rice-hull burning season. The Sharkia Governor blamed pottery kilns, and initiated a series of decisions to close down all workshops using traditional kilns that burn wood and waste. This forced pottery makers to work at night to avoid the authorities. After several sit-ins, the former governor endorsed a compromise allowing them to work at night.
Former director of environmental affairs at SharkiaAli Abdel Rahman believes that the conflict was not between government officials and the industry but between them and the black cloud, which embarrasses them in front of the central authorities in Cairo.
“We asked many businessmen to reemploy the workers in this industry, but pottery makers refused to abandon their native profession,” said Abdel Rahman, explaining that he himself declined to implement the closure decisions in support of pottery makers. They are “rare coins”, he thinks, and their profession can meet environmental requirements.
Alternative solutions
The idea of relocating the pottery industry has remained a hot issue between pottery makers and successive governors. According to pottery grand master, Mohammed al-Dusuqi, the rigidity of successive governors and their insistence on enforcing the environmental standards in major factories halted negotiations.
Head of the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights, Attorney Isam Kamel, is calling for preserving pottery traditions and looking after pottery workers. He underlines the importance of involving the local community in solving the kiln issue by helping pottery makers switch to more advanced and environmentally friendly kilns. He concluded that the new political climate in Egypt after the revolution created more democratic administration and this can help preserve the country’s heritage while ensuring that current and future social and economic necessities are satisfied.”
