Date Cultivation in Dar Al-Manasir - Monetary Value and Compensation

Monetary Value and Compensation

The mentioned economic, cultural and social factors result in a practical inconceivability of selling palm trees as real assets among the Manasir. The situation in the twenties of last century, as described by Leach (1919) with the following words is still very much true of today;

"… a man being in need of money, but disliking the thought of parting from the whole of his property, might sell half a tree. This however was a very rare occurrence, and was only resorted to occasionally in cases of real distress and only in the poorest part of the province. In ordinary circumstances it was a disgrace to sell either land or date trees".

To quote the Mansuri 'Abdallah Ahmad al-Hassan Abu Qurun (عبدالله أحمد الحسن أبو قرون) in 2005:

"I have almost seen all of Dar al-Manasir and I know of whole gardens being sold in the Shaiqiyah Country and Rubatab Country. But I know of no more than two instances when a Mansuri ever sold his palm trees. And in both cases they only sold one, two or three trees reacting in an emergency situation. Usually, in such situations of financial difficulties the people will ask the person to be patient until they collectively manage to come up with the necessary money. This is why you cannot put a price on a palm tree; you would not be able to sell it. Date trees do not have a price! Your palm trees and your offspring are regarded as one (التمر دي و جناك واحيد)".

This attitude of the Manasir is reflected in the practice of local merchants issuing loans to peasants in exchange for prospected harvests of particular trees.

For most Manasir it is therefore inconceivable to receive monetary compensation in exchange for their palm trees which are going to be flooded together with their villages and other agricultural land as a result of the erection of the Hamdab High Dam (Marawi Multi-Purpose Hydro Project). According to al-Hakem (1993:6) about 675,000 productive date trees will be lost in the course of flooding the reservoir lake. The information brochure of the Manasir Committee speaks of 250,000 productive and 300,000 male or not yet fruit-bearing date trees in the year 2003 (تقدير النخيل المثمر فى عام 2003 م=250.000 نخلة تقريبا و تقدير النخيل الغير مثمر فى عام 2003 م=300.000 نخلة تقريبا).

In spring 2005 there still has not been any reliable information and therefore much confusion among the local population on the matter of which palm trees (depending on the status of land, age of trees and amount of taxes previously paid) are eventually going to be compensated and for how much. Apart from the monetary compensation, each 120 date trees on private property are supposedly to be compensated with one Feddan (4,200 m²) of land in the new relocation areas.

Since the local peasants are still kept unclear about the actual level of the reservoir lake and its consequences for the Nile water regime and the banks of the artificial lake, many nourish hopes to be able to continue living and cultivating their homeland. As a consequence only months ahead of forced resettlement new shoots of date trees are transplanted to higher areas and irrigated with much effort.

Even in the unlikely case of a reasonable monetary compensation, the loss of their date trees would pose a hardship especially for the older Manasir, who laboriously cultivated these trees to be able to live from their harvest in their old age when they can't work in the agriculture anymore.