CAIRO: In June 2008 the fate of the Azbakia second-hand book vendors was sealed when they were told to evacuate their decades-old stalls to make way for the Imbaba-Abassiya metro line. Their lives were going to change forever.
Despite the fact that they were relocated to newly constructed stalls, Cairo’s Azbakia used book sellers remain dissatisfied with the new kiosks to which they were moved on early Ramadan this year.
Located just a few steps away from the entrance to the Ataba metro station in Cairo, the new 133 wooden kiosks that now make up the famed Azbakia used book market were constructed at a cost of LE 4 million by the Egyptian Metro Authority for compensation.
This is the sixth time the market has been moved in 15 years.
“Thank God,” sighed Mohamed Youssef, owner of one used books stall. “I don’t mind if it is near the station or on the moon, but the three months we waited for these boxes to come up made us suffer a great deal. At least now we can earn our own bread.”
Sayed El Kutubi, another vendor, recalls how they were promised that they would be given the new kiosks within a few days of evacuating the older site.
“But then we were suddenly asked to ship our stuff home and come back in two or three weeks,” he said.
The three weeks stretched to three months before they started operating again. But that’s still not the end of the story because this was a temporary move until the new metro line is launched in four years.
“For three months, these book vendors were stranded. Some managed to continue making deals from home but for others it was a real mess,” said Nabil Abu Abdel Rahman, a third vendor.
“After lodging a complaint at the Cairo governorate office, we were told that we’d each be paid LE 2,000 by the metro authority in compensation for the delay,” El Kutubi told Daily News Egypt, “but when we demanded the money from the authority, they said that they hadn’t issued directives to that effect.”
He explained that the cost incurred in shipping the books home and back to the new area as a result of the delay were much more than LE 2,000 can compensate for.
The new wooden stalls, said to have cost LE 23,000 each, are beautifully made in Arabesque woodwork. But some of the vendors complain that their construction does not abide by safety standards.
“Unlike our old metal stalls, these ones could catch fire in a minute but we have not been provided with a fire extinguishing system. The ceilings were supposed to have been coated with a waterproof substance but the tiny holes in the ceiling indicate that the coating hasn’t been properly finished. We’ll have to cover the stall tops with nylon sheets before winter,” said El Kutubi.
Another vendor is dreading the fact that the neighboring clothes market, where the dealers promote their merchandise with small loudspeakers, will scare away potential book buyers.
“Imagine the scene,” said Abdou Hamed. “People coming here to browse through books will be driven away by the clamor of the touts selling their stuff on wooden carts.”
The book vendors look back wistfully to the time when former president Gamal Abdel Nasser ordered a special area to be given permanently to the market around the walls of Azbakia Park.
Some Egyptian intellectuals like novelist Youssef El Qaeed have even suggested that the market be shifted back to its original location around the park.
This is the only used book market that continues to attract and inspire intellectuals from around the entire region, El Qaeed said on a TV show about the new market.
“Nasser’s time was the golden age for Azbakia,” recalled Abu Abdel Rahman. “Before him the vendors displayed their stuff on wooden boxes. In his book ‘The Search for Identity,’ late president Anwar Sadat said that he credited the books he had purchased at the market for his education.”
“We have to admit that this is the age of money not books,” he said.
