Notes from Chris, meeting with Abu Adel, 30 January
Both the muntafa3in and the mustasmer were given the land in ‘87
39 muntafa3in with 6 feddan each – all from Dakhla
13 mustasmer (private investors) – from various areas of
Egypt – who pay either 184 or 220 EGP/year/feddan, the amount of ‘rent’ depends on the quality of land which was rated by the government before the establishment of the community
- after twenty years there is a tax, the regular Egyptian tax, for the muntafa3in and they will then be the technical owners of the land, for now there is an ‘ist, essentially they pay rent for the land. There are two more years before this tax begins.
-the land cannot change name while under the ‘ist, it is in the family name (if the husband has died the name goes to either the wife or children) – of course, some people have ‘rented’ their land to another person, so they collect the money and then pay the official rent to the government [two levels of activity here]
-the investor land is the same as the muntafa3in, it stays in the name of the original investor, but because the plots of land are larger (20 feddan is the largest portion at bir wahed) they have divided and rented out more of the land to more people.
-only 5 of the original muntafa3in have left (and rented there land) out of the original group
-Chris has to translate his hieroglyphics: mesool? If there is a problem with the system Abu Adel calls the mesool? in Farafra and they call Kharga, then Cairo
