MAKKAH, 28 August 2006 — Walking through the area of Hosh Bakr behind the Al-Mansour Street of Makkah, you could easily think you were in Africa. The disarray of a developing country is found here in this wide plaza nestled among the un-zoned residential neighborhoods in the hills that surround this holy city.
Nearly everyone here is of African origin. There are many undocumented migrants and overstayers here. It is a common perception among residents of Makkah that Hosh Bakr is where a lot of illegal activity occurs. The area is known for its black market. Should you have the misfortune of having something of value stolen from you in Makkah, then there’s a good chance you might be able to buy it back from one of the vendors of Hosh Bakr.
This reporter decided to take a walk through the area, even though persons of lighter complexions are viewed suspiciously as outsiders and are generally unwelcome — unless, of course, you’re there to engage in commerce, legal or otherwise.
I decided to put on a street cleaner’s uniform in order not to raise any suspicions. Dragging a trash box, I wandered the area to observe a part of Makkah rarely seen by outsiders.
Large trucks drive about filled with scrap metal and parts gleaned from construction sites, including new bags of cement, fresh rolls of wires, new buckets of paint — stuff more likely than not stolen. The truck dumps the scrap and before all of the junk is completely off-loaded people begin sorting through the material, separating the scraps into two piles: One for metal and parts ready to sell and other for stuff to be worked and repaired or tooled into items to be sold later.
Visitors to this place know that most of the stuff is stolen and they also know that items can be bought for half the market price in Hosh Bakr. Wandering the place, I noticed a lot of construction material being sold. Generally, the African sellers here are easy people to bargain with and are ready to sell items next to nothing. On the other hand, buyers are left pleased at being able to buy cheap goods —even though they are stolen.
On one side of the place, was a small stall selling stolen doors that had recently been painted with stolen paint. Some of the steel doors seemed to have been perhaps taken from buildings still under construction. I left the area after making some morning observations and decided to come back at night to see how the place operates at night.
Dressed as a cleaner, I entered Hosh Bakr once again. The place had been illuminated with light and lots of men could be seen hanging around. Women, dressed in traditional African clothes, could be seen intermingling with the men and it was then that I smelt something strange in the air. I followed the smell and discovered someone cooking traditional African food. The worst thing was that the person cooking was doing so on the ground in an area full of rubbish and crawling with cats and insects — clearly a health hazard.
The last thing I wanted to check before leaving this horrible place was the residential area where people stay. The Africans live on top of a hill close by. I tried entering the area but some Africans, who seemed to act like security guards, would not allow me to continue. It was then that someone told me that strangers are not allowed to enter and are beaten up by the men if they try.
Not being able to enter, I grew curious but quickly left before I attracted anymore suspicion. It was then that I met some Saudis living next to the area. One Saudi man, Sultan Al-Mouraki, said, “If something was stolen from you, then there is a strong possibility that you might find it here. You cannot claim it back but you would have to buy it back.”
Al-Mouraki added, “This place is very unorganized and there is prostitution in the area to the extent that men and women meet each other in public and talk and then go off. There are a lot of drugs being sold inside this neighborhood as well.”
