The Nubians of Egypt: a displaced population
p. 96-97
Texte intégral
| 8th-7th century BC | 1899 | 1970 | 2014 |
| The Kingdom of Kush rules Egypt | Administrative frontier divides Nubia between Egypt and the Sudan | Land submerged by the filling of Lake Nasser | Nubian right of return mentioned in the constitution |
1The Nubian people constitute an ethno-linguistic minority of roughly 100,000 speakers in Egypt who use a language of the Nilo-Saharan family among themselves, as well as Arabic as a lingua franca. They are the descendants of a specific civilisation that dates back to Ancient Egypt. Historic Nubia stretches from the first to the fourth Nile cataract*, from Aswan until the vicinity of the present-day town of Debba in the Sudan. In antiquity Nubia was reputed for its reserves of gold (noub) and served as a trading interface between Egypt, the Mediterranean and Equatorial Africa, especially as a source of slaves.
2Depending on the era, Pharaonic power reached only Wawat in Lower Nubia or else extended southwards into Kush in Upper Nubia, as happened during the New Kingdom, as a function of the strength or weakness of the existing states. The conquest of Egypt by a Kushite dynasty based on Napata (8th-6th century BC) is an essential referent of Nubian ethnohistory. Along with the Kingdom of Meroe (6th century BC – 1st century AD), it constitutes a golden period.
3Nubia became Christianised from the 5th century and was then divided between three independent kingdoms (Nobatia, Makuria and Alodia), which prospered during the 8th-9th century. The Arab-Islamic expansion in the region saw repeated expeditions into Nubia but it was only during the Mamluke Period (1250-1517) that Islam became widespread. Europeans discovered the area under Ottoman rule in the course of Bonaparte’s Egyptian Expedition (1798), and it was thereafter occupied up to the island of Saï by the Egyptian army of Mohamed Ali. The Anglo-Egyptian treaty at the end to the Mahdist revolt in 1899 left the Nubians divided on either side of the border (22° N) with the Sudan. Their total number today is in the neighbourhood of 3 million people.
5.9 Archaeological Nubia

5.10 Wall painting in the temple of Beit el-Wali depicting the expedition of Ramses II

© LaurPhil, British Museum - fresco from Ancient Egypt
5.11 Nubia from the 7th to 9th century

Displacement and marginalisation in the 20th century
4The Nubians of Egypt were uprooted at the beginning of the 20th century by the construction in 1902, and subsequent raising in 1912 and 1932, of a British-sponsored dam: the resultant lake inundated Nubian land. The Aswan High Dam (1970) completely overwhelmed the life of the inhabitants, creating the 500-km-long Lake Nasser and drowning the majority of Egypt’s ancient Nubia. Construction work triggered a salvage operation led by UNESCO from 1955 to 1968 designed to save the monuments of Nubia, and required the transfer of roughly 50,000 inhabitants in 1963-1964 to new sites that had been developed at Kom Ombo, some 60 km north of Aswan. Faced with problems during resettlement – a lack of adequate housing – many families left for other parts of Egypt. The Nasserite rhetoric of the time saluted the Nubian “people” and its sacrifice for the development of the nation.
5Nubians have however been socio-economically and politically marginalised. The construction of an Arab national identity in Egypt has gone in tandem with assimilation policies that benefit Arabic language to the detriment of unrecognised linguistic minorities. Nubian languages are not studied in the Egyptian education system. Nubians are often confined to low-status employment and are the victims of stereotypes propagated by the media, in which they feature as doormen, servants and drivers.
6Into the 2000s Nubian associations were careful to avoid controversy and remain apolitical. Any attempts at collective mobilisation as a group were suppressed by the government, which considered the assertions of a people with a distinct language and history as a threat to national unity. Even though they self-identified as Egyptians or Egyptian Nubians, they were obliged to deny any suspicions of separatism.
5.12 The fragmentation of Nubia in the 20th century

Recent political mobilisation
7At the beginning of the 21st century a growing number of Nubians felt threatened by the status quo and rallied for the right to return to their ancestral lands. The bread crisis and general strike launched in 2008 provided political momentum and inspired Nubian youth movements. The 25 January revolution marked a turning point: Nubian activists participated for the first time in anti-government demonstrations and seized the opportunity of political change to organise and claim their rights. Although they were excluded from the constitutional process of 2012, they were represented in the negotiations that led to the constitution of 2014. In an unprecedented manner, they argued for and obtained the right of return to unflooded lands around Lake Nasser, and consultation with the population on any decisions concerning the economic development of their region. Article 236 of the constitution mentions “Nubia” and foresees a return within a period of ten years. Implementation is anxiously awaited. For fear that the law will not be applied, especially after a presidential decree classifying 16 Nubian villages as lying in a military zone, activists organised peaceful demonstrations. These were suppressed and dozens of activists were arrested. The Nubian situation now involves a number of issues: development, the right of return of indigenous people, and human rights.
Auteur
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Maja Janmyr
Maja Janmyr, professor of international migration law, Faculty of Law, University of Oslo
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