خطة لإنقاذ النوبة من الدمار .. أمام المؤتمر الدولى الثانى عشر للدراسات النوبية بلندن

Nubia: the drowning bride of the Nile

A Plan to Rescue Nubia From Destruction

Presented to the 12th International Conference on Nubian Studies

London, UK August1- 6th 2010


Nuraddin Abdulmannan, Nubia Project, USA

Introduction:
Nubia Project is a nonprofit organization registered and based in Washington, DC, USA since 2008. The purpose of the organization is to help preserve Nubian, culture and traditions and protect it from destruction by damming and Arabization . I raised the same issues during the Ninth and eleventh International Conferences on Nubian Studies in Boston, USA and Vienna, Austria. I had the honor of meeting with many academicians and scholars who are doing a marvelous job to bring Nubia back from oblivion to the attention of the world. Nubia issue was brought to the front in the sixties of last century by the UNESCO and several universities and institutions, thanks to the Egyptian High Dam that brought some Nubian monuments to us and swallowed the rest forever. Now the situation is worse in the absence of UNESCO and many institutions and organizations. In a record time, Sudan was able to build Meroe Dam in the most archaeologically rich areas of Nubia. The UNESCO didn’t help in the post Meroe Dam efforts to Salvage the Nubian antiquities and the academicians outcry went unheard and unnoticed by the international community because Nubia is isolated, marginalized, impoverished and depopulated
Governments of Sudan and Egypt signed the Four Freedoms agreement in April 4, 2004. The agreement allows the citizens of the two countries to move, live, work and own in each of the other's country. The details of the agreement were not disclosed to public but the statements of the officials of the two countries showed clearly that Egypt is planning to move millions of its farmers to Argeen Basin in the Nubian lands as one official stated the two governments will bring farmers to the project because the area is unpopulated! They are treating Nubian land as a NO MAN’s LAND. The Sudan Minister of Defense, Major General Abdelrahim Mohamed Hussain invited the Egyptian government in a lecture he made at Al- Ahram Strategic Studies Center in Cairo to bring at least 8 million Egyptian farmers to balance the influx of Africans from West Africa to Sudan and to bring more cross breeding to Sudan!
With the help of China and Arab financiers, the Islamist government of Sudan is feverishly working to build series of dams which will flood the whole Nubian land, destroying the mostly unexcavated historical Nubian lands. Egypt which opposed building dams in Sudan for decades, realized that its High Dam’s reservoir is shrinking rapidly because of huge siltation and deposits of millions of tons of clay behind the dam inside the Nubian land which was already destroyed by the High Dam. Egypt finally agreed to building series of dams, mainly on the Nubian lands.
On behalf of many Nubian organizations I would like to submit a request to this august conference to take a quick action to appeal to all concerned international organizations, academic institutions and foundations to step in and find ways and means to launch a second international campaign to rescue Nubia and to salvage its monuments and historical sites. We hope that UNESCO which spearheaded the first campaign in mid sixties of last century to initiate the second International Campaign to Salvage the Nubian monuments and artifacts. I would like to make a parallel appeal to the respected academicians, universities and institutions to help in preserving the Nubian heritage and culture from cultural cleansing and Arabization.
Nubians were elated and encouraged by the election of the new Director General Honorable Irina Bokova to the UNESCO highest position and the Nubians supported wholeheartedly her candidature before her election hoping for the best. We wrote to UNESCO congratulating and inviting her to visit Nubia during her first visit to Egypt to see the situation on the ground and to assign a fact finding committee to tour the Nubian land, study, evaluate and report to her. We received a letter from Mr. Francesco Bandarin, the Director of the World Heritage Center of UNESCO to get in touch with the UNESCO Regional Office in Cairo and we contacted them accordingly but we didn’t receive any response since December last year.
The Plan:

Nubia and Nubians are facing the biggest nightmare. Damming Nubia is a real war against humanity and a great challenge to the civilized world. Stopping such a cultural massacre from taking place is an international obligation. We call upon the academicians, the bearers of the knowledge candles to lead the campaign to rescue Nubia from destruction and devastation, and alert the international organizations such as UNESCO and UNEP to step in and take a bold action to protect the Nubian archaeological sites. The Nubian Salvage Campaign of the sixties of last century was a historic one though it rescued a small portion of Nubian history. This time it is about the whole Nubian lands which are going to be inundated forever by waters of the proposed dams in Kajbar, Dal, Meroe, and Shiraik.
The UNESCO Director General, Mrs. Irina Bokova has been invited by 18 Nubian organizations with an initiative by Nubia Project to visit Nubia and to designate a fact finding committee or a representative to tour Nubia and conduct a survey and make an evaluation for the archaeological sites with the help of academicians and international organizations and design a plan to rescue Nubian heritage. Nubia Project Organization has received a letter from Mr. Francesco Bandarin, director of the World Heritage Center of UNESCO, recommending that we coordinate with the UNESCO Regional office in Cairo.

This great gathering of academicians can play a key role in mobilizing the international organizations and institutions to initiate a second, international campaign to salvage Nubian monuments and artifacts as well as its heritage and culture. On behalf of many Nubian organizations and activists, Nubia Project would like to submit the following plan to the 12th International Nubian Studies Conference to rescue Nubia from destruction:
Engage UNESCO and other relevant organizations and universities to build a consortium to launch the second phase of rescuing Nubian archaeological sites and make an international appeal to stop damming Nubia.
Encourage the universities to dedicate chairs for Nubian studies and Nubian languages and support Nubian educational institutes and offer scholarships to Nubian students and encourage summer cultural exchange programs between Nubian and foreign schools and establish Nubian cultural and friendship associations with other nations.
Ask the International museums hosting Nubian monuments and artifacts to adopt Nubian museums and help brining the original or replicas of Nubian monuments back to their original locations in Nubia to attract international tourism to Nubia and to take Nubian artifacts in the Sudan National Museum back to their original sites in Nubia. The CPA (Comprehensive Peace Agreement) which stipulates clearly the rights of all regions of Sudan in wealth and power sharing, should give the Nubians the right to invest in their heritage. There is an urgent need to stop the control of the Arabized Sudanese on the Nubian historical wealth, vandalism and stealing the Nubian treasures for decades.
An international campaign is necessary to save Nubia from total destruction by dams, cultural cleansing and stop displacement, isolation and marginalization of Nubians, the custodians of the Nubian heritage.
Invite donor countries, businesses and philanthropists to contribute to the development of Nubia, especially in fields of tourism, media and culture. This will bring back millions of Nubians from Diasporas and to create an oasis of peace and a buffer to political and religious fanaticism, penetrating from the Arab and Muslim fundamentalists who are planning to turn the Nile valley to a new Andalucia and a launching pad for terrorism.
To convene its next conference in Nubia, the holder of the name.
Thank you.


*Nubia Project is a nonprofit organization registered in USA Washington, DC under EIN 90-0426812


Nuraddin Abdulmannan
Nubia Project
(301)345-3408(H)
(202)407-3107(C)
(240)757-0480(F)