[B]ثقافة نوبية منسية[/B]

Quote: Meet the Nubians, Kenya's Fifth-Generation 'Foreigners' Brought over from sudan by the British to serve in the King's African Rifles over 100 years ago, the Nubians of Kenya tothis day do not own the land they live on, and the government treats them as foreigners. JOHN MBARIA chrinicles a history of betrayal, persecution and deliberate neglect. It was late morning when we arrived in Kisumu's Nubian Estate atop a boda boda (bicycle taxi). The neighbourhood was deserted, as everybody was away engaged in what has come to be accepted as nation building. But we found an old man, Mohamed Farjalla, listening to the news from an old radio. With him was Mama Fatuma. As greetings were exchanged, I explained that I was writing a story about Kenya's Nubian community, which is scattered all over the country. Mzee Farjalla looked surprised, if not suspicious. "Who are you and where do you come from?" he inquired. Before I could answer, he wondered aloud whether I was part of the conspiracy to steal land from the community and to deny it its rightful place in Kenya. I explained once again that I was a journalist, and Mzee Farjalla finally relaxed, offered me a stool and apologised for subjecting me to such Nubian scrutiny, as he called it. But as the conversation developed, I came to the realisation that he had good reason to be suspicious of outsiders. Mzee Farjalla said that the Nubians had been discriminated against so long, while their land was steadily stolen by other people with the connivance of government officials, that "we have become tired of it all." It dawned on me that the Nubians live with a perpetual feeling of being persecuted by fellow Kenyans. While this has helped strengthen their social bonds, it has also turned them inward. Today, they live in what could almost be described as social cocoons, rarely interacting with other communities. When they do come into contact with outsider, it is – as one government officer in the Kisumu Lands Office told me later – often only because they cannot avoid it. It is almost unheard of for Nubians to marry into other Kenyan communities –although things have not always been like this. But these days, girls are told, from a tender age, to shun men who do not belong to the community, especially non-Muslim men. Indeed, individual community members have been known to come to the rescue of women who stray from this rule and befriend strange young men. Still, such a siege mentality might not, after all, be misplaced. Discrimination against the community, especially by the government, is real. In many of the Nubian areas I visited, I was amazed at the constant insistence that the "Nubian plight should be highlighted at the highest level, including the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands," as one man put it. Another revealed plans being mooted by the community to sue the British government for relocating its members from Sudan and abandoning them in Kenya without any legal status. As my informants explained, even after being in Kenya since the early 1900s, the Nubians do not enjoy the same rights as other Kenyans. They do not own the land they occupy and, until very recently, they were seen as foreigners who were expected to go back to Sudan, "the country where umbilical cords of their forefathers are buried," as one government officer in Kisumu Lands Office, who declined to be named, put it. In the course of many interviews, it became apparent that they still encounter a host of hurdles in their path when it comes to obtaining such civil registration documents as the national identity cards, passports and death and burial certificates. "I found it very annoying to be told to produce documents proving that my grandparents were Kenyan when I applied for a national identity card," said Mohamed Osman, secretary of the Nubian Muslim Community in Kibos, Kisumu. Nubians are yet to be given official recognition as a distinct Kenyan community with a unique culture, language, history, religion and tradition. During a presentation its representatives made to the Constitution of Kenya Review Commission (CKRC) early this year, the Nubian community expressed disappointment that in many official documents, the community is still referred to as "and others." Though they have been around a lot longer than many other so-called immigrant communities, they often find themselves pushed out from lands they had occupied for decades either by members of other communities or by landgrabbers, simply because they lack legal title to such lands. In many cases, too, they have found themselves being evicted from their homes whenever the government intends to put up development schemes. Nowhere is this better demonstrated than in Kibera, the biggest slum in East and Central Africa, which was the scene of bloody clashes over rent payments last year. Official ‘discrimination’ is also evident in Kibos and in the Nubian Estate in Kisumu where the community has been systematically sidelined from land ownership. (See separate story on page I) The Nubians living in Kenya today are fourth- and fifth-generation descendants of Sudanese soldiers recruited by the British government to fight its wars under the Anglo-Egyptian banner. Estimated to be slightly more than 200,000 in number, they are one of the more substantial minority groups in Kenya. But unlike most such minorities, Nubians are yet to be given legal and official status despite having been in Kenya for more than a century. They are a predominantly an urban community. They speak Kinubi (or "Nubian"), a language with elements of Kiswahili and Arabic. They have had a long association with other communities in Kenya, which is said to have begun around 1897. Some intermarried, with the children becoming Nubians, though, as we have seen, marrying outside the community is now practically unknown. Historically, Nubians trace their origin to the land of Kush, which lies along the Nile from Northern Sudan to Southern Egypt. They are proud to be associated with the ancient civilisation which rose there "before the ancient Egyptians had learnt to cover their nakedness." Though this civilisation was to wane under the stress of repeated invasions and the pervasive influence of the mighty Egyptian kingdoms, the ancient Nubians retained their gods, language and writing. Their ancient history attracted international attention after the construction of the Aswan High Dam. When the Dam flooded much of lower Nubia, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) set out to rehabilitate the Rameses II temple at Abu Simbel. This resulted in the unearthing of ancient Nubian writings and cultural artefacts going back over 6,000 years. When the Arab influence spread over Northern Africa and the coast of East Africa between the 7th and 8th centuries AD, the Nubians became Muslims. Whether the Nubians in Kenya have a right to claim lineage from the ancient Nubian civilisation is subject to debate. However, they do weave baskets that are almost identical to the ones the British carried from Abu Simbel to museums in London. Nubians in Kenya have an interesting history, in that they did not migrate to the country of their own volition but were introduced here by the British colonial government. The Nubian Committee on the Constitution Review told Prof Yash Pal Ghai’s CKRC team that they settled in Kenyan "more by default than by design." Historians say the Nubians are the descendants of Emin Pasha’s soldiers, who lived around Aswan, Wadihalfa and other centres in Northern Sudan and Southern Egypt. Many of these soldiers later enlisted in the Anglo-Egyptian army and were later to form the core of the King's African Rifles (KAR) when it was formed in 1902. By 1900, the Nubians had already settled in Bondo, Eldama Ravine, Machakos, Mombasa, Kibigori, Kibos, Kendu Bay, Migori, Isiolo, Kisii, Mumias, Oyugis, Bungoma, Busia, Marsabit, Kamagambo, Meru and Kibera. But in almost all these areas, they continue to live as squatters. Although they have attempted time and again to bring their plight to the attention of the government, it has routinely ignored them. They are particularly incensed that the government has not accorded them the status of full citizens. When they made their submissions to the CKRC on January 28, the Nubians asked the Commission to regard their settlements spread all over the country as shelter for their families and to address their economic empowerment alongside those of minority groups facing a similar predicament. The community expressed similar sentiments last year to the Njonjo Land Review Commission, asking to be issued with title deeds "since a land ownership document (in Kenya) is basic security for funding personal and community development." The government has, occasionally, made verbal promises to regularise their settlements. At a Press conference on October 23, 1997, then Minister for Lands and Settlement Noah Katana Ngala expressed the government’s willingness to implement a "squatter settlement programme." The programme was to cover Nubian and Swahili villages, majengos and other informal settlements put up on government and trust lands throughout the country. Among the Nubian settlements earmarked to benefit were Kibos, Kibigori and Kibera. Following the announcement, the Nubians were so optimistic that they established the Kibera Land Committee. But despite the promises, the programme was not put into effect. The government has also been giving confusing signals by making promises that are difficult or impossible to implement. For instance, immediately after the "rent riots" in Kibera last year sparked by an "instruction" by President Moi to tenants not to pay increased rents, government functionaries vied with each other to make promises of a land adjudication in the area. For his part, Minister for Energy Raila Odinga promised that the Nubians would be given top priority when demarcation of Kibera began. But then the violence died down and, as the Nubians and their concerns faded from the headlines, officialdom's short memory kicked in. Almost a year later, nothing has happened; the status quo has prevailed and the Nubians remain what they have always been – the forgotten community of Kenya.