‘The Journey’ is a song by Ghazi Saeed, which narrates a personal experience of a Nubian poet who went on a journey from Cairo to Sudan, passing by Nasser Lake 15, years after the displacement that uprooted nearly 100,000 Nubians during the construction of the Aswan Dam. The poet was eager to see the houses and palm trees of Old Nubia that he left behind, but he was sorrowful and sad when he found the land sinking underwater.

Another of Saeed’s songs, ‘I sing it,’ laments the old Nubia before displacement in 1963 with the new Nubia that nearly sank into the ground.

‘The Journey’ is a song by Ghazi Saeed, which narrates a personal experience of a Nubian poet who went on a journey from Cairo to Sudan, passing by Nasser Lake 15, years after the displacement that uprooted nearly 100,000 Nubians during the construction of the Aswan Dam. The poet was eager to see the houses and palm trees of Old Nubia that he left behind, but he was sorrowful and sad when he found the land sinking underwater.

Another of Saeed’s songs, ‘I sing it,’ laments the old Nubia before displacement in 1963 with the new Nubia that nearly sank into the ground.

This year Nubians will commemorate the 50^th anniversary of their displacement from their villages south of Aswan during the construction of Aswan’s high dam. Nubians were uprooted between 1963 – 1964 and the resulting wound in the Nubian community has not entirely healed.

Saeed, a performer who has been singing about Nubian displacement for 15 years, was born in the 1970s and did not witness the displacement, but was influenced by ancient Nubia through the tales and narrations he had heard from his parents about the charming nature, tranquility and beauty of ancient Nubia. He has never forgotten the tears his mother when she used to tell him about her memories of the old land which participated in forming his conscience.

“Nubian songs are the last defense wall of the Nubian legacy,” Ghazi.  “Nubian weddings are considered the only ones in all of Egypt where not only romantic and sentimental songs are played, but also many national songs that reflect the Nubians’ love for their old land.”

Nubians suffered great hardships living in their new exiles, whether in the alternative villages created especially for them or the other cities where they sought new homes. Successive governments rarely responded to their demands to keep their own cultural identity and it took fifty years with several revolutionary waves for one Nubian namely Hajjaj Adol to represent their voice at the fifty-member-committee amending the Egyptian Constitution.

Homeless

“They were called expatriates,” remembered 78-year-old Amin Hafni, a marriage official in Nasr El-Nuba district, an alternative village that was set north of Aswan to receive the Nubians. The displaced Nubian population totals approximately 98,000, 48,000 of whom lived in the ancient land and the rest in major cities in various Egyptian governorates in search of employment. 

Hafni, who lived through the displacement era, added that it was carefully planned by the state but was imperfectly executed as houses were not built to accommodate the Nubians in Nasr El-Nuba district, whereby more than one family was forced to live in one house until construction was completed. Besides, farming lands needed huge efforts for reclamation and farming.

Traumatized

Ancient Nubia, known as the land of gold, no longer exists. The Nubian Hamza Baker, Secretary General of the Arab Research and Studies Institute previously affiliated to UNESCO described the 50^th anniversary of the Nubians’ displacement, which came following the initiation of water accumulation behind the high dam as a “Distressful memory for all Egyptian Nubians and part of the Sudanese ones.” He also expressed his hope for the Nubians to go back to their land and renew the relation between Egypt and Sudan at the borderline area hoping for this area to be safe instead of being an empty land without inhabitants as it is now.

Baker said Nubian associations in Cairo and other governorates still maintain contact between the Nubians and organize various ceremonies of reunion to establish good relations. One of the most prominent ceremonies was honoring outstanding students at different educational levels and honoring different Nubian cultural, social and sport figures since the displacement in 1960s up until now.

Against extinction

Most Nubian migration headed to the north of Egypt and some went as far north as Europe. Generations of Nubians were born without awareness of old Nubia, yet they feel connected to it.  Nubian researcher Menna Ali Agha, Assistant Teacher at the German University in Cairo, said all Nubians, particularly the youth, feel that they have a different culture and try to keep their identity in their own way to protect it from extinction.

She added that she has strong longing for the old Nubian land although she was born in Cairo. This longing was reflected in her studies at the University of Cologne of the ancient Nubian architecture and the architectural designs, old building techniques and their influence on the social interconnection amongst Nubians.  She said many Nubian youth express their strong love for Nubia by performing various specialized studies and research about ancient Nubian land such life styles, popular medicine, diets and health.

The youth

Muhammad Abdul Razeq, a young Nubian man who has been living in Ismailia since birth said he saw many photographs about ancient Nubia that he cherishes and heard many narrations about it from his parents who lived through the Nubian displacement period before being forced to move to Ismailia when his father found a governmental job there.

Abdul Razeq, along with some of his friends, established an NGO in Ismailia called Bisroub, a Nubian word that means ‘we can’, for making acquaintances and maintaining Nubian traditions through seminars and lectures as well as teaching Nubian language currently unspoken amongst Nubian youth.