Nubia is the land between Egypt and Sudan, where the Nubian lived for centuries, but which dissapeared under the water of Lake Nasser after finishing the Aswan Dam in 1964. Wat happened to the Nubians? Did their unique community life survive? This slideshow focusses on the centuries-old traditions, the meaning of Nile water as essential part of daily life and about what remained nowadays from the Nubian culture.

1. Anthropology of the Nubians
© Experience Nubia

2. © Experience Nubia
The old dam
1899:1th attempt to
control the yearly flooding
of the Nile and facilitate
irrigation.
1902: “Old dam” finished
Length: 2140 m.
Between 1908-1912 and
1929-1934 the Old Dam
was increased until the
current 41 m height.
Anthropology of the Nubians
Aswan Dam, trauma of the Nubians

3. © Experience Nubia
The new dam: “High dam”
Effect old dam insufficient
1960 Egyptian president
Gamal Abdel Nasser:
higher dam 7 km further south,
3600 m length , 111 m height.
Lake Nasser
the largest reservoir in Africa
emerged: 500 km long, 25 km
wide, 180 m deep.
Aswan Dam, trauma of the Nubians
Anthropology of the Nubians

4. © Experience Nubia
the High dam - Aswan
Anthropology of the Nubians

5. © Experience Nubia
Reasons for the construction of the High Dam:
Economic need: fights against annual floods and prevent hunger and poverty
Energy power generation: securing electricity for Egypt
Consequences construction of the High Dam :
fertile Nile sludge no longer over the fields
nowadays much artificial fertilizer used
exhaustion of farmland
Nile Delta becomes silted up
Erosion coastlines eastern Mediterranean coast accelerated
Aswan dam
http://www.history.com/videos/the-aswan-high-dam#the-aswan-high-dam

6. © Experience Nubia
• Nubian temples almost dissapeared underwater
•A total of 14 temples between Philae and Abu
Simbel (besides tombs and others ruins)
Implications of Lake Nasser for
Nubian heritage

7. © Experience Nubia
Implications of Lake Nasser for
Nubian heritage
•Spectaculair
international
rescue campaign,
coordinated by
UNESCO
http://www.youtube.co
m/watch?v=Ur-
H7dP8FNc

8. © Experience Nubia
Lake Nasser : implications Nubian community
Anthropology of the Nubians

9. Lake Nasser : implications Nubian community
Anthropology of the Nubians
The Nubian villages disappeared under water.
50.000 Nubians evacuated to Egypt. Had to build up new life north of Aswan.
Similar number to Sudan.

10. © Experience Nubia
3 million date palms underwater. Main source of income!
Compensation per tree: Egypt 15 piaster. Sudan: 5 SP
Anthropology of the Nubians
Zeer hechte gemeenschap met
eeuwenoude tradities viel uit elkaar
Lake Nasser : implications Nubian community

11. © Experience Nubia
Anthropology of the Nubians
Very close community with ancient traditions fell apart
Lake Nasser : Nubian community

12. © Experience Nubia
Anthropology of the Nubians
The evacuation
Lake Nasser : implications Nubian community

13. From the lonely peace in isolated villages Nile to stone houses in the desert
Far away from the Nile, which had determined economic and socio-cultural life
Lake Nasser : implications Nubian community
Anthropology of the Nubians
New houses near Kom Ombo (40 km north of Aswan)

14. Anthropology of the Nubians
“Nubian ceremonial life”
studies in Islamic syncretism
and cultural change
“Nefertari’s palm trees”:
Documentary film about a Nubian
woman refusing to leave her homeland

15. Anthropology of the Nubians
General features of social life:
Dual: women and men have their own social life
Women mainly have two social groups: family - friends.
Reasons to join: socio-economic support – information sharing
Men ‘s own groups: work, socio-economic, friends, family
Strong social control, even more so for women (family honor)
Information exchange between networks
Many social obligations

16. Anthropology of the Nubians

17. © Experience Nubia
Daily life before the dam
Anthropology of the Nubians
• Many men worked in the big cities
• Women did most of the work:
baking of bread
fetching water
cultivating the land
harvesting dates
make products from date palm
create murals
raising children

18. © Experience Nubia
Daily life before the dam
Anthropology of the Nubians
Sagia – water wheel
More crops per year
Irrigation essential
It almost never rains!

19. © Experience Nubia
Daily life before the dam
Anthropology of the Nubians
Baking bread

20. © Experience Nubia
Daily life before the dam
Anthropology of the Nubians
Fetching water

21. © Experience Nubia
Anthropology of the Nubians
Daily life before the dam
Harvesting dates

22. © Experience Nubia
Daily life before the dam
Anthropology of the Nubians
Make products from date palm
Click for a short film
on the use and importance of date trees
for every day life in Nubia

23. © Experience Nubia
Daily life before the dam
Anthropology of the Nubians
Building houses and decorate them

24. © Experience Nubia
Anthropology of the Nubians

25. © Experience Nubia
Anthropology of the Nubians

26. Anthropology of the Nubians
More details: Animalia; “the unofficial Nubian Museum” Elephantine Island, Aswan

27. © Experience Nubia
Centuries-old traditions
Anthropology of the Nubians
Traditions and rituals integrated in daily life
• Took a lot of time, effort and money
• Originating from both pharaoh time as Christianity and Islam
• New influences were integrated into the traditions
• Extensive spiritual world. Superstition also plays major role
Important to understand impact of traditions in cultural life

28. © Experience Nubia
Centuries-old traditions
Anthropology of the Nubians
Decorative motifs moral or magical significance
• Stars, crescent: Islamic symbols, good omen
• Crows and owls: bad omens?
• Roses, flowers: friendship and love
• Apple: female attraction
• Sword: courage, heroic performance
• Jug and a prayer rug for purity and chastity

29. © Experience Nubia
Centuries-old traditions
Anthropology of the Nubians
Amulets
For luck and protection against the evil eye.
Painted on the walls or made from braided beads, shells or hair
And hung on poles of the bed or on the ceiling.
Baskets of palm branches and decorated with white shell

30. © Experience Nubia
Centuries-old traditions
Anthropology of the Nubians
The Nile played a central role in many traditions
Main source for life in Nubia:
• agriculture
• fishing
• mud (soil fertility, housing)
• drinking water

31. © Experience Nubia
Centuries-old traditions
Anthropology of the Nubians
• 3 types of traditions:
• Religious traditions
• Agricultural traditions
• Around "life events"

32. © Experience Nubia
Centuries-old traditions
Anthropology of the Nubians
Traditions and the Nile, e.g.:
Religious traditions
• during Islamic holidays
e.g. Eid, pilgrim feasts, New Year
with music (drums), vocals (religious songs)
• At birth local saints
Many (tombs of) local saints in Nubia!

33. © Experience Nubia
Centuries-old traditions
Anthropology of the Nubians
Traditions and the Nile, e.g.:
Agricultural traditions
Together they garnered dates
In the evenings party with music and dancing

34. © Experience Nubia
Centuries-old traditions
Anthropology of the Nubians
Traditions and the Nile, e.g.:
Births
• On the 40th day after birth, the mother went with the baby to the river,
to wash it with Nile water
• The mother took Nile water home to wash, threw 40 times water over
herself
(Father is absent at the birth of his child, stays elsewhere for 40 days)
• Baby is taken back and forth on the Nile ("essiwuwar“)
• Herbs in a bag of clothes of the baby

35. © Experience Nubia
Centuries-old traditions
Anthropology of the Nubians
Marriage
2 weeks in advance bride and groom invite each their families
Wedding Ceremonies:
 official part (family only)
 Feast used to last5-7 nights (now priceless)
Henna Night (kofree tur ')
The wedding ('acknowledge‘)
Man and woman together (Kopar tur ')
Party with dove, pancake ("meena tur")
Farewell party ("colad tur")?
Marriage and the Nile:
Groom: hands, feet and forehead painted with henna.
Then to the Nile to wash. Themselves clean is important for fertility.

36. Anthropology of the Nubians
Women: decoration with jewelry and henna

37. © Experience Nubia
Centuries-old traditions
Marriage
Movie: Nubian wedding http://youtu.be/YIMBEx-cazw
Anthropology of the Nubians

38. © Experience Nubia
Centuries-old traditions
Anthropology of the Nubians
Death
After some relative died, women washed their face in the Nile.
They thought this brought relaxation for the dead and cooled the body
Burial happens as soon as possible (for religious reasons and the climate)
Men mourn three days together and wait for family to come from far
Women take care of the meals

39. © Experience Nubia
Centuries-old traditions
Anthropology of the Nubians
The spirits of the Nile
• Was part of belief system, supernatural beings in the river
• Lived mainly in religious experience of women
• Could appear in various guises
• Lived in underwater castles (could be male or female)
• Representatives from the villages were contacts

40. © Experience Nubia
Centuries-old traditions
Anthropology of the Nubians
The spirits of the Nile
• Women consulted on the Nile Spirits:
Fertility, land cultivation, marriage, health
Requests via contact, or individually.
Candy, sugar, perfume or henna were thrown into the river
Or cooked food was hung on a tree above the water in a basket
Background of the Nile Spirits could be pharaonic

41. © Experience Nubia
Centuries-old traditions
Anthropology of the Nubians
The evil spirits of the Nile ("dogir")
Were identified with cannibals, samples (hunger for human flesh)
Preference for children
Were creative in making appointments and steal from the people
Could change shape, so difficult to recognize
Recognizable to "long eyes" or "blue eyes"
And long black hair, sometimes over the whole body
Through the nose they sucked your blood and the life out of you
(cf. dementor from Harry Potter)

42. © Experience Nubia
Centuries-old traditions
Anthropology of the Nubians
The evil spirits of the Nile ("dogir")
Some people were so afraid that they were mad with fear
Were told to children to make them afraid (warning?)
Mental illnesses were attributed to "dogir"
Their favorite places: in water wheels (sagia), cataracts, high rocks
and they often came out at night
Farmers had most contact with them
Risk of being lured into trap

43. Work: big cities, middle - east, tourism
Mubarak dictatorship: discrimination of the African minority
Culture: partly mixed with Egyptian
Language: also party mixed with Egyptian.
Recently Nubian language courses started in Cairo
Music : Culture well preserved and thriving
Anthropology of the Nubians
Nubian community 21e century
© Experience Nubia

44. © Experience Nubia
Nubian language
http://www.napata.org/Napata/language.html
3 languages - 3 Nubian groups
(“Nilo-Sahara” languages)
Kenzi:145 km south of Aswan
Fadija: 425 km more south
Dongolawi: another 350 further south

45. Nubian music: Hamza el-Din
Composed for the oud as a solo instrument.
Also played the tar, a percussion instrument in felucca's widely used
Influenced by folk music in the U.S.. Emigrated there.
Famous albums: “Music Of Nubia” and “Escalay: The Water Wheel”.
Anthropology of the Nubians
Nubian community 21e century
© Experience Nubia

46. Nubian music: Mohamed Mounir
• born in 1954 in Aswan
• immensely popular
• pop music oriented style
• Egyptian and African music styles
• Also inspired by reggae and jazz
•Texts often socially and politically
• Also known as a film actor
Anthropology of the Nubians
http://www.youtube.c
om/watch?v=mY4S7
FTyewM
http://www.youtube
.com/watch?v=BL-
rK64dLVo
Nubian community 21e century
© Experience Nubia

47. After the 2011 revolution
• (some) freedom of expression
• Emancipation
• Nubians demand return of their land
• Nubians founded their own political party
Nubia in the 21e century
Anthropology of the Nubians
© Experience Nubia

48. © Experience Nubia
Literature and links about Nubia
* Rolf Herzog “Die Nubier” 1957
*R. Fernea, G. Gerster “Nubians in Egypt” 1973
* De zwarte farao’s; de tentoonstelling. John Vrieze, 1997
* Nubië aan de Nijl; voorportaal van Afrika.
Haags gemeentemuseum, 22 sept.-25 nov. 1979
* National Geographic febr. 2008: De zwarte farao’s, R.Draper
* Dwars door Soedan; vriendelijke schurkenstaat aan de Nijl.
Gerben van der Aa, 2007. Nieuw Amsterdam uitgvers.
* Sudan, the Bradt travel guide. Door Paul Clammer, 2005.
* Sudan; the city trail guide to Khartoum and the rest of
Sudan. Blake Evans-Pritchard en Violetta Polese, 2008.
* l’ABC Claire du Soudan; royaumes sur le Nil. Catherine
Berger, Bérénice Geoffroy-Schneiter, Jean Leclant.
Flammarion / Institute du monde Arabe, 1997.
* Nubian women of West-Aswan. Negotiating tradition and
change. Anne M. Jennings,2009
* Nubian ceremonial life. Ed. John G. Kennedy. 2005.
* Ancient Nubia: African Kingdoms on the Nile. 2012

49. © Experience Nubia
Literature and links about Nubia
www.nubie-international.fr
http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/88 Nubian monuments UNESCO
http://www.napata.org/Napata/language.html
http://www.numibia.net/nubia/index.htm Nubian museum Aswan
www.betelkerem.com
http://www.facebook.com/ExperienceNubia
https://twitter.com/#!/ExperienceNubia
Questions? experiencenubia@gmail.com