Titus Kakembo
26 February 2009
Kampala — Though some of them speak English, most Nubians communicate in their language or a mixture of Arabic and Kiswahili
IN the late 1970s, a Nubian could issue any directive, anywhere in Uganda and no one would dare question it, unless it was a fellow Nubian or Kakwa. That was during Idi Amin's regime when most of the Nubian men joined the armed forces and rose very fast through ranks to become senior officers.
They suddenly exploded onto the country's centre stage and disappeared as swiftly.
So, who are they?
The fall of Amin saw a drop in the Nubian fortunes and those who survived retreated to their local base in Bombo.
Some, like Nasur Abdallah and Brig. Ali Fadhul, are just returning from Luzira Prison after receiving a presidential pardon.
In the last national population census, Nubians were estimated to be roughly 15,000, most of them in Bombo, which was a colonial headquarters.
Presently the men trade, serve in the army and drive long haul trailers across national boarders. Their women stay at home to weave intricate handicrafts and plait their hair. Nubians may be a minority tribe but they are unique.
After living among the Baganda for a century, these ebony-skinned, energetic people have resisted assimilation into the surrounding cultures.
They are so conservative, that they have retained their names, staple food, dress style of buyi buyi (sari) and language. These are the people, who made Bob Astles, a Briton, etch Nubial tribal marks on his face.
Even when they inter marry, the female becomes a Muslim, has to learn their language, dress in a buyi buyi, pierce her nose and wear ankle bangles.
Although some have the ability to speak English and Luganda, they are known to prefer communicating in their language or a mixture of Arabic and Kiswahili. And if they pursue Western education, they opt to take their children to Madras (Quran schools.)
Islam remains predominant in the Nubian community living in Uganda. But about 1% are Christians. This one percent does not even have a Bible translated in Kinubi (their language).
The only available Bible they know and use is written in Arabic. Although their academic levels are not so high, Nubians are literate in Kiswahili, which remains their means of communication with other people.
Their origin
According to a journal by the International African Institute, The History of Nubian People, they are descendants of former slave soldiers from southern Sudan.
Their presence in Uganda dates back to the 1880s, when the Mahdi Islamic uprising came into Uganda under the command of a German officer, Emin Pasha.
These soldiers were later taken on by Frederick Lugard of the Imperial British East Africa Company, which formed the core of the forces used to carve out Britain's East African Empire.
They were rewarded with a piece of land in Kibera, in southwestern Nairobi. But while in transit between Kenya and Sudan, some stayed back in different parts of Uganda.
On arrival in Uganda, Nubians proved to be organised, loyal and fearless fighters. Their skills bought them mercenary status to the kingdoms of Busoga, Buganda, Toro and Ankole which used them to raid each other.
Mohammad Wahib, the chairman of the Nubian community, says they fought alongside Baganda and the colonial British forces.
"The Kabaka rewarded our ancestors with the land in Bombo after suppressing the Bunyoro anti-imperialism uprising of 1880-87."
According to Uganda 30 Years, it was after Idi Amin's coup d'etat in 1971 that most Nubians and his Kakwa men were recruited in the army.
They were identified by three vertical lines on their faces. They rose to prominence in the army and society as Amin hurriedly replaced sacked high ranking Langi/Acholi officers with them.
They were given properties that had been owned by Asians who were expelled by Amin in 1972 and became owners of industries, houses, shops, and cars.
They soon became the mafuta mingi (bourgeoisie) with access to essential commodities smuggled from Kenya. While other people were crying poverty, Nubians had even the scarcest commodities.
During the economic war declared by Idi Amin, the Nubian delicacy kabalagala (locally made pancakes), replaced bread at tea time.
That is when a song Kabalagala Gonja hit the charts. Duluka, a Nubian dance that involves moving in circles while waving white pieces of cloth, was the main entertainment at State events.
By then the governor of the Central Province was Abdul Nasur, who banned slippers in the city.
Asked whether it was true that he forced people he caught wearing slippers to eat them, Nasur's face breaks into a sarcastic smile.
"If there is any one who can testify to that, I challenge them to come forth," he says at his Bombo home.
But the bigger name was Col. Maliyamungu (God's property) a.k.a Isaac Lugonzo. According to the Drum magazine, he assumed power whenever Amin was not around.
After the fall of Amin, Nubians faded out of politics and melted into new settlements all over the country. They claimed persecution and that they could only speak their language in low tones.
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Who are really the NUBIS OR NUBIANS IN UGANDA AND KENYA
They are the true citizens of Lado but as Lado is disguised under the nick names in English as West Nile ( North West of Uganda now ) , Southern Sudan and Eastern Congo in Uganda who were and are still the closely associated with Idi Amin's rule in Uganda . In what sense are they associated with Idi Amin President of Uganda , 1971 ---- 1979 ?
Ugandans prefered / and prefer to know and have Amin associated to this nick named group of the people ( Nubians ) .
These citizen people of Lado because of their faith Religion ISLAM were supposed and easily aggregated to be the descendants of former slave soldiers from what is best known to commonest people as southern Sudan, who in the late 1880's at the time of the Mahdi's Islamic uprising arrived to what is now called Uganda under the command of a German officer named Emin Pasha. Emin used these Luu / Lui people to fight the Mahdists of Arab Origine in Sudan itself . In reality, the identity became an elective one, open to Muslim males from the northern - western Uganda / southern Sudan , Eastern Congo borderlands, linked to as descendants of the original soldiers of Emin Pasha . These soldiers later were, taken on by Frederick Lugard of the Imperial British East Africa Company, formed the core of the forces used to carve out much of Britain's East African Empire. Following the Military mutiny in 1897 originating from Uganda , had effect on these people and after the reprisal of the Mutiny by the British sodiers and the Indian -- Asian soldiers brought in from India these people became Displaced Persons, the Stateless Persons and the Internal Refugee Problems arising among them and they became so called Nubians ( the Lado Muslim Community of LUU / LUI people ) who eversince then were being held mainly in Uganda and Kenya as Prisoners in Reservation camps, the so called Restricted Settlements ( Bombo, Soroti and Gulu in Uganda and Kibira near Nairobi in Kenya ) , all this was started by the British since 1897 . Repeat , These People were always referred to simply as " The Nubians " by the British though they are Muslims of Lado origin ( Luu and Lui People ) who were removed by the British Colonial Authority because of their Mutiny the same year 1897 when they were ordered to go and fight against their own People in Lado .The leaders were executed in Uganda including their Military Commander, Bilal Amin, the Grandfather of Idi Amin ( This Mutiny in Uganda was / is sometimes wrongly writen by some Historians quoting it as Sudanese Mutiny of 1897 in Uganda ) . These people inotherwards are not Sudanese as such but are the Sudanic race in the vast Sudan ( Sudan meaning Black ) Territory Territory of Africa . See the proper use word of Sudan . Sudanese are the citizens of the Independent Republic State of Sudan in Africa .
The truth behind is that ---
The British have never forgotten nor forgiven the Lado Muslims for this Breach of Discipline, which explains why these displaced People referred to as " The Nubians in East Africa ", and are still being punished now as " Unwanted Persons." Apart from being held in the Special Settlements as Prisoners, the Lado Muslims ( Nubians ) are being heavily discriminated against, very much like the American Indians were treated by the European .
It is hereby noted further that : From the days of Emin Pasha to those of Idi Amin, some Nubi men were identified by a marking of three vertical lines on the face – the ‘One-Elevens’. Although since Amin's overthrow now many Muslims from the north of the country prefer to identify themselves as members of local Ugandan ethnic groups rather than as ‘Nubis’; leaving aspects of Nubi identity on any among Ugandan rebel groups that springs from West Nile / Lado , and who knows as well as in cyberspace . So really , Amin was / is a KUKU tribe of Lui people of the Lado Enclave State but not a Nubian of the real Nubians who settled in the North of the present Sudan State at the foot hill of Mt . Nuba and they had a Kingdom of their own which later was over run / conquired by the Arab Invaders . In Short , though the Nubians and Ladoans had an allegiance in the Rebellion to fight together against the pharaonic Rule of Egypt ( See the Chronological History of Lado ) , they mantained a good relationship after their exodus from Egypt where they settled in the vast Territory Area which the Arabs often called The Sudan ( N.B ) -- THE name Sudan hereby has nothing to do with the present Independent Republic State of Sudan . By Ronald Okuonzi
Who are really the NUBIS OR NUBIANS IN UGANDA AND KENYA
They are the true citizens of Lado but as Lado is disguised under the nick names in English as West Nile ( North West of Uganda now ) , Southern Sudan and Eastern Congo in Uganda who were and are still the closely associated with Idi Amin's rule in Uganda . In what sense are they associated with Idi Amin President of Uganda , 1971 ---- 1979 ?
Ugandans prefered / and prefer to know and have Amin associated to this nick named group of the people ( Nubians ) .
These citizen people of Lado because of their faith Religion ISLAM were supposed and easily aggregated to be the descendants of former slave soldiers from what is best known to commonest people as southern Sudan, who in the late 1880's at the time of the Mahdi's Islamic uprising arrived to what is now called Uganda under the command of a German officer named Emin Pasha. Emin used these Luu / Lui people to fight the Mahdists of Arab Origine in Sudan itself . In reality, the identity became an elective one, open to Muslim males from the northern - western Uganda / southern Sudan , Eastern Congo borderlands, linked to as descendants of the original soldiers of Emin Pasha . These soldiers later were, taken on by Frederick Lugard of the Imperial British East Africa Company, formed the core of the forces used to carve out much of Britain's East African Empire. Following the Military mutiny in 1897 originating from Uganda , had effect on these people and after the reprisal of the Mutiny by the British sodiers and the Indian -- Asian soldiers brought in from India these people became Displaced Persons, the Stateless Persons and the Internal Refugee Problems arising among them and they became so called Nubians ( the Lado Muslim Community of LUU / LUI people ) who eversince then were being held mainly in Uganda and Kenya as Prisoners in Reservation camps, the so called Restricted Settlements ( Bombo, Soroti and Gulu in Uganda and Kibira near Nairobi in Kenya ) , all this was started by the British since 1897 . Repeat , These People were always referred to simply as " The Nubians " by the British though they are Muslims of Lado origin ( Luu and Lui People ) who were removed by the British Colonial Authority because of their Mutiny the same year 1897 when they were ordered to go and fight against their own People in Lado .The leaders were executed in Uganda including their Military Commander, Bilal Amin, the Grandfather of Idi Amin ( This Mutiny in Uganda was / is sometimes wrongly writen by some Historians quoting it as Sudanese Mutiny of 1897 in Uganda ) . These people inotherwards are not Sudanese as such but are the Sudanic race in the vast Sudan ( Sudan meaning Black ) Territory Territory of Africa . See the proper use word of Sudan . Sudanese are the citizens of the Independent Republic State of Sudan in Africa .
The truth behind is that ---
The British have never forgotten nor forgiven the Lado Muslims for this Breach of Discipline, which explains why these displaced People referred to as " The Nubians in East Africa ", and are still being punished now as " Unwanted Persons." Apart from being held in the Special Settlements as Prisoners, the Lado Muslims ( Nubians ) are being heavily discriminated against, very much like the American Indians were treated by the European .
It is hereby noted further that : From the days of Emin Pasha to those of Idi Amin, some Nubi men were identified by a marking of three vertical lines on the face – the ‘One-Elevens’. Although since Amin's overthrow now many Muslims from the north of the country prefer to identify themselves as members of local Ugandan ethnic groups rather than as ‘Nubis’; leaving aspects of Nubi identity on any among Ugandan rebel groups that springs from West Nile / Lado , and who knows as well as in cyberspace . So really , Amin was / is a KUKU tribe of Lui people of the Lado Enclave State but not a Nubian of the real Nubians who settled in the North of the present Sudan State at the foot hill of Mt . Nuba and they had a Kingdom of their own which later was over run / conquired by the Arab Invaders . In Short , though the Nubians and Ladoans had an allegiance in the Rebellion to fight together against the pharaonic Rule of Egypt ( See the Chronological History of Lado ) , they mantained a good relationship after their exodus from Egypt where they settled in the vast Territory Area which the Arabs often called The Sudan ( N.B ) -- THE name Sudan hereby has nothing to do with the present Independent Republic State of Sudan . By Ronald Lulua
Institute of Sudanic Studies
Subject: Log VI Nubians { African Triad Community } Date:Fri, 29 Oct 2004 08:39:13 +0300
By Jaffar Idi Amin Dada
Note: With due respect to the allusion and very strong aguments that we originated from Aswan’s Upper Egypt?
I Jaffar Idi Amin would rather explain that all Africans and mankind for that matter Originated from the Great Lakes Region that encompasses the Mountain of the Moons alluded to in the “Ancient Kmt” Book of the Dead which stretches from the Virunga Monutains,Mt. Muhavura,The Great Rwenzori mountains, Semiliki right across to the edges of the great rift valley in Uganda and onwards to the nuba mountains. However in the context of the Scramble for Afrika, a process of Creolization was taking place just as it was in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Nigeria, Luwanda, Maputo, Seychelles, the Caribbean etc every where the West met the South we were forced to learn their strange languages, in our case we owed alot to the Arab Slavers from Khartoum who attempted to empty the lado enclave of its sons and daughters, ironically some of us ended up in the Louisiana and Mississippi cotton field just as much as into the Perian Gulf and Saudi Arabia; for the Arabs were shroud traders and would sell the slaves and Ivory into the Turkish slave markets hence leading to many of our people ending up in the Americas.
Back in the Lado Enclave a new breed of Africans was thus born { African Triad Community } out of this interaction between the indigenous(the Arena/Lado Enclave/Kuturiya),The Islamic(Islamization and Creole-Arabization) and the new territorial imperative(the Western concept of Protectorate Nation States) of western Heritage following the infamous scrabble for the Dark continent.
The concept of Africa’s Triple Heritage which has fascinated re-known scholars like Ali Mazrui is perhaps most poignantly captured in the emergence of the so called Nubian community of East and Central Africa.
Mount Lado:
The majority of indigenous Southern Sudanese continue to be both militant anti-Islamic and anti-Arab.
They themselves, largely non-Muslim, and have partly on this basis fought one of Africa’s longest and bloodiest civil wars against their Arab and Islamic fellow compatriots to the North. Yet, disparate Southern Sudanese continue paradoxically to use their own version of Arabic (Creole Arabic).
Today, there are thousands of Nubians virtually wholly Muslim of the Sunni Sect in the West Nile composed of the various tribes namely Jonam, Alur, Okebu, Lugbara, Ma’di, Metu, Aringa and Kakwa in this region who are returnees from exile in Congo Kinshasa and Sudan who lived not in disharmony but in fraternal peace with their host-cousins across the European-drawn borders to the north.
The territorial imperative of the modern state that the west bequeathed to Africa and the dichotomous conception of the world between the abode of Islam(Dar-El-Islam) and the abode of War (Dar-El-Harrb) has never stopped these Africans from loving each other. Yet, both insurrections by the indigenous Southern Sudanese (Anyanya I Joseph Lagu) and (Anyanya II—SPLA John Garag) Movements, are militarily a continuous resurrection of cultural affirmation against the Arabs to the North. But the Anyanya have not rejected their own prodigal children from further South.
Ironically, Amonye (Father) is held in high esteem amongst the (Anyanya I) for the direct military support he gave them during his extremely close relationship with the Israeli Military might in the late sixties and early seventies.
Amonye’s Paratrooper wings are Israeli and Baba Moshe Amin was trained in battle tanks in Israel right up to the rank of Major. To Africans, soil is perhaps thicker than blood but blood is still thick, usually—thicker than religion and western-style territorial jurisdiction. One important factor that most people fail not to grasp is the fact that most Kakwa and indeed most Ugandan West Nilers are by definition almost all multi-lingual ; in fact the Concurrence of West Nile’s rapidly shifting and multiple National identity in the 20th century as well as its enduring Peripherality has been to encourage the propensity among our inhabitants to speak more than one language.
Many Kakwas speak at the very minimum three languages simultaneously, their nearness to the numerically more preponderant Lugbara tend to force them to learn Lugbari, the geographical proximity of their home land to Congo and the resultant interaction with Congolese has enabled many of them to speak Lingala (once called Bangala). To the north of West Nile lie Sudan and Egypt whence came Islam and a Creole (Pidgin) Arabic called Ki-nubi.
In this particular sense Omari H. (Umar) Kokole Ph.D. eloquently said“Ki-nubi is in splendid isolation more comparable as it is in this instance to Creole or Krio (pidgin derivative of English and French) Spoken in parts Of the Indian Ocean, Western Africa and the Caribbean than to native African Languages”Dr. Omari went on to explain that In Amonye’s {Idi Amin’s} Uganda the popular misconception was that we Muslims were, mainly due to some of our names (which were not tribal but in fact Muslim and Universaly part of the Islamic Ummah.
Thus, they assumed we are members of a particular tribe- the so-called Nubian Tribe and that these names pointed an accusing finger to our non-Ugandan roots. What these critics of Amonye’s Religious Ethonocracy Dr. Omari insisted ,were doing was basically to confuse or equate religion with tribe. Although Amonye had a strong partiality towards fellow Muslims and included many of them in his Cabinet and appointed them to other influential positions during his reign, these so called Nubians were by and large not from his tribe - The Kakwa.
What he shared with them was Membership to the Universal Muslim Ummah within Dar-El -Islam but not tribe in the normal African use of the term. In fact, the only fellow Kakwa to have ever become (briefly) a member of Amonye’s Cabinet was a Christian Kakwa - Major General Isaac Lumago (Briefly Minister of Industry and Power and also Minister of State for Defense). In African “Tribal” terms Isaac Lumago was closer to Amonye and Isaac Maliyamungu than he was to Vice President Mustafa Adirisi Abataki (the latter was a partial member of the Aringa tribe from the Gisara clan in along the Kakwa-Aringa border in Ko’buko County).
In religious terms, the reverse was the case, General Lumago was in religious terms further away from Amonye than the Muslim, Mustafa Adirisi, who was half- Kakwa. The only important position Amonye tended to reserve for his ethnic compatriots [fellow Kakwa] was the militarily strategic post of Chief of the Armed Forces Staff. For some reason, no other Ugandan tribe in the so called “Amin years” had its fair share of this office than the Kakawa [regardless of religion].
The list of Kakwa who held this post included the late Brigadier Charles Arube [from the Kaliwara clan], Major General Isaac Lumago [from the Isoko clan], Major General Yusuf Gowan [from the ‘Dukuliya clan in Ko’buko] and the half Aringa/half Kakwa, General Mustafa Adirisi Abataki [from the Owo’ba clan]; the only non-Kakwa who briefly held that position was The distinguished Major General Francis Nyangweso, a Musamiya from Tororo in the east of Uganda.
In addition, the majority of army battalion commanders under Amonye’s Army tended to be fellow Kakwa [tribesmen regardless of religion] with a sprinkling of a few but non-Muslim West Nilers as well as other Ugandans.
One is tempted to conclude that Amonye preferred to have a Kakwa-based ethnocracy [at least in terms of command and a broader Muslim political constituency [sometimes erroneously called Nubians]. An American student, Jonathan Owens once wrote in a Kenya magazine that “the general picture of Nubi presented is wrong. It is a tribe of the loosest sorts - anyone who speaks Nubi and is (though not necessarily) a Muslim is a Nubi I for instance, an American studying the Nubi language, could claim to be a Nubi if I made the effort to adopt myself to Nubi customs.” Owens then went on to make the point that although the original East African Nubi did come from the then Sudan, Intermarriage with other tribes of East Africa had given the Nubi a very heterogeneous character.
But as Dr. Omari went on to point out what, Dr.Owens surprisingly does not seem to have noticed was that the so-called original Nubi he refers to were themselves very heterogeneous to begin with. Evidence of this heterogeneous origin was right under Owens Caucasian Long nose and relatively undisguised. It is rather strange that Dr. Owens does not seem to have detected it. The evidence consisted mainly of how the Nubi residents of Kibera themselves used and still use the word Kambi, a corruption of the English word “camp.” When the original Nubi first settled in Kibera, they tended to segregate themselves into ethnic-specific units, hence the resilience of terms like Kambi Kakwa, Kambi Alur, Kambi Makaraka, Kambi Avukaya, Kambi Lendu, Kambi Bari etc, incontrovertible and enduring evidence of the original tribes of these heterogeneous so-called Nubi/Nubians. The fact that there is no Kambi Nubi in both Kibera and Bombo is no accident Kambi Nubi simply does not exist. Nonetheless, the necessity to have a lingua franca, a mutually intelligible lingo forced these immigrant people to develop their own version of Arabic partly because colloquial Arabic was already a common denominator for all the Kambis. “Ina min Junub (Southern) Sudan” :
As already mentioned, these Kambis continue to exist in Kibera to the present day and point to the multiplicity of indigenous tribes that resulted in the neo-Islamic cultural melting pot called Nubian. Kambis as a point of reference are also present in our very own major settlement in East Africa in Bombo; donated to the KAR settlers by Kabaka Daudi Chwa in the Buganda Kingdom in Uganda in return for their commanding in the efforts to fight and annex large chunks of Bunyoro to Buganda under the command Colonel Collvile.
In fact it was from him ( Kabaka Chwa) that the question of origin arose when he asked the KAR soldiers and they answered him “ Ina min Junub ( Southern ) Sudan”, Baganda have this inate propensity to shorten difficult sounding names to suit their very peculiar idiosyncratic way of pronouncing names: eg Muhammed becames Medi, Ibrahim becomes Bullu or Ibra, Janat al Niama becomes jane and Junub became Ba- Nubi.
In Bombo, too, you will still find Kambi Makaraka, Kambi Tekrur, Kambi Bari, Kambi Mundu, Kambi Kakwa Kambi Kuku etc, a whole host of tribes which were not neatly Sudanese because by the time Emin Pasha operated and recruited his Sudanese mercenaries, the present borders between Uganda, Zaire and Sudan had not yet as Major Stingard and others have reminded us stabilized or been consolidated.
West African Contingent:
It should also be pointed out that some of Emin (Amin ) Pasha’s mercenary soldiers who also came to be subsumed under the label Nubi came from as far afield as what later became Nigeria, Niger, Mali and Tchad in West and Central Africa—originally as Muslim pilgrims en-route to Makkah over land in the pre-air travel era.
For several reasons, many of these Muslims never returned to their respective homelands. In some cases, the pilgrimage to Makkah (Hajji) took the better part of a lifetime and according to some estimates the present population of Sudan consists of a considerable Nigerian factor consisting of some pilgrims who never made it back home to West Africa. A Denis Pain has suggested that some of the Nubi were, in fact, Nigerian though it is conceivable that other west Africans Muslims pilgrims were also involved.
In a separate and later movement, many Nigerians came to the Sudan and some of these joined the Nubians and are to be found among them in Uganda. Indeed Emin Pasha, found some among them in the 1880s.
What this demonstrated is that the so-called Nubian phenomena is more heterogeneous and more universalized than many Uganda and the foreign press has tended to assume. Concerning the theme of the non-tribal names of the Nubians i.e. IDI (EID) AMIN, Dr. Omari went on to enlighten me by going back into our Islamic history. “ The Caliph (Khalifa in Arabic) who resided in Baghdad, Iraq between 789 and 809 AD for example was Harun (Aaron)Al-Rashid. Harun Al-Rashid was later to be given popular fame as a Hero of the Arabian Nights. In 1980 Dr. Omari’s colleague at the University of Michigan, Professor Ali A Mazrui attended and delivered the keynote address at the ceremony for the installation of the new Chancellor of the University of Calabar in Eastern Nigeria. the new Chancellor’s name was also precisely Harun Al-Rashid.
Both Rashids were male both were Muslim and both belong to the same worldwide Muslim Ummah.
Both were important personalities in their respective societies albeit in different moments of Muslim History. Had these two men been both Uganda or East African, then many non-Muslims there would have jumped to the wrong conclusion that they belonged to the same tribe in Africa terms - the Nubians. But in act not only did the two Harun Al-Rashids not share a tribe,theywere also not from the same nation state or for that matter the same continent. In Sub- Saharan Black Africa, Islam is strongest in west and in the Horn of Africa. It is weakest in Southern Africa. Central Africa and East Africa; are some where in between.
In both west Africa and the Horn of Africa Muslim purists tended to have double Muslim names making it virtually impossible to identify their tribal or national or African cultural origins. In the case of the Nubians it is not just names that have are completely Islamic but also language albeit Pidgin rather than the Classical Arabic of the Qur-an. However, as has already been pointed out, even in the Arab world proper varieties the Arabic language exist and are sometimes unintelligible unless its speaker approximate and emulate Qur-anic Arabic text.
Dr. Omari Haruna Kokole’s argument:
This briefly then is the thrust of Dr. Omari Haruna Kokole’s argument that the Nubi/Nubians have no names of their own although in their case this was mainly voluntary or self embraced disafricanization at the level of personal identity. To borrow Alex Haley’s imagery, there was no Arab slave master equivalent of the White master in Roots whipping Kunta Kinte into finally capitulating to the Civilized Name”Toby”. Like Cassius Clay who voluntarily became Muhammad Ali or Malcolm X Little who voluntarily became Malik El-Shabbaz, most African Muslims opted for Muslim names. The firm link between all Nubians is our Islamic Faith (of the Sunni Sect) and our use of Arabic, we are less a tribe in this set-up than a community, albeit only a fraction of one percent of the total Luganda population.
Universal Muslim Ummah:
Nubians represent a membership in the Universal Muslim Ummah within Dar-El-Islam but not Tribe in the normal African use of the term. What this ultimately demonstrates is that the Nubians in Uganda, especially as well as in other parts of East and Central Africa, are not a sudden intrusion but in essence, an integral part of its modern recorded history. It is also inextrically linked to the pattern of ethnical affiliations between the Westnile regions of UG & the Contentious arena of Dar El Harb of the Southern Sudan & Eastern Congo DRC.
Through the agesd from the inception of the Scramble for Afrika in the 1840s right through to the 21st Century.
Recap: Let us go back to the Future as per this chronological sequence:
The Scrabble for Afrika:
1840s Zanzibari Muslim traders reach the shores of Lake Victoria.
They seek ivory and slaves.
In return, they leave the Baganda people with guns, beads a new religion, Islam & the Cotton Cloth which lead to a drastic transformation from Bark cloth to Cotton clothing amongst the natives.
1841 Mohammed Ali turns his attention to the Southern Sudan by despatching the Turkish naval captain, Salim, to Gondokoro because “the area was rich in ivory and the Bari were disposed to bartering it for beads.” By this time, slave trade in the Sudan has run for decades as the Egyptian Governor-General, Ahmad Pasha Abu Widan, conquers Kasala and Sawakin. The Turks, Arabs of the north and the European explorers all engage in slave trading.
1843 Muhammad Ahmad, later the Mahdi, is born in the province of Dongola (in the Sudan). Well-educated, he sees a vision in which Allah appoints him as the new Prophet or “promised one” who would free the Sudanese from the corrupt and materialistic Egyptian rule.
1883 The Mahdi and his Sudanese army, whose troops are called Dervishes,
enjoy several outstanding military successes. Finally, in November 1883,
they completely massacre Egyptian troops under the British General Hicks. When Britain hears of this defeat, it pressurises Egypt to withdraw its troops and officials from the Sudan, including General Gordon.
1845 The Welsh mining engineer, John Patherick, explores rivers Jur, Yah
and Rol as he “studies” trades in ivory and slaves. John Patherick becomes the first whiteman to reach the Azande; Mundu and the Makaraka territories (including the Kakwa Territory) then controlled by the Makaraka.
1846 Pope Gregory XVI constitutes Central Africa vicariate apostolic which aims “to maintain spiritual welfare among the Catholics residing in the upper Nile.”
1848 The Jesuits, Ryllo (from Polland), and Angelo Vinci E.Pedemonte, Dr.Ignatius Knoblecher and Monsignor di Mauricaster (Italians), arrive in Khartoum.
1849 A Baluchi soldier, named Isa bin Hussein, flees from his creditors in Zanzibar and enters Buganda a year later.
1850 The Arab, Isa bin Hussein enters Buganda Kingdom. A number of Arabs and Swahili’s arrive in Buganda.
1850 Suna, the King of Buganda, presents Isa bin Hussein with three hundred Baganda concubines.
1850 Dr. Albert Peney, who died in 1861, in the Bari country, describes
the Yei River as a great affluent of the Nile. Vaudet comes to the Bari country and is killed here by the natives. The Brothers, Pouchet, followed by the Italian Giovani Miani reach the Welle. At this time, Egyptian administration actually controls not only L. Albert, but also the Upper Uwelle valley south of the Nile-Congo divide (in what is now northeastern Congo). The Italian, Dr.Knoblecher, reaches Mt. Logwek in the Bari country. Missionaries establish the Gondokoro Mission.
Snay bin Amir:
1852 Isa bin Hussein invites Arab traders living in Tanganyika to Buganda and Sheikh Snay bin Amir al Haris arrives and tries to convert Mutesa Suna to Islam. A typical Zanzibari caravan makes the slow, dangerous trek from the east to Lake Victoria. The exhibition is led by Snay bin Amir, an Arab who leaves a written record of his Luganda translations of the Honourable Qur-an with Ka’baka of Buganda.Snay bin Amir wants slaves. He trades with the Ka’baka who is all willing to sell his enemies to the Arab. The price for an adult male is 2 muskets, and for a female, 100 bullets! The Arabs spread their influence at clan level and new Kabaka Mutesa I, at mid-19th century urges all his subjects to convert into Islam.
1855 The Holly Cross mission is established in the village of Awongo in the Kitch territory of the Southern Sudan.
1856 Khartoum is teeming with slaves of all tribes of the Southern Sudan; annual slave exports from the Southern Sudan are between 12,000 to 15,000!
1856 John Patherick becomes British Consul and opens the Bahr el-Ghazal
Region.
1856 The Frenchman, de Marc, becomes the first European to explore the Bahr el-Ghazal for ivory.
1860s Khedive Ismail rules Egypt for Turkey. At the same time, he is worried about the growing British influence in the Mediterranean Sea. Ismail also wants the British to be on his side and to increase the size
of Egyptian territory.
1860 The Maltese, de Brono, combines ivory trade with slave trade in the Southern Sudan.
1860 The Italian, Giovani Miami, becomes the first European to visit what has now become the West Nile District of Uganda.
1860s Jaliyin Danaqala, a Syrian merchant is protected by the Egyptian administrators and establishes slave trading posts or zeribas fortified with a palisade fence for himself and his bazingir (Arab slave soldiers)
1862 John Speke discovers the source of the Nile. While he is struck with the high standard of the Buganda, he is also appalled by what he sees: the savage and cruelty and contempt for human life within the Lubiri, Ka'baka’s palace. The Ka'baka is both god and king, with divine powers to massacre or maim his subjects at will. The precincts of his court are constantly stained with human blood and executions are carried
out for the most trivial of offences. John Speke is the first British explorer to reach Buganda in January 1862 where he meets Mutesa I (Ka'baka or King of the Baganda).
Mutesa I reigns from 1854 to 1884.
Speke had travelled to Buganda from the Indian Ocean to Lake Tanganyika and then to Lake Victoria in the late 1850s. The Royal Geographical Society paid for Speke’s return journey to Africa. John Speke left England in 1860 before arriving in Buganda in January 1862. Speke finds that Mutesa’s palace is well established with several officials as follows: the dowager queen or Namasole; the queen sister or Lubaga; and the Prime Minister or Katikiro.
There is also a chief Field Marshal or Mujasi to lead the army, and the Gabunga serves as the lord high. The Makujunga is the lord high executioner. The chiefs belong to a Council or parliament called the Lukiko, which vote for a new Ka'baka from among the old Ka'baka’s sons. By putting all the losers to death, the new Ka'baka ensures no royal brother could challenge his authority. In addition to killing his brothers when he ascended to the throne, Mutesa orders that hundreds of slaves be put to death as a way of celebrating his power. Upon his return from Buganda, Speke reports that: “The Nile began in lake Victoria and the Baganda provided the perfect setting for the protestant missionaries from Great Britain to expand Christianity into the heart of Africa.” The rest is now history! Or Our History.
1863 The Westernised Ismail becomes the Khedive of Egypt. He is determined “to put an end” to the slave trade in the Sudan.
1865 Khedive Ismail establishes a police patrol on Upper Nile at Fashoda due to pressure from Britain to suppress the slave trade. Sir Samuel Baker is sent to explore the source of the Nile and to end slave trade as well as to expand Egyptian dominions in the Southern Sudan.
1866 An intrepid Italian known as Piaggia, studies the Azande people of the Western Equatoria Province.
1869 Khedive Ismail makes the British Explorer, Samuel Baker, to be Governor General of the Equatorial Nile Basin. Baker had written a best-selling book about his African travels, The Albert Nyanza, which had aroused British public opinion against the horrors of the Nile slave
trade. Slavery had been abolished in Great Britain in 1833.
Most Europeans viewed the Nile slave trade as proof of the barbarisms of both the Africans and the Arabs. Christianity they believed, conveniently ignoring the Protestants and Catholics of the Confederate States of America, were fighting to keep slaves in the 1860s- would never allow such a practice. Khedive Ismail orders Baker “to subdue to our authority the countries situated to the south of Gondokoro, to suppress the slave trade, to introduce a system of regular commerce [and] to open to navigation to the Great Lakes of the Equator.”
1873-1876 Ismail appoints Charles Gordon, a British, as Governor of the Equatoria Province or Khatt al-Istiwa of which the Kakwa were, and are, a part.
1872 Baker reaches Gondokoro and manages to expel the great Arab slave trader in that area, Abu Sand.Next, Baker enters the Acholi area.
Unlike Mutesa, the Acholis have had no friendship with the Arab traders, and they are pleased with the Englishman, Baker’s work.
1874 Baker’s term ends after 4 years, and on paper, claims Bunyoro for the Khedive. But the prospect of either a strong Bunyoro or a Bunyoro ruled by Egyptians poses grave threats to the independence of Buganda. Meanwhile, Mutesa continues to fear the growing influence of the Zanzibari traders in his kingdom. Just at this time, another Englishman,
Henry Murton Stanley, appears in Buganda.
1874 Gordon founds Jebel Lado (Juba) and becomes Governor of the Equatoria.
1867-76 The Ka’baka (Mutesa I) observes the Islamic ritual of fasting. Muslim influence is firmly established in Buganda.
1874 The American, Chaille Long, arrives at the Ka'baka’s palace as emissary for Gordon and he witnesses that Mutesa had slaughtered 30 men in his house.
1875 Linant de Bellefonds (a Belgian) is sent by Gordon to the Ka'baka
to survey the area to the south of the Sudan with a view to a possible annexation by Egypt. However, De Bellefonds is killed by the Bari people
on his return to the Sudan and Gordon deals on a wholesale slaughter of the Bari in the area to avenge his fellow whiteman’s death.
1875 The explorer Henry Morton Stanley arrives in Buganda on a journey funded by The New York Herald and The New York Daily Telegraph. He meets
Mutesa I, and writes on the King’s behalf to the London Daily Telegraph, appealing for missionaries to come to Buganda. Stanley writes: “Until I arrived at Mutesa’s Court, the King delights in the idea that he was a follower of Islam; but by one conversion I flatter myself that I alone tumbled the newly raised religious fabric to the ground, and, if it were only followed by the arrival of a Christian mission here, the conversion of Mutesa and his Court to Christianity would, I think, be complete.”
Most probably the one snag that the likes of Shiekh Snay Bin Amir Al Haris met when trying in vain to convert His Majesty Ka'baka Mutesa I is the sacred animist stipulation that the Ka'baka cannot spill his blood thus the issue of circumcision was out of the question. Mutesa takes this opportunity to equate the white person with super natural powers that would neutralise the Egyptian threat from the Sudan and from King Kamurasi of Bunyoro to the Northwest. Mutesa agrees to welcome Christian missionaries to Buganda.
His government enlists new supporters who will help him ward off Egyptian invaders and help him control the growing influence of Islam.Stanley’s open letter is published in the London newspaper, Daily Telegraph, of November 15, 1875. The letter asks for missionaries to serve in Buganda and explaining that the Ka’baka wants Christians to come and save his people. An anonymous philanthropist was so moved by the letter that he sent 5,000 (pounds sterling) to the Christian Missionary Society (CMS) aid in sending missionaries to Buganda.
1870s Christians in England and elsewhere in Europe and the United States, are absolutely convinced that the best thing for the people, in all parts of the world, is to be brought into the Christian Church. Non-Christians, including the followers of Mohammed (the Muslims), are considered to be heathens, damned to hell or eternity unless a missionary reached them before they die and convert into Christianity.
1875 Emin (Edward) arrives in Egypt.Ernest Marno and the American Colonel Long travel to Makaraka territory.
1876 The British, Alexander Mackay (an engineer before becoming a missionary), George Smith and C.T. Wilson accepts the funding from the CMS and brings Christianity to Buganda. Their work is dangerous: Smith arrives in Uganda only a year before being murdered. The new religion, however, will prove to be equally as dangerous to Uganda as to the missionaries.
1876 The Anglicans land at Zanzibar.
1876 Emin Pasha, becomes the chief physician of the Equatoria Province.
1876 Leopold II founds L’Association internationale pour l’exploration et la civilization de l’Afrique centrale, which, two years, later becomes the Le commite’ d’etudes du haut Congo and, later still, the Independent State of the Congo.
1876 W. Junker, the Russian-born German explorer and scientist, arrives
at Jebel Lado (now called Juba).
The above serves to show that indeed our history is inextricably linked to the pattern of ethnical affiliations between the West Nile regions of Uganda and the contentious areas of the Sudan and Zaire.
The Nubian factor in Uganda also simply re-affirms that the boundaries drawn up by the colonial powers were arbitrary. One result has been the in-built tendency sometimes to disregard and defy national frontiers. The New United States of Africa is the ultimate re-affirmation of this yearning for better or worse. Kwame Nkurumah must be doing the “cake walk” for all its worth! In his grave. The West Nile region was added to
Uganda rounding off the northern limits of the old colonial protectorate. This particular part of my fatherland used to be part of what was called the Lado Enclave which had been leased by Britain to Belgium King Leopold II. When Leopold II died in1909 -1910, the lease lapsed and the Enclave was handed over to the Sudan. Then, in January 1914, a bounder readjustment between Uganda and the Sudan was made and West Nile was handed over to Uganda while Gondokoro and Nimule were transferred to Sudan. Sociologically, the so-called Nubians, according to one Micheal Twaddle formed a fascinating category for scholars to study forming as they do a secondary and expansible social category capable of assimilating Ugandans previously classified under other tribal names; amongst the West Nile Muslim Colony in Buganda I might add..Come to think of it some of our fellow Tribes mates ended up serving In the Nyasland ( Present day Malawai) in the KAR, in Fact or Rumours abound that Bakili Mulusi is a decendant of the KAR settlement in Nyasaland. We might an be-knownst to the general public have had two Nubian Presidents during the 20th & 21st Century in East & Central Afican Region, Hmm!?………….
jaffar@idiamindada.com