Nuba Genocide in Sudan
Sudanese Oppression and Displacement of Indigenous Nubians
The Nuba, having remained aloof from colonial culture and trade since ancient Egyptian times, are now succumbing to the ravages of war, mining and business interests.
There are a million indigenous people still living in the 77,700 square kilometres of land surrounding and including the Nuban mountains of the Sudan. Although these people are ethnically labelled as Nuba, they actually comprise over fifty language groups.
As agriculturalists, pastoralists and athletes the Nuba are second to none. Their contests and festivals for celebrating their skills in these areas demand the most rigorous standards. However, these days there is often too much war, invasion, oppression and land theft to allow them to continue these practices regularly in many areas.
For hundreds of years the Nuba have been struggling against slave raiders and other enemies. The Muslim-dominated Sudanese government and mainstream society regard them as less than human, and so they are marginalised and treated as second-class citizens, discriminated against in education, employment and health. Many are forced to seek a living in this unequal colonial mainstream, as they are increasingly denied access to many of the traditional lands that are central to their indigenous economy.
For over half a century the Nuba have seen their plains taken over by huge capitalist agribusinesses, owned by corporate fat-cats with friends in high places within the corrupt Sudanese government. Any Nuba who resist or question the land theft are regarded as enemies of the state. The lucky ones are simply harrassed and attacked until they give up. The unlucky ones are arrested, imprisoned, murdered, or simply disappear.
The level of casualties and displacement is increased by the fact that the Nuba are caught in the cross-fire between the Sudanese government and rebels in the south. Nuba villages are bombed regularly, making subsistence farming an impossibility for residents who are often starving when they are rounded up by the government and incarcerated in prison camps that are called "peace camps" by the government spin doctors. The Nuba are told that these concentration camps will promote peace and keep them safe. But really, the main aim is to get them off their traditional lands so the government can sell prime Nuba farmland off to the highest bidder in the business world.
It is clear that genocide is the aim of the Sudanese government. Apart from the above-mentioned massacres and displacement, they have also refused to allow foreign aid into the area, resulting in starvation within easy reach of relief. Two million have died in twenty years. Oil has been discovered on Nuba land, and so now western business interests have joined the hordes clamoring for the natural wealth of the Nubian people. It is unlikely that western governments will do much to end human rights atrocities in a conflict that has potentially so much profit in oil revenues.
This capitalist ethic stands in stark contrast to Nuba philosophy, which asserts the following:
"Whatever you do, do it as beautifully as you can. But before deciding to do it, first ask yourself what will it bring to the people, animals and even vegetables and waters and to the whole environment."
