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Title: The Nubian Issue in Egypt

The Nubian Issue in Egypt

Conflict Analysis and Approaches to Peaceful Conflict Transformation

by Amer Katbeh (Author)
©2024 Thesis 234 Pages
History & Political Science
Series: Berliner Studien zur Politik in Afrika, Volume 23

Summary

From the perspective of conflict theory, this book offers a comprehensive, multi-causal, and multi-level analysis of the Nubian issue in Egypt. Utilizing qualitative research methods, it delves into the origins and evolving dynamics of the Nubian issue. In doing so, the book explores avenues for peaceful conflict transformation. Beyond providing causal explanations, it achieves a deeper understanding of the historical context and the various levels (group, state, regional, and global) involved in the Nubian issue, as well as the perceptions, strategies, and actions of the conflicting parties.

Table Of Contents

  • Cover
  • Title
  • Copyright
  • About the author
  • About the book
  • This eBook can be cited
  • Table of Contents
  • List of Figures, Tables and Maps
  • List of Abbreviations
  • Introduction
  • The Nubian Issue in Egypt from the Perspective of Conflict Theory
  • Research Relevance and Contribution
  • Aim and Questions of the Thesis
  • Outline of the Thesis
  • Analytical Framework
  • Azar’s Theory of Protracted Social Conflict (PSC)
  • Reflections on Azar’s PSC Theory
  • From PSC to Contemporary Transnational Conflicts (TNC)
  • Principles of Peaceful Conflict Transformation
  • Conclusion
  • Methodology
  • Conflict Analysis
  • Conflict Mapping
  • Narrative Analysis
  • Data Collection
  • Reviewing Literature
  • Expert Interviews
  • Supplementary Qualitative Content Data
  • Data Analysis and Interpretation
  • Reflections: Ethical Considerations
  • Development, Dams, and the Displacements of Nubians in Egypt
  • Modernization, Colonization, Aswan Reservoir, and the First Displacements of Nubians
  • Free Officers’ Revolution, Aswan High Dam, and the Massive Displacement of Nubians
  • Conclusion
  • Nubians of Egypt
  • Old Nubia and Nubians in Egypt
  • The Massive Displacement as an Uprooting Process
  • Nubianness as an Accentuated Identity
  • Transgenerational Trauma, Grievance, and the Nubian Demands
  • Conclusion
  • Nubian Mobilization, Egyptian State’s Strategy, and Approaches to Conflict Transformation of the Nubian Issue
  • Mapping Nubian Mobilization
  • Nubian Associations and Their Increasing Political Meaning
  • Nubian Return Attempts and the Agriculture Associations
  • Art as a Form of Resistance
  • Grassroots Mobilization: More Than a Right of Return
  • The 25th January Revolution as a Trigger for a New Nubian Mobilization
  • Mapping Egyptian State’s Policies and Actions
  • AHD Lake Development and the Nubian Right of Return
  • Lake Development for Accommodating Climate-Related Migration from the Nile Delta
  • Wadi Karkar and Compensations for Nubians
  • Development for Upper Egypt
  • Supporting Nubian Heritage and Cultural Tourism
  • Internal Process Dynamics
  • Nubian Strategies and Intra-group Dynamics
  • Egyptian State’s Strategies and Built-in Mechanisms of Conflict
  • Approaches to Conflict Transformation of the Nubian Issue
  • Pursuing a Participatory Approach
  • Bottom-Up Return and Development
  • Preserving the Nubian Culture and Identity
  • Recognizing Nubian Suffering and Sacrifices
  • Tackling Prejudice and Racism against Nubians
  • Conclusion
  • State and Society in Egypt: Measures of Fragility
  • Religious and Ethnic Conflicts between Colonial Legacy and Authoritarianism
  • Social Inequality and the Legitimacy Crisis of Economic Order
  • Regional Disparity and the Deep-Rooted Centralization
  • Authoritarianism and Weak Society–Weak State and Protracted Conflict Situations
  • Conclusion
  • Impacts of the Regional and Global Contexts on the Nubian Issue in Egypt
  • Fragile Egyptian-Sudanese Relations
  • Contentious Relations within the Nile Basin
  • Regional and Global Linkages in Egypt: Patron-Client Relationships and Militarized Politics
  • Conclusion
  • Conclusion
  • Summary of the Thesis: Research Findings
  • Theoretical Implications of the Thesis and Recommendations for Further Research
  • Research Limitations and Avenues for Further Research on the Nubian Issue in Egypt
  • A Dialogue with the Theory
  • The MENA Region from the Perspective of Conflict Theory
  • Appendixes
  • References

List of Figures, Tables and Maps

Figure 1.A Multi-causal and Multi-leveled Analysis of the Nubian Issue in Egypt

Figure 2.Historical Outline of the Nubian Issue before AHD

Figure 3.Historical Outline of the Nubian Issue Regarding AHD

Figure 4.(Re)Construction of the Nubian Group-Identity in Egypt

Figure 5.Outline of the Egyptian State’s Policies and Actions and Nubian Mobilization

Figure 6.Internal Process Dynamics of the Nubian Issue in Egypt

Figure 7.Approaches to Conflict Transformation at the State-Nubian/Society Level

Figure 8.State and Society in Egypt: Measures of Fragility and Approaches to Conflict Transformation

Figure 9.The Regional and Global Contexts of the Nubian Issue in Egypt and Approaches to Conflict Transformation

Table 1.Names of Displaced Nubian Villages

Table 2.List of Nubian Actors

Map 1.Territorial and Linguistic Groups in Old Nubia in Egypt

Map 2.Designated Border Areas as Military Zones According to Decree 444/2014

Map 3.Possible Human Settlement Sites and Areas for Agriculture around AHD Lake

Map 4.Locations of Designated Areas for the Nubian Return

Map 5.Map of Halayeb Triangle

1. Introduction

The repeated saying that Egypt is “a gift of the River (Nile)”1 is not an exaggeration (Hamdan, 1994, pp. 209–211). Even today, only 4 % of the country’s land is arable and thus habitable, mainly in the Nile Valley and Delta2, where 97 % of the 100 million3 Egyptians live, while the rest of the land is almost all desert area (Elemam, 2010, p. 220). But while the Nile has been beneficial for land cultivation in Egypt and several old kingdoms survived only due to it, the unpredictable floods of the Nile were often destructive. Land irrigation, cultivation and river navigation were also difficult which made controlling the Nile water necessary for survival since the very beginning of Nile valley civilization (Adams, 1977, pp. 35–36; Elemam, 2010, p. 219).

At the beginning of the 19th century, attempts to tame the Nile River through building barrages, canals and dams went into a significant phase with the modernization, colonization, and independence of Egypt. For achieving development, prosperity and security, several projects, like Delta Barrage (1833), Ibrahimiya Canal (1873), Aswan Reservoir (1898) and Aswan High Dam (1964) (hereinafter AHD), were built in Egypt. While these projects fostered the development of Egypt and brought benefits, not only for the rulers or colonizers of Egypt but also for the country and its people in general, some of them have harmed others. Among these projects were Aswan Reservoir and AHD, whose history of construction is interconnected with the displacements of Nubians in Egypt: the construction of Aswan Reservoir and its enlargements (the first 1907–1912 and the second 1929–1933) led to the submerging of 28 Nubian villages and destroying 60 % of the territory of Old Nubia, forcing many Nubians to relocate by themselves to nearby areas. With the construction of AHD (1963–1964), 40 villages in Old Nubia were submerged and Nubians were displaced to new settlements in Kom Ombo (for more elaboration, see Chapter 4).

As the findings of this thesis show, while AHD has constituted a symbol of independence, prosperity, and security for Egypt, it has represented a process of uprooting for Nubians, shaping a major turning point in their history. In fact, Nubians of Egypt were subjected to radical changes in the new settlements, which in turn impacted them significantly, not only geographically speaking but also socially, culturally, economically, and politically.

As an old-aged ethnic group in Egypt and Sudan, Nubians lived in Old Nubia between the first cataract of the Nile at Aswan in southern Egypt and the third cataract at Dongola in northern Sudan (Fernea, 1973, p. 4; Adams, 1977, pp. 13–15). Described as the “corridor to Africa” (Adams, 1977) or “gateway to Africa” (Reeves, 2000, p. 35), Old Nubia and its people were always impacted by foreign influences. While Nubians interacted and mingled with other ethnic and religious groups for millennia, they were able to maintain a different identity from other neighboring groups in Egypt and Sudan, based on common history, language, values and norms, traditions and even music. The Nubian identity was not only a self-perception of Nubians, but it has also been recognized and accepted by others (Hopkins and Mehanna, 2010, p. 12). Nevertheless, the contemporary collective identity of Nubians in Egypt should not be seen only as an expression of the old-aged cultural characteristics, such as ethnicity, language, history, and tradition. Rather, it is the result of different socio-political and socio-economic factors that have shaped a new Nubian identity, defined more in terms of collective experience of displacement and uprooting, shared feeling of communal victimization and grievance, and the need for unity to mobilize for common needs and interests. Nubian leaders and activists speak today of a Nubian issue4, which is not only about the right of return to their ancestral land around AHD Lake5, but also about economic demands related to the development of Old Nubia, as well as cultural demands related to recognizing the Nubian language, heritage, and history in Egypt.

While the Nubian issue in Egypt has not broken out into violent conflict yet, it has maintained a relatively high level of conflictual relations between the different Nubian groups and Egyptian state-actors. The conflictual relation is also seen at the society level due to the ethnic marker and the cultural differences. Sometimes, the rivalry has even been pushed outside the internal context, especially because several Nubian diasporic groups live outside Egypt. Being neither too overt nor violent with many casualties, the Nubian issue might be perceived as less important by observers and scholars. While the best approach to prevent violent conflicts is to study them before they turn into violent ones, this is rarely done in practice. “Covert, latent or non-violent conflicts are seldom regarded as appropriate objects of study” (Azar, 1990, p. 6). Having had the chance to choose and develop this research project independently, I selected the Nubian issue in Egypt as a subject of study.

1.1. The Nubian Issue in Egypt from the Perspective of Conflict Theory

Contemporary social (violent) conflicts are characterized by being complex: multi-causal, multi-leveled, and influenced by multiple process dynamics. To unravel their complexity, scholars of Peace and Conflict Studies have called for systemic thinking and a holistic conflict analysis that encompasses all levels of conflict and clarifies the interaction and interdependence of the different variables of conflict (Ropers, 2011, p. 117; Ricigliano, 2011; Ramsbotham, Woodhouse, and Miall, 2016, pp. 140–142). Conflict analysis “is not just an exercise in the organization of evidence, it is also about ‘explaining’ or ‘making sense’ of particular phenomena” (Demmers, 2017, p. 15). The role of theory is central here, functioning as an important instrument and guidance for unraveling the complexity of conflict (ibid.; Ramsbotham, Woodhouse, and Miall, 2016, p. 110). Drawing on these thoughts, the Nubian issue in Egypt will be studied from the perspective of conflict theory by following a multi-causal and multi-leveled analytical approach. Significant analytical frameworks that offer such kinds of analysis are Edward Azar’s Protracted Social Conflict theory (1990) (hereinafter PSC) and its adaptation Transnational Conflicts (hereinafter TNC) by Oliver Ramsbotham, Tom Woodhouse and Hugh Miall (2016).

Finding its roots in the human needs approach, the starting analytical point in Azar’s PSC theory is the question about the basic needs (security, access, and acceptance) of individuals and communal groups in the society. In other words, to what extent the basic needs of citizens are addressed by the state, and how their satisfaction or dissatisfaction influences the formation/deformation of the conflictual relation between the individuals/communal groups, as well as its later escalation/de-escalation? To examine these questions, Azar developed a multi-causal and multi-leveled approach, covering several schools of conflict analysis: the internal theories (anthropology and ethnology), the relational theories (behavioral sociology and social psychology), and the contextual theories (neo-realist and Marxist theories), as well as synthesizing between realist and structuralist paradigms. The theory is notable in combining the analysis of different levels: contextual (global and regional), structural (state) and actor-factors (communal group and individual) for understating the overt (action and strategies, built-in-mechanisms of conflict) as well as the latent (structural) causes of conflict (Ramsbotham, Woodhouse, and Miall, 2016, pp. 115–120; Saulich and Schmidt, 2018, pp. 18–19; Demmers, 2017, p. 90).

While Azar’s model shows some omissions (e.g., disregarding aspects like interplay and interaction among the different actors and elements of conflict, and intra-group dynamics – see more reflection on the theory in Chapter 2), Ramsbotham, Woodhouse, and Miall (2016) considered the model as offering a hopeful beginning6. Tackling some of the omissions in Azar’s model, as well as considering the recent developments in world politics, Ramsbotham, Woodhouse, and Miall (2016) developed the TNC model of analysis, stressing that it is an analytical framework rather than a theory of conflict (p. 120). In fact, the analytical frameworks of Azar (1990) and Ramsbotham, Woodhouse, and Miall (2016) cover two important aspects that should not be ignored in studying contemporary conflicts: first, the identity aspect, as we are living in the age of “identity politics” or the “politics of recognition” (Kymlicka and Pföstl, 2014), and second, the economic drivers of conflict (e.g., underdevelopment, unequal distribution of resources) (Eaton et al., 2019). Reflecting on Azar’s theory (1990) and its adaption by Ramsbotham, Woodhouse, and Miall (2016) (for more elaboration, see Chapter 2), the thesis follows an explanatory and interpretive epistemological research approach to examine the Nubian issue in Egypt (for more elaboration, see Chapter 3). In other words, beyond only providing a causal explanation of the Nubian issue (i.e., the explanatory approach), the thesis achieves a deeper understanding of the historical context and different levels of the Nubian issue, as well as the perceptions and interpretations of conflict-parties (i.e., the interpretive approach).

Lastly, contemporary social (violent) conflicts are characterized not only by their complexity, but also by the fact that they are embedded in the social fabric of society. Therefore, approaches to conflict transformation should be equally comprehensive (at all levels and in all fields and sectors) and address not only structural issues but also socio-psychological ones (Azar, 1990; Ropers, 2011; Ramsbotham, Woodhouse, and Miall, 2016). A significant concept that provides a systematic and integrative approach for tackling and de-forming contemporary protracted social conflicts is the Conflict Transformation concept (Miall, 2004; Berghof Foundation for Conflict Studies, 2012; Ramsbotham, Woodhouse, and Miall, 2016).

1.2. Research Relevance and Contribution

As an ancient land, Old Nubia (in Egypt and Sudan) has been visited by travellers and scholars since time immemorial. The name Nuba or Nubia was first mentioned in the writings of the Greek scholar Eratosthenes (c. 200 B.C.) (Arkell, 1973, 177). The name Al-Nuba was also mentioned by Islamic scholars, such as Ibn Khaldun (2009[1377], p. 44). However, the first significant explorations of Old Nubia came after the acquisition of power by Muhammad Ali in 1805 and were conducted by European scholars7, such as John Lewis Burckhardt (1819) and Carl Richard Lepsius (1852). Later at the beginning of the 20th century and after the start of the construction of reservoirs and dams in Egypt and Sudan, Old Nubia became a significant subject of research for archaeologists, such as the surveys of George Andrew Reisner (1908), Cecil Mallaby Firth (1912; 1915; and 1927), and Walter B. Emery (1948). The interest of archaeologists in Old Nubia increased further after the decision to build AHD was taken. In 1959, the Egyptian and Sudanese governments asked the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) for support in rescuing the ancient monuments of Old Nubia. In response, between 1960 and 1980, UNESCO launched the International Campaign to Save the Monuments of Nubia (UNESCO, n.d.b), considered “the greatest archaeological operation of all times” (UNESCO Courier, 1980). Significantly, the history and archaeology of Old Nubia in Egypt and Sudan continue to be a notable subject of research for many scholars to this day. This is best mirrored in the International Conference for Nubian Studies, which has been held every four years since 19748. As the archaeology and ancient history of Old Nubia is not the focus of this study, the archaeological studies will not be reviewed here. Mentioning them, however, is important for their political relevance to the Nubian issue, as will be clarified later.

More important for this study are the anthropological studies on Nubians, which were conducted in parallel with the international archaeological operation to save the Nubian monuments. As a kind of “salvage ethnography” or “urgent anthropology”, the studies documented and examined the different groups in Old Nubia: their livelihoods, customs, traditions, and cultures before the displacement, as well as how they adapted to the new settlements (Hopkins and Mehanna, 2010, pp. 12–17). With few exceptions (e.g., the notable accounts of Adams: Nubia: Corridor to Africa, 1977), most of the anthropological studies in Egypt were conducted within the research project the Ethnographic Survey of Egyptian Nubia of the Social Research Center (SRC) of the American University in Cairo. From this research project, numerous publications with many repetitions appeared from the mid-1960s till the end of the 1980s9. Meanwhile, similar anthropological studies on the Nubians of Sudan were conducted10.

Indeed, these anthropological studies have provided a valuable and exceptional documentation for Nubians and their lives, before and after the massive displacement, making Nubia one of the best documented areas within modern ethnographic studies (Fahim, 1983, p. ix). They have also constituted the ground for almost all later research on Nubians in Egypt. It is rare to find any contemporary study on Nubians without referring to them. Nevertheless, these studies were criticized for having some omissions. For Hopkins and Mehanna (2010), “(m)any topics remain unstudied” (p. 66); terms like “Nubian”, “Kenuz” and “Fidija" were not examined enough, and the cultural differences between Nubian groups and the distinction to their Arab neighbors were not deeply addressed (ibid.). Besides, the policy dimension was often missing. Hussein M. Fahim, who was involved in the early SCR studies, attempted in his follow-up research during the 1970s to put a greater emphasis on practical aspects of the research. He called for a “balanced view” and “a much larger context” examination of the resettlement schemes, including not only the perspective and interests of the relocated people, but also of the Egyptian state (Fahim, 1981, p. 45).

Despite these attempts, the conducted studies have had little positive impacts on Nubians in general. Nubians had the feeling that they were only a subject of research and did not see the benefit of the research for their daily problems in the new resettlements (Fahim, 1983, p. viii). Remarkably, this feeling, which was exacerbated due to the big number of archaeological studies on Nubian monuments, can be noticed to this day. As some Nubians put it in Mossallam’s study (2010), much of the research was focused on studying “the heritage and not the people” (p. 28). Indeed, there is a remarkable emphasis in the Nubian narrative that the state and the international organizations were able to rescue the Nubian monuments, but not the people. Researchers were expected to provide advice for the government, but not for Nubians. For Hopkins and Mehanna (2010), research should have undertaken dual responsibility in this regard (p. 68).

Details

Pages
234
Publication Year
2024
ISBN (PDF)
9783631918128
ISBN (ePUB)
9783631918135
ISBN (Hardcover)
9783631918111
DOI
10.3726/b21778
Language
English
Publication date
2024 (August)
Keywords
Nubians Egypt Middle East Protracted Social Conflicts Conflict Analysis Conflict Transformation Group-identity Political Mobilization Dams and Development Development policies
Published
Berlin, Bruxelles, Chennai, Lausanne, New York, Oxford, 2024. 234 pp., 15 fig. b/w, 2 tables.
Product Safety
Peter Lang Group AG

Biographical notes

Amer Katbeh (Author)

Amer Katbeh studied Peace and Conflict Studies at Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg. His research interests include the study of protracted social conflicts in the Middle East and the study of migration and refugee issues in Europe.

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Title: The Nubian Issue in Egypt