Page 32 - ARUBA TODAY

A32 FEATURE
Wednesday 18 July 2018

Two communities show Nubians' past, a version of the future

By HAMZA HENDAWI But so far, Wadi Karkar has
NARIMAN EL-MOFTY fallen flat.
Associated Press Fewer than 500 of the
WADI KARKAR, Egypt (AP) homes are occupied, and
— With a mix of nostalgia the streets in many parts
and sorrow, Egypt's Nu- feel deserted. People have
bians look back at their been reluctant to move in
lives in ancestral lands in because of lack of jobs or
southern Egypt as a peace- services. The mobile signal
ful era tied intimately to the is sketchy. Recently, a bus
Nile River. service between the col-
Since their eviction in the ony and Aswan, some 25
1960s to make way for the kilometers (15 miles) away,
giant lake behind the As- was suspended because it
wan High Dam, they have wasn't economically feasi-
lived in desolate towns ble, according to residents.
further north, often on the "The problem here is devel-
edge of the desert. Many opment," said Mohammed
in the community yearn to Haroun. The 64-year-old
return to lands along the moved here with his wife
banks of Lake Nasser. in 2014. He was 9 when his
Two communities show the family was moved from
contrasts of the Nubians' This May 9 , 2018, photo shows the temple complex of Philae in Aswan, Egypt. their village of Daboud in
fate — one pointing back Associated Press 1963 and relocated to Kom
to the Nubians' past, the cious and painted in bright ers grow fruit trees, mostly desert west of Lake Nasser, Ombo, before later moving
other showing the state's colors, some with domes keeping the crop to eat has been touted by the to Aswan.
fumbling attempts to find a mirroring the traditional Nu- themselves. government as providing a Haroun said he's happy
substitute to quiet calls for a bian architecture. Residents belong to some "Return" for Nubians. with Wadi Karkar. It's a
return to the old country. In some places, the Nile half dozen clans under a First opened in 2008, the pleasant place to retire
stretches majestically for single tribe. It's like one big colony has about 2,000 after 40 years working at a
HEISA ISLAND more than a mile into the family. homes, and more are state-run chemical factory,
The village of Heisa, home distance to the surround- There is only one doctor at planned. There's a police the air is clean, it's quiet,
to around 2,000 people, of- ing desert shores. Children the island's clinic. He comes station, post office and the electricity and water
fers a glimpse into what life are out in the river on small from Mansoura in the Nile greenhouses that employ work, he explains. He grows
was like for Nubians in their boats in the afternoons as Delta, some 1,000 kilome- a few dozen people. With peppers, basil and parsley
homeland before the up- young men swim to cool ters (625 miles) to the north. well-ordered symmetrical in his little home garden
heavals of the last century. off. Some of the villagers When he's on vacation, the streets, it looks almost ex- and hangs out with other
It is perched on an island still practice old traditions island's sick have to seek actly like the innumerable men his age after the sun-
in the Aswan reservoir, like baptizing newborns in treatment in Aswan. Water other planned communi- set prayers.
which was created by the the Nile, grooms washing in supply is rationed. Electric- ties that have been built in "But there is no river here!"
building of a small dam in its waters before their wed- ity was not introduced to the deserts around Cairo he said with a laugh. The
1902. While other villages ding or floating dishes of the island until the 1980s. and elsewhere — except shores of Lake Nasser are
surrounding it were evacu- food for the river's mythical There is a primary school the houses are built in a an 8-kilometer (5-mile) drive
ated from the area, Heisa's guardians. but for middle and high modern concrete-brick- away. He remembered his
people stayed, moving to Most of Heisa's men are school, the children travel and-stone imitation of the childhood playing in the
higher ground. Most of their government employees, to nearby larger villages on traditional mud-brick Nu- Nile and rituals like baptiz-
farmland was lost under usually going to work in the mainland. bian style. ing children in the river.
water. Decades later, the Aswan in their boats, and On a recent evening, sev- Authorities boast that it will His six children and 10
Aswan High Dam was built then ferrying tourists around eral villagers drank tea and eventually number some grandchildren have not fol-
upstream, sandwiching the river for extra cash. chatted on a mustabah, 30,000 people. Some Nu- lowed him to Wadi Karkar.
Heisa in between. Dozens of traditional sail- a concrete block built bians qualify to receive They only visit.
The air is clean and crisp boats called feluccas are against a house's outer homes there for free as "The government said this is
on the island. The houses, anchored at small docks wall and used as a bench compensation for past loss- Return, but it is not Return,"
built on rocky hills, are spa- around the island. Villag- where men and women es. he said.q
separately meet to social-
ize.
"The centerpiece of a typi-
cal Nubian home is the
mustabah," said Basheer
Murakeb Mohammed, a
58-year-old government
employee, as he sipped his
glass of sweet tea with milk,
a fixture for Nubians' sunset
sittings.
"We don't feel isolated. We
are here and we are hap-
py to be here," he said.

This May 7 , 2018, photo shows the high dam in Aswan, Egypt. WADI KARKAR: In this Friday, Sept. 29, 2017, photo, Nubian activist Waleed
Toka poses for a photograph in Cairo, Egypt.
Associated Press Wadi Karkar, a complex Associated Press
built by the military in the