Nubians pay for the sins of their grandfathers 100 years later

The Nubians’ life is a persistent struggle against domination communities in Kibera that have taken over the 300 acres they had been allocated by the British colonialists

By Amos kareithi

It took a spark of resentment to touch off a major rebellion that threatened to tear apart Britain’s plans of subjugating East Africa. The British trusted allies, the conscripts they had enslaved before using them as dogs of war, had finally rebelled.

The consequences of this mutiny, staged 115 years ago, are still being felt as the descendants of the rebellious soldiers are still paying for the sins of their grandfathers.

In Uganda, when Idi Amin, the dictatorial soldier who ruled the country with an iron fist was ousted, thousands of Nubians were killed and persecuted on allegations that they had been supporting him.

In Tanzania, the Nubians have almost been rendered extinct after being assimilated through marriage.

The story was a bit different in Kenya but equally depressing where the descendants of the ex-servicemen are to be found in major urban centres wallowing in abject poverty in the shacks their fathers and great grandfathers once lived. Their predicament is worse than that of slaves for they simply do not exist.

The Nubians were descendants of slave soldiers of Egyptian army that had been ruling parts of Sudan prior to the coming of the white man. They were cut off from the main body of the army during the fighting in Khartoum in 1885. They would later be moved into East Africa, through Uganda where their services were urgently required.

The Nubians’ problems in East Africa started in 1897 when the contingent that had been recruited into what was to become Kings African Rifles mutinied. Their action was perceived as high treason as this was at a time Imperial British East Africa was trying to secure Uganda, the source of the River Nile.

At around that time in 1892 Britain was recovering from a fierce civil war pitting her forces against the Catholic missionaries allied to France that saw the latter’s base razed to the ground. The Protestants and the Catholics had been fighting for the soul of the Buganda kingdom and her subjects, having defeated the Muslims from Zanzibar. The Muslims had earlier been defeated through a combined force of the Europeans.

It is against this background that the Nubian soldiers who were serving alongside the British forces mutinied. Majority of the Nubians were Muslims who had joined the British troops under the command of Colonel J R L Macdonald. Macdonald had been deployed to Uganda by London to assist the Protestants with a force of Nubian mercenaries to strengthen Britain’s hold on the region. Macdonald was not wholly successful as the Nubians mutinied.

The Nubians, historians agree, were not like the ordinary Africans the Europeans were used to subjugating using their mighty guns against bows, arrows and spears. These were battle hardened trained soldiers who knew how to handle modern weapons. Major Herbert H Austin of Royal Engineers writes that it took about two years for the British to finally quell the mutiny, and the British had to use royal protestant chiefs to vanquish the Nubians and at a high cost.

Refused to repatriate

So as to subdue the Nubians, units of Indian army had to be transported to Uganda, which was at a considerable cost. To generate income to maintain the fighting units and offset the administrative costs, Sir Harry Johnson was dispatched as the new commissioner of Uganda, who relied on chiefs to collect taxes. The chiefs had their own priorities and worked hard to promote the interests of the Buganda kingdom, resulting with the expansion of their area at the expense of their enemies.

The consequences of the Nubians mutiny and defeat were far reaching in Uganda, where the Baganda chiefs whose troops had fought alongside the British demanded and were granted autonomy. They were also allowed to parcel out half of the Bunyoro kingdom while the rest was taken over by the British. As for the Nubians, the British administrators decided to punish them by refusing to repatriate them back to their country after they were demobilised. Adam Hussein Adam, a descendant of the ex-serviceman explains that they were instead dispersed in different parts of East Africa.

Adam, in a paper, Kenyan Nubians Standing Up to Statelessness, argues that other detachments that had fought for the British in East Africa like the Indians were repatriated back to their motherland where they were to assimilate back to normal lives.

The Nubians, Adam explains, were instead dispersed to several parts of East Africa by the angry British and treated harshly, by being denied a chance to go back home. As they were used to a life in the barracks, the servicemen when decommissioned had no choice but to remain in Kenya. Even if they opted to go back to Sudan, they had no attachment with their ancestors as majority had been born away from their ancestral land and knew no place or person. This presented the British administrators in both Uganda and Kenya with a pool of recruits whenever they required soldiers.

Every time there was recruitment, the army officers would turn to the Nubians who were living in villages just next to army barracks. It was in these villages that the Nubians had been condemned to living. “Initially these villages became fertile grounds for soldiers.

Not from one community

The Nubians were initially conscripted into the army forcefully. In the villages they were supposed to stay in temporarily structures built on land they did not own,” Adams adds. This is how informal villages where shacks are crudely established near towns began. The villages have since blossomed into slums, which have become a security and planning nightmare. This also explains how Kibera, touted as one of the biggest informal settlements in Africa, came into being.

In Kibera, a slum whose name is derived from a Nubian word kibra, as well as other centres such as Mumias the ex serviceman and their families stuck together and held on to their religion, Islam, which made them quite distinct from the locals who would later convert to Christianity.

During their 100 years of “exile,” the Nubians have left one lingering legacy. It is them who introduced the art of brewing gin and the famous Ugandan Waragi is credited to the Nubians. In Kenya this drink became the potent chang’aa, which has become famous in all parts of the country. A Nubian elder, Moustapha Khamis Kenyi, explains the paradox of Nubian’s Islamic religion and alcohol, two ingredients known not to mix in ordinary circumstances.

The 68-year-old Kenyi is quoted by New Vision, a Ugandan newspaper explaining, “You see, when our grandmothers came from Sudan they were not very good Muslims like we are today. They carried with them the formula of making Waragi all the way from Sudan.”

Adam, who also explains that contrary to common belief, the Nubians are not from one community but from different ethnic groups and religious backgrounds, and that on reaching Uganda were collectively referred to as Nubians, supports this theory of cultural diversity. Some were indeed traditionalists who worshipped their own gods and had their distinct languages.

While in the military, the Nubians adopted Arabic, the language the Arab commanders used, and later learnt Swahili, which is today the language of the military in Kenya.

Stateless people

 Besides the potent gin, Kenyi says his ancestors also introduced other delicacies such as mandazi and sambusa as well as pancakes, which are still prevalent in Uganda.  

But in one of the most ironic twists of history, the descendants of the Black Pharaohs who in ancient times had ruled over an expansive territory extending along the Nile Valley have become an instinct people.In Kenya, the Nubians are perceived as a forgotten people who are treated as outsiders with no right to own land or be registered as citizens. These are a people who have been institutionally discriminated against, as they do not even feature in national census. Nubian youths have to undergo serious vetting before being issued with national identity cards.

Abraham Sing’oei, in a paper, Promoting Citizenship in Kenya: The Nubian Case, estimates there are about 100,000 Nubians in Kenya and sums up their life as a persistent struggle against domination by immigrant communities in Kibera who have taken over the 300 acres they had been allocated by the British colonialists.

Despite serving the successive Governments in pre and postcolonial eras, the Nubians who were uprooted from their homes over a century ago are still paying for the mutiny staged by their descendants in Uganda.

May be these Stateless people will ultimately be mainstreamed with the creation of Kibra Constituency and their plight addressed once and for all to ease their 100 years of suffering.

akareithi@standardmedia.co.ke