6 Oct 2004
306, Africa Peoples & Cultures

Colonization & Culture: Nubia

• SOUTH of 1st unnavigable point on Nile (1st cataract) called Cush/Kush by Egyptians; we generally call it "Nubia" (but some now use "Kush" only for later kingdoms like Napata, Meroe)
• Egypt & Nubia had complex & changing relationship, including Cold War, outright conflict, trade, cultural influence, intermarrying
• by 2900 BC, late Lower Nubian culture was complex stratified society, w/elite benefitting from lively trade w/Egyptian elite (example of Nubian nobility bringing gifts, albeit from later time)
• intermarriage of elites shown in records & art
• e.g. statue of clearly Nubian woman, wife of a prince f/court at Memphis, 2650 BC
• history of intermarriage even though conflict (cf. Europe, House of Windsor; German roots; Victoria married Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha)

• between 2900-1500 BC, territorial struggle, cultural exchange
• by 1500, competition intensified; Egypt expels Nubia from buffer zone; builds fortresses to intimidate; raids Nubia
• but also trade w/them (seen in paintings)

• ruled by Egyptian viceroy
• Egyptians move in, build estates & temples
• f/perspective of macro-level political economy, it was a colonial domian, comparable to Eurpoean colonization:
• monopoly on force, extract wealth
• but re:peoples & cultures, different f/European colonization
• "But the majority of the population remained Nubian and, rather than becoming an exploited or enslaved class, participated substantially in this newly developed colonial society. For Egyptians, color was not a bar to integration or advancement, but cultural and linguistic differences were. The Nubians largely assimilated Egyptian culture and, to a substantial degree, prospered...Nubian political leadership survived, for the Egyptians allowed Nubians to be ruled by their own "princes"...these princes were considered part of the Egyptian bureaucracy. They lived and were buried in Ehyptian style. Yet they had Nubian as well as Egyptian names, probably spoke a different language, and wore regalia reflecting their Nubian heritage. David O'Connor (1993:14) Chiefs or Kings? Rethinking Early Nubian Politics. Expedition 35(2):4- 14
• Important because
  • challenges our notion of what happens to cultures when colonized; Egypt was extracting wealth (like 20th cent European colonizers) but also incorporating Nubians into their culture and even power structure (unlike most Europeans; were the French an exception?)
  • race wasn't ultimately defining characteristic; that developed (acc. to Davidson's argument) as result of Atlantic slave trade
• 900 BC, rise of cities in Napata area at big bend in Nile, 4th cataract
• tables turned: by 750 BC Nubia partly conquered Egypt, fully conquered in 712 BC
• both kingdoms ruled by Nubian pharoahs; the Agypto-Nubian kingdom was largest ever until recent times

• literate civ but we can't read it very well; own alphabet independent of Phoenician-Greek; more efficient than Egyptian
• used to write the indig Nubian language, probably Nilo-Saharan
• Meroe has enigmatic aspects; e.g. famous site of Musawwarat, w/Great Enclosure full of unroofed areas & sloping ramps

Leni Riefenstah on Nubia