Posted by Darin Gunesekera
Sheikh Issa Abdulfaraj
Nubians are a tribe of Eastern and Northern Africa, though their precise origin is unknown. It appears that the people of the Nubian or Nubba Hills often wandered about following their own economic dynamics. The hills are in the area of a new state being born in Southern Sudan.
Nubians are the people romanticized in the arts of Western Europe — from Verdi to Leni Riefensthal. Their size and strength gave them an image of the depth of Africa. Yet they are, in all their present tribes, a mature culture of very civilized manners. In fact, it is a tribute to their culture that they have withstood so much bitter misfortune with such patience and fortitude.
In Kenya, there are is a group of Nubians who have been separated from other Nubians for many generations. They are called the Kenyan Nubians, Kenya’s 43rd Tribe, and have a registered governance structure called the Council of Elders of the Kenyan Nubians. Sheikh Issa Abdulfaraj is the chairman of this council and a household name in Kenya.
Listening to the Chief
Within minutes of listening to him there is no doubt that he is a Kenyan — whatever his roots and tribal culture. But it is the roots of his tribe of which he speaks. These roots lead to the tribe’s current ambition: to declare the largest slum in Kenya, Kibera, as the homeland of his people. President Kibaki of Kenya and the Kenyan nation have accepted the homeland part. The question now is how much of this land, and under what terms, should the state legally grant to the tribe.
How the Nubians got to Kenya is an interesting story.
Britain, in pursuit of its self-proclaimed Empire, was always on the lookout for strong armies. In the Gurkhas and Sikhs of India it found the men that made winning armies. In Africa one of its best forces were the Nubians. Called the King’s African Rifles, the strong and tall Nubians created fear in the hearts of the enemies of the Empire. They served as far away as China and also in the European War.
They were recruited socially. That is, the particular families or sub-tribes were slowly weaned away from the Nubian Hills. A group who by religion and customary practices were a social whole were slowly cornered, detached and taken with the British forces many hundreds of miles from the Nubian Hills. This Nubian Army was taken to Kenya as a community. In many smaller countries, such as Uganda, this practice still occurs: The army marches and sets up camp as a village; an African village is set up with chickens, goats, etc.; entire families and their shambas (cottage neighborhoods) move with the army.
The British officers would examine all the kids in the Nubian village. They would keep an eye on them as they grew, and any strong kid over the age of 6 would find friends in the forces. By the age of 10, the stronger would have some means of regular income working for the force. It was a gradual transition to full employment. As an army like this could not be employed in pure soldiering all the time, they also became the garrison builders and later township builders of where ever the British decided to settle or develop a terminus or hub point.
In Kenya, the British built a capital which is Nairobi. The garrison had from the start its Nubian army. In the years between 1890 and 1910, a part of the forest area was settled as the Nubian area just adjacent to the garrison or army barracks.
Nairobi was on the Maasai plains, at the point where the plains joined the Kikuyu highlands. Throwing every native out, an imperial post and soon a city was built. Working and soldiering in it was a tribe of Nubians who were given a small area of jungle for their village.
In 1917 through 1918, owing to the need to ensure the strength and loyalty of its forces, the British registered the Nubians in their survey as occupying a forest area of about 4,200 acres. This was called Kibera, or Kibbr in the Nubian language. The land was adjacent to Nairobi Garrison and was a village with areas for domesticated farm animals, small woods for wood gathering, water streams etc.
In 1933, the official Carter Commission was set up to secure land rights in Kenya. However this was Empire-building time and the land rights that they were primarily interested in were those of modern European settlers. The tribes were not granted much rights. So went the Nubian case.
Over time the city of Nairobi grew to be the regional metropolis. Kenya became independent with a Black African President and Parliament with Sovereign control. The first President Jomo Kenyatta did a lot of land stabilizing. But while he expressed his sympathy with the Nubians, who had worked for his independence movement, he did not settle the Nubian land case. In fact, it is still a matter of legal argument.
But we can see the usual operation of commercial market economies on the issue of slum land. For while we are used to talking of slum or shanty dwellers as squatters or encroachers, the story of the Third World is that it is the rich who encroach and do so successfully on the lands of communities. The Nubian community was no exception. The European-only housing estate of Woodley, the Royal Golf Club, the Yacht Club, the Impala Club, the Agricultural Show Grounds (used by large-scale farmers) and so forth were built on Kibbr, the Nubian homeland. The many annexations evicted Nubians without compensation and pushed them to a shrinking land mass: It is estimated that this area is now only 780 acres. The land loss made this a slum-land, as the Nubians simply stayed as a community together, slowly becoming slum dwellers.
The end of Empire also saw the British Army disband and the British depart. The Nubians lost their economy.
Some of the Council of Elders
Today’s Kenyan Nubians are a slum-dweller community. They consider this slum their homeland and are fighting to keep it and have their land claim legalized. As a matter of economics they have also exploited it. Nairobi has grown around them and attracts a steady stream of immigrants, so the largest number of immigrants are tenants of the Nubians in Slum Structures. The tribe is one of structure owners of the slums and shanties. Their calm temperament and culture of accommodation, discussion and civilized relations, have enabled this transition from a military soldier community to a slum dweller community. They provide living services to slum dwellers. Unlike many slum dwellers of the world, the Nubian community has a long and proud African culture and ancestry. So it has an intellectual and educated leadership.
The President of Kenya just days ago faced a Council of Elders of this community who asked him for something that no other contemporary Third World President faces. They asked that the slum and shanty area they live in be legalized to them as a community land, like a US American CLT or Community Land Trust.
These are a people who ask that what UNHABITAT has called the World’s Worst and Largest Slum be simply made their own Homeland. They are clearly entrepreneurial and say that they know how to capitalize and run a township.
They will develop their homeland to be a decent place. They have suffered eviction themselves and they will not evict anyone or displace or land grab from others. Sheikh Abdulfajar and his first Vice-Chairman Ibrahim Said and Secretary General Ibrahim Diab together with the full Council say this forcefully. A simple study of their present reveals that this is a reasonable account.
This is a Community that Social Entrepreneurs and those concerned with Slum Issues should take note of. They possess the workings to be the Model for the Future in the field of Slum Rehousing and urban neighborhood re-generation. And they are a refreshing change from the usual slum and shanty dweller demands and hostilities with others.
Darin Gunesekera developed a stock market instrument based financing for slum rehousing called the SREIT. It was judged one of the five best practices in affordable housing in the world by UNHABITAT in 2009. The first cycle and building was in Colombo, Sri Lanka, where it has been adjudged the best slum housing scheme done in the country ever and the only one where people came voluntarily and still demand more. He had earlier set up the stock exchange in Nairobi and in Colombo. He has pioneered livelihood improvement for the poorest in Cinnamon (Sri Lanka) and silk weaving (North India). He runs Capital Markets for the Marginalized Inc, a public charity. Darin is an Ashoka Fellow and Yale graduate. Contact: wiroshermes@yahoo.com; website: www.socialreit.org
Source - http://voiceofkibera.org/reports/view/515
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