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.
PHOTO Members of the Nubian community demonstrate outside the High Court after filing
a suit to demand over 4,000 acres of land in Kibera from the Government in June
2004. [PHOTOS: FILE/STANDARD
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
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
SOURCE http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000071908&pageNo=1&story_title=Kenya-Nubians-pay-for-the-sins-of-their-grandfathers-100-years-later