When I heard that the BSA was
planning a trip to Aswan I was elated. I
had heard stories of how beautiful, peaceful and clean Aswan is. I was also interested
in the stories about how much Aswan brings a picture of diversity to Egypt
which is not usually seen being in Cairo and the rest of Lower Egypt. The other
important aspect for me was to experience the Nubian culture and try to
understand how these two cultures co-exist in a country with so much beauty,
potential and contradictions.
The main purpose of the trip was
to experience a part of Egyptian History that I had heard of and could not put
into context. It was enlightening to stay
with locals, attend a Nubian Union meeting and understand the plight of these
internally displaced people from their perspective rather than hearsay. My MA
in Migration and Refugee Studies is concerned with Internally Displaced Persons
(IDPs) and so this was very insightful for me.
During this time, I had just completed my Theses and needed to get away
from Cairo to clear my head. I was able to relax., live in a comfortable peaceful
village, learn how farming is carried out in situations where rain is not a
constant and see evidence of the high dam and how it has influenced both
positively and negatively the lives of the Egyptian people. I also desperately wanted to experience the
Nubian culture, and see the sites in Abu Simbel and Luxor.
The program of the trip entailed,
viewing historical sites in Aswan and Luxor, eating at local restaurants,
visiting locals and getting an understanding of what local Nubian Egyptian life
entails. It also involved spending time learning from the Nubian Union Leaders
about issues facing their people in Egyptian, which ended with a plea to us as students
to highlight their plight to the National and International Community.
The program also entailed restful
and fun times; we spent some time talking and playing games before bedtime. It
involved a lot of self-discipline because we had to choose what was most
important to spend time seeing in on a short trip. This helped us learn how to discuss our needs,
desires and preferences so that we were able to accomplish our goal of both
understanding the Nubian experience and getting some rest. We were all graduate
Students who were really tired and therefore had to learn how to schedule out
time to include what worked for everyone.
As expressed earlier I was
already interested in the Nubian culture. As a black woman I face several forms
of harassment in Cairo. Sometimes it is as if people in Cairo have never seen
anyone of my color and I get to be reminded of it every day as I walk the
streets. One of my desires was to
understand why as a black woman I face what I face in a country that has a
large population of other black people. I am still interested in the Nubian
culture and what it has to offer to a newly emerging democratic state.
I learned from this trip that
Egypt has a wealth of potential in integrating two very different cultures
especially in this time of democratization. I also learned that the Nubian
people do recognize that they are fully Egyptian as the rest of those in Lower
Egypt. I also learned that Nubians to a certain degree have been excluded and
not recognized by the state for who they are and this is what they desire. At
the Nubian Union meeting the leaders expressed the issue of the Nubian people
being a forgotten and excluded part of the Egyptian society which puts them in
a precarious situation.
I was also able to experience a
lot of history that I had only read about when seeing the Valley of the Kings,
Lake Nasser, and the Aswan High Dam, the buried cities, displaced people, the temples
, living in a Nubian village among a
host of other opportunities. One of the greatest highlights for me was living
with the locals and sharing a boat taxi with them every morning, It was
enlightening to be away from a hotel experience and get down to the basics of
local Egyptian Nubian living.
At the moment I can only hope
that one day I will be able to return to Aswan and spend time writing about my
experiences, the people and their plight. Maybe do a research on the amazing
contradictions on the people of Egypt.
