agha1

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+---
+title: "A House Against Housing: Post-Displacement Nubian Domesticity"
+authors: ["agha.md"]
+abstract: This text discusses the displacement of the Nubian community and their
+houses due to hydropower projects, particularly the Aswan Low Dam, and
+subsequent developments. The impact of these projects led to economic
+hardships, male migration to urban areas for work, and women managing
+the Nubian houses. Despite these challenges, the Nubian community
+displayed resilience in rebuilding their villages. The text also
+examines the housing project initiated by the state for resettlement,
+known as \"New Nubia", by the state but referred to unfavorably as \"*Al
+Tagheer*\" by Nubians. The planning and implementation of this project
+were criticized for not adequately considering the Nubian culture and
+community needs, resulting in dissatisfaction among residents. Here, I
+highlight how Nubians took matters into their own hands, making
+modifications to the state-built dwellings to align them with their
+cultural norms. Nubian women played a crucial role in these
+modifications and the construction of houses, displaying their
+resilience and adaptability.
+keywords: ["Nubia", "displacement", "resilience", "domesticity", "gender", "architecture"]
+---
+
+# Displaced Architecture
+
+The Nubians and their houses faced multiple displacements triggered by
+hydropower projects, starting with the Aswan Low Dam in 1902 (later
+heightened in 1912 and 1933).[^1] The impact of the dam development
+resulted in the loss of arable land, resources, and power within the
+Nubian house. Economic dispossession forced Nubian men to migrate to
+urban centers for wage labour, leaving the Nubian house to be managed by
+women. The 1933 heightening of the dam caused further devastation,
+flooding villages and prompting more labour migration. The Nubian house
+confronted an environmental catastrophe due to irresponsible
+developments. Despite the state offering a meager amount to replace the
+houses lost, the Nubian community rallied together, rebuilding their
+villages in what Hassan Fathy termed \"A Miracle in Architecture\".[^2]
+The Nubian house exhibited resilience, with all houses reconstructed in
+twelve months, each unique and more beautiful than the other, reflecting
+the community-based and emotionally-driven building regime.
+
+It is important to the larger pushback against epistemic violence and
+the depoliticizing language of "development" to investigate and explain
+the wealth that was lost after displacement, and to do so, I look into
+modes of epistemic violence by way of housing in the resettlement
+villages. The state-built housing project was dubbed New Nubia by the
+state, but Nubians refer to it unfavorably as "*Al Tahgeer*," meaning
+"place of displacement."[^3] In this text, I look at the Nubian house
+from inside the house, through memories, and rely on stories embedded
+within the Nubian collective consciousness. In this text, I use the term
+Old Nubia to refer to Nubian land before 1963 and use the terms
+resettlement villages, settlements, and *tahgeer* to refer to the
+current site of resettlement near Aswan.
+
+# Planning without Nubians
+
+New Nubia, as the state names it, or *tagheer* as Nubians refer to it,
+is a large housing project (approximately 12,000 units) that was
+designed as a substitute \"habitat\" for residents of Nubian lands
+flooded during the construction of the High Dam, was later criticized
+for replicating the economic habitat of the old community which
+alienated Nubians.[^4] The state produced the plan under the supervision
+of The Joint Committee for Nubian Resettlement, established in April
+1961.[^5] The planning concept claimed to take a motto of
+\"centralization in planning and decentralization in implementation\" to
+reconcile central planning and community participation.[^6]
+
+However, the planning was hastily finalized and claimed to be "a replica
+of the original housing schemes with a socialist tinge," which is
+visibility contradicted by comparing the plans of Old Nubia and those of
+*tahgeer* (Figure 2).[^7] Notably, the plans were not based on
+substantial sociological or anthropological studies, as they were
+finalized before the Ethnographic survey on Nubia concluded its
+duties.[^8] The Ethnographic survey, which was first conceived in 1960,
+was not tasked to offer spatial information about Nubian houses.[^9]
+Instead, it had a clear task of providing information to assist the
+Egyptian government in its efforts; the project helped the state learn
+how to deal with Nubians but not the other way around.[^10] The research
+was tasked with uncovering tactical problems, part of which was to study
+the social organization and cultural traditions of the three ethnic
+sub-divisions of Egyptian Nubia, each with its own linguistic and
+cultural characteristics.
+
+The government then invited locals to show them models of their
+then-future homes, as a part of a participatory agenda. However, this
+was done later in the process when most of the design decisions had
+already been made. As documented in the official reports, the planning
+process was based on modern urban planning methodologies.[^11] The
+rectangular planning pattern, the minimalist dwelling units, the
+centralized and optimized surveys, and the greater focus on productivity
+were all features in planning the new Nubian settlements. Nubian women
+were excluded from decision-making, which is evident in the Egyptian
+government\'s documentation, which kept lists of locals invited. They
+were all men, and this rendered the process gender biased.
+
+\"We \[the women\] did not speak Arabic, and they \[the interviewers\]
+did not speak Nubian. They spoke only to the Omda \[mayor\] and some
+men; then the men told us our houses would drown; they also said we
+would go to a new Qustul, we would have hospitals and schools and plenty
+of lands (sarcastically), look around you, we were fooled\," as Anna
+Zolihka said (Qustul, December 2016). The government operated a
+gender-exclusive assignment, with most officials being men, who dealt
+mostly with Nubian men. This was justified by the claim that few Nubian
+women spoke Arabic.[^12] Consequently, most states offered polls and
+community invitations only to men, and compensation was distributed to
+the men. The flaws in the state system that excluded women from much of
+the wealth and the complicity of some Nubian men with said system for
+material gains all rendered the process unjust.
+
+The typical resettlement village in New Nubia had a modern linear grid
+and a linear orientation for residential buildings, with a concentration
+of building plots surrounded by agricultural land. The linear grid was
+often dominated by the main street, with services such as a mosque,
+commercial center, school, sports center, and post office in the heart
+of this area. The design was often referred to as unimaginative due to
+its simple form and synthetic spaces that reappropriated elements of
+Nubian architecture but failed to offer the spatial quality of our
+ancestral land.[^13]
+
+The layout of a typical settlement is similar to plans produced by the
+early modernist schools. It was also affected by the 1930 and 1940
+movements of the "modern Egyptian village" that aimed to replace the
+existing village with a gridded one to introduce the Egyptian peasant to
+order and culture.[^14] Large-scale housing projects in cases of
+development-induced displacement and resettlement have been a topic of
+concern and debate within the field of urban development and social
+sciences. The challenges and problems associated with such projects have
+been well-documented in academic literature. Several key issues arise in
+the context of large-scale housing projects for development-induced
+displacement and resettlement, including social disruption, loss of
+livelihoods, inadequate compensation, and lack of community
+participation in the resettlement process.
+
+After resettlement, dwelling units were distributed to families
+according to their size, thus discounting spatial logic and severing
+social contracts. Residents recalled that their first encounter with the
+settlement was filled with disappointment: the modern paradise they were
+promised was just an incomplete housing project in the desert. But even
+those housed in the state-built dwelling units were roofless and
+doorless, so the Nubian people had to invest time and resources into
+building their own houses. During that time, the society came together
+to survive. The process of resettlement in new houses did not flow
+smoothly, according to most literature.[^15] The housing units and their
+facilities were not complete at the time of the move. As Saida, a
+78-year-old woman in Qustul, said: "When we first arrived here, there
+was a house for one family and no house for five others, and if one
+received one, it would have no roof and windows."
+
+# Building Houses Against Housing
+
+American anthropologists Fernea and Kennedy were responsible for the
+ethnographic survey in Nubia during and after the displacement.[^16]
+They noted the vast construction efforts in Nubian displacement
+villages: "There is scarcely a neighborhood in New Nubia in which some
+houses have not been radically altered through the mounting of China
+plates above the doors, as in Old Nubia, and by plastering the exterior
+with mud to create a facade upon which traditional Nubian designs may be
+painted."[^17] The creation of the house in the "Nubian way" was crucial
+to Nubians; therefore, they often paid for an expensive remodeling of
+the new settlement. "Some house-owners have spent as much as 300 EGP in
+their efforts to bring the new homes into conformity with traditional
+Nubian standards." This is an astounding amount of money, knowing that
+in 1960, Egyptian per capita income was 52.4 EGP per year. The
+government\'s compensation for their lost houses was 10 pounds per
+house. As Fernea mentions, cash compensations were given to men and
+quickly spent, which meant the burden fell on Nubian women who had to
+sell their coveted gold.[^18] My grand aunt said: "We had to sell our
+gold in Kom Ombo to make this \[points to the dwelling unit\] a proper
+house."
+
+Nubians have exhibited their dissatisfaction with their newly built
+environment both verbally, in my interviews, and in the renovations they
+implemented to make the state-built dwelling units liveable. They have
+reappropriated the state-built dwellings and refurbished them; Nubian
+women have made the *mastaba*, a bench attached to the home, as they did
+in their old villages.[^19] Some Nubians have opted to build a house
+themselves. Often referred to *ahaly* (people-built) houses, they are
+similar in design and spatial order to the old Nubian houses, yet they
+had to redefine their relationship with the outside. Nonetheless, Nubian
+houses retained the tradition of unlocked doors even in the state-built
+dwellings with their built-in door lock; Nubians drilled a hole in their
+doors to ensure accessibility. Growing up, I remember that our door
+would open after three polite knocks, and someone would come in without
+being told to enter. The accessibility of the house and people's desire
+to access it were matters of family pride: "Our house is always full,"
+as my grandmother used to say.
+
+Historically, the everyday lives of Nubian women were integrated within
+the social sphere, as was the house. The average surface area of Nubian
+houses, before resettlement, ranged from 500 to 2,000 square meters, and
+it is common to find a 1,600 square meter unit that is registered as the
+residence of four or five people.[^20] The state dwelling units offered
+much smaller surface areas, moving all social encounters, such as
+weddings and conflict councils, to formally designated public spaces.
+Dwelling units in the current settlement are less than 10% of the
+average Nubian house as the state-offered dwellings varied from 100 to
+220 square meters, which resulted in two separate spheres -- one public
+and one private.[^21]
+
+My grandmother's stories often deal with the house as the site of
+everyday life; she expects me to automatically set the events in her
+story in a house unless otherwise told. A house is a place where people
+meet, eat, sort their crops, and divide their shares. The house in my
+grandmothers' stories has the ability to transform into a courthouse, a
+warehouse, and a large-scale kitchen, which explains the large surface
+areas of traditional Nubian houses in relation to the number of their
+occupants, unlike the units designed by the Egyptian state in the
+resettlement village. The Nubian house was never a mere dwelling. The
+state-built houses are modernist in design, offering the minimum
+requirements for a human being -- rooms to sleep in, a kitchen, and a
+bathroom. The units were built around a courtyard as the state
+architects claimed to draw inspiration from traditional Nubian
+houses.[^22] The courtyard was too small in scale to fulfil its social
+role in incubating social life or its environmental role in cooling and
+ventilating the house.[^23] The architecture of the dwellings limited
+the Nubian house and its role in social, economic, and political
+functions and, therefore, made the Nubian house a dispossessed Nubian
+institution, consequently excluding women from the public sphere and
+destroying the Nubian household as a cultural institution and its
+constitutive power. In this case, the very existence of public space is
+an ontological intrusion and an infringement on the indigenous spatial
+order, an order in which the house and its women were politically
+involved.
+
+# Emotional Place-Making
+
+In the early 1970s, a remarkable story unfolds against the backdrop of
+the massive displacement of the Nubian community from their ancestral
+lands in Old Nubia due to hydropower projects. It centers around Sakina
+Abaya, a Nubian woman who became a symbol of resilience, emotional
+placemaking, and community empowerment in the face of upheaval. A few
+years after the move from Old Nubia, there was a surge in construction
+activities by displaced Nubians. Four of Sakina Abaya's children were in
+Qustul during the state-operated census before the resettlement; the
+fifth was studying in Khartoum with his family and was not issued a
+house. The construction of Sakina's son's house began; he states: "She
+had commissioned a master mason with the foundation work, as we did not
+understand the soil of this place \[New settlement\]." He continues:
+"She sat there, in a close distance under the shade while we started
+working with the master mason, she brought food and a tea making kit
+every day, she woke us up, came with us, and left with us." Then, I asked:
+"Who decided the division of the house?" He answered: "She did, she would
+tell us to get this wall to end here, or leave a place for windows here."
+He continues: "She was a boss, she understood building and was never
+fooled by commissioned workers. Actually, they all respected her because
+she gave them food and made them tea whenever they wanted".
+
+Sakina Abaya initiated the building process by invoking the love and
+respect of her grandchildren that she garnered over years of caring for
+them; she sustained the construction process from beginning to end by
+performing a practice of care as she sat there with the workers all day
+making tea, she also choreographed the social characteristics of the
+house from her position. Sakina Abaya acted as their building supervisor
+and caregiver. Sakina Abaya died when I was around nine years old, but
+she was surrounded by stories of the exquisite skill with which she
+generated social, emotional, and material capital. With the same method,
+she built three houses for her family, farmed their land, and planted
+numerous palm trees, which we eat daily to this day.
+
+Within the shadow economy of Qustul, I found an effective
+micro-financing network. A person in financial need can initiate a
+financing cycle, a *Jame'ya*, in which he or she can ask trusted
+persons, mostly women, who are willing and able to join a pool of women
+by paying a cyclic contribution (monthly/weekly/bi-monthly/etc.).[^24]
+When they find a pool that suits their economic need, the person and the
+*Jame'ya* agree on a time frame, and a person responsible for managing
+the pool (banker) is assigned. This person is often a trusted woman. The
+banker/manager is responsible for the collection and the allocation of
+funds in a timely manner (e.g., each month); she is also responsible for
+conducting a random draw to decide the succession of payment to
+participants. Usually, need trumps the random draw; for instance, if the
+participants agree among each other--under the banker's coordination--that those in pressing need are paid first. People who are financially
+comfortable join these co-ops as it is a social honor and duty; they
+often get paid last.
+
+It is the poor people\'s bank "where money is not idle for long but
+changes hands rapidly, satisfying both consumption and production
+needs."[^25] Moreover, the trade in this bank is not only in money;
+there is also an exchange of care and honor. Habbob tells the story of Fatom
+Jaara, a woman in her eighties who has been managing a *Jame'ya* since
+1970 in the displaced village of Thomas Wa Afia, his Nubian village,
+which is now located in Esna, 55 kilometers south of Luxor.[^26] In the
+70s, her participants used to pay 0.25 EGP per month. Fatom Jaara's
+*Jame'ya* is one of the many old banks that can be found in all
+displacement villages, whose inhabitants have no relations with
+formalized or big banks, which helped the funding of buildings,
+weddings, travel, school supplies, and more.
+
+In this exploration of Sakina Abaya\'s building story and the *Jame'ya*
+network, I remember and honor the emotional labor that builds our Nubian
+houses, communal bonds, and the profound connection between people and
+the places they create, even in the face of forced displacement. It
+underscores the notion that places are not merely physical entities but
+also vessels of emotion, memory, and identity, shaped by those who
+inhabit and care for them. As we journey through these narratives, we
+gain insight into the intricate web of emotions, values, and traditions
+that define Nubian placemaking, even in the most challenging
+circumstances.
+
+![The house built by Sakina Abaya in Qustul.](../static/images/ahlam.jpg "The house built by Sakina Abaya in Qustul.")
+
+**~~Figure 1. The house built by Sakina Abaya in Qustul.~~**
+
+
+# Bibliography
+
+Allen, Samantha. "Nubians and Development: 1960-2014," 2014.
+
+Bayoumi, Ola Ali Mahmoud. "Nubian Vernacular Architecture & Contemporary
+Aswan Buildings' Enhancement." *Alexandria Engineering Journal* 57, no.
+2 (June 1, 2018): 875--83.
+[[https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aej.2016.01.002]{.underline}](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aej.2016.01.002).
+
+Bouman, F. J. A. "Indigenous Savings and Credit Societies in the
+Developing World." In *Rural Financial Markets in Developing Countries*,
+262--68, 1983.
+[[https://library.wur.nl/WebQuery/wurpubs/77112]{.underline}](https://library.wur.nl/WebQuery/wurpubs/77112).
+
+El-Hakim, Omar. "Nubian Architecture." *The Egyptian Vernacular
+Experience (Kairo 1993)*, 1999.
+
+Fahim, Hussein M. "Community-Health Aspects of the Nubian Resettlement
+in Egypt." *University Centre for International Studies, University of
+Pittsburgh*, 1975.
+[[http://trafficlight.bitdefender.com/info?url=http%3A//digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/anthpubs/ucb/text/kas055_056-007.pdf&language=en_US]{.underline}](http://trafficlight.bitdefender.com/info?url=http%3A//digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/anthpubs/ucb/text/kas055_056-007.pdf&language=en_US).
+
+Fernea, Robert A. "The Ethnological Survey of Egyptian Nubia." *Current
+Anthropology* 4, no. 1 (1963): 122--23.
+
+Fernea, Robert A., and John G. Kennedy. "Initial Adaptations to
+Resettlement: A New Life for Egyptian Nubians." *Current Anthropology*
+7, no. 3 (1966): 349--54.
+
+Fernea, Robert Alan, and Georg Gerster. *Nubians in Egypt: Peaceful
+People*. Smithmark Pub, 1973.
+
+Ghabbour, Samir I. "Involuntary Resettlement in Development Projects:
+Policy Guidelines in World Bank-Financed Projects, by Michael M. Cernea.
+(World Bank Technical Paper No. 80.) The World Bank, 1818 Street NW,
+Washington, DC 20433, USA: Vii + 88 Pp., 21.5 × 27.25 × 0.5 Cm, Stiff
+Paper Cover, \[No Price Indicated\], 1988." *Environmental Conservation*
+18, no. 1 (ed 1991): 91--92.
+[[https://doi.org/10.1017/S0376892900021573]{.underline}](https://doi.org/10.1017/S0376892900021573).
+
+Habbob, Maher. "Community Sharing: Three Nubian Women, Three Types of
+Informal Co-Ops." *Dotawo: A Journal of Nubian Studies* 5, no. 1
+(December 29, 2018).
+[[https://digitalcommons.fairfield.edu/djns/vol5/iss1/5]{.underline}](https://digitalcommons.fairfield.edu/djns/vol5/iss1/5).
+
+Hopkins, Nicholas S., and Sohair Mehanna. *Nubian Encounters: The Story
+of the Nubian Ethnological Survey, 1961-1964*. Oxford University Press,
+2010.
+
+Jennings, Anne M. "Nubian Women of West Aswan: Negotiating Tradition and
+Change." Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2022.
+[[https://doi.org/10.1515/9781685857752]{.underline}](https://doi.org/10.1515/9781685857752).
+
+---------. *The Nubians of West Aswan: Village Women in the Midst of
+Change*. Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1995.
+
+Mahgoub, Yasser Osman Moharam. "THE NUBIAN EXPERIENCE." PhD Thesis, The
+University of Michigan, 1990.
+
+Mitchel, Timothy. "Rule of Experts: Egypt, Techno-Politics, Modernity."
+California: University of California Press, 2002.
+
+Scudder, Thayer. "Aswan High Dam Resettlement of Egyptian Nubians." In
+*Aswan High Dam Resettlement of Egyptian Nubians*, 1--52. Springer,
+2016.
+[[http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-981-10-1935-7_1]{.underline}](http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-981-10-1935-7_1).
+
+Serageldin, Mona. "Planning for New Nubia 1960-1980." In *The Changing
+Rural Habitat. Volume i: Case Studies*, 59--82. The aga khan awards,
+1982.
+[[http://trafficlight.bitdefender.com/info?url=http%3A//www.bcin.ca/Interface/openbcin.cgi%3Fsubmit%3Dsubmit%26Chinkey%3D77889&language=en_US]{.underline}](http://trafficlight.bitdefender.com/info?url=http%3A//www.bcin.ca/Interface/openbcin.cgi%3Fsubmit%3Dsubmit%26Chinkey%3D77889&language=en_US).
+
+Tadros, H. "The Human Aspects of Rural Resettlement Schemes in Egypt."
+*Anthropology and Social Change in Rural Areas*, 1979, 122.
+
+Tibe, Manal. "Nubian Land Rights." *The Land and Its People*, 2015, 179.
+
+Wahdan, Dalia E. "Planning Imploded: Case of Nasser's Physical
+Planning." *Economic and Political Weekly* 42, no. 22 (2007):
+2099--2107.
+
+Waterbury, John. *Hydropolitics of the Nile Valley*. Syracuse, NY:
+Syracuse University Press, 1979.
+[[https://www.africabib.org/rec.php?RID=790768801]{.underline}](https://www.africabib.org/rec.php?RID=790768801).
+
+Yiftachel, Oren. "Planning and Social Control: Exploring the Dark Side."
+*Journal of Planning Literature* 12, no. 4 (1998): 395--406.
+[[https://doi.org/10.1177/088541229801200401]{.underline}](https://doi.org/10.1177/088541229801200401).
+
+[^1]: Waterbury 1979.
+
+[^2]: El-Hakim 1990, iv.
+
+[^3]: On the term "New Nubia", see Fernea and Gerster 1973.
+
+[^4]: Wahdan 2007.
+
+[^5]: Serageldin 1982.
+
+[^6]: ibid.
+
+[^7]: Ghabbour 1991.
+
+[^8]: Hopkins and Mehanna 2011.
+
+[^9]: Fernea 1963.
+
+[^10]: Hopkins and Mehanna 2011.
+
+[^11]: Serageldin 1982.
+
+[^12]: Fernea 1966.
+
+[^13]: On the unimaginative design, see Serageldin 1982; Ghabbour 1991.
+
+[^14]: Mitchell 2002.
+
+[^15]: Allen 2014; Fahim 1975, 2013, 2014; Fernea and Kennedy 1966;
+    Ghabbour 1991; Hopkins and Mehanna 2011; Mahgoub 1990; Scudder
+    2016a, 2016b; Serageldin 1982; Tadros 1979; Tibe 2015.
+
+[^16]: Fernea and Kennedy 1966.
+
+[^17]: Fernea and Kennedy 1966, 351.
+
+[^18]: Fernea 1963.
+
+[^19]: Fernea and Kennedy 1966.
+
+[^20]: On average surface area of Nubian houses before resettlement, see
+    Elhakim 1999.
+
+[^21]: On the size, see Serageldin 1982.
+
+[^22]: Serageldin 1982.
+
+[^23]: Bayoumi 2018.
+
+[^24]: Habbob 2018; Jennings 1995.
+
+[^25]: Bouman 1983.
+
+[^26]: Habbob 2008.

content/author/agha.md

@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+---
+title: Menna Agha
+affiliation: Azrieli School of Architecture & Urbanism, Carleton University
+---
+
+# Biography
+
+Dr. Menna Agha is an architect and researcher who has recently been coordinating the spatial justice agenda at the Flanders Architecture Institute in Belgium. She joins the Azrieli School to promote pedagogy and research in the newly established area of Design and Spatial Justice. She is cross-appointed at Carleton University’s Institute for African Studies. Menna holds a PhD in Architecture from the University of Antwerp, and a Master of Arts in Gender and Design from Köln International School of Design. In 2019/2020, she was the Spatial Justice Fellow and a visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Oregon. She is a third-generation displaced Fadicha Nubian, a legacy that infuses her research interests in race, gender, space, and territory. Among her publications are: *Nubia still exists: The Utility of the Nostalgic Space*; *The Non-work of the Unimportant: The shadow economy of Nubian women in displacement*.

content/issue/dotawo9.md

@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 ---
 title: "Dotawo 9: Nubian Homescapes from Antiquity to the Present"
 editors: ["annaboozer.md", "annejennings.md"]
-has_articles: ["boozerintro.md", "hamdeen.md", "yvanez.md", "fulcher.md", "sadeq.md", "asmaataha.md", "tsakoswelsby.md"]
+has_articles: ["boozerintro.md", "hamdeen.md", "schrader.med", "yvanez.md", "fulcher.md", "agha.md", "sadeq.md", "asmaataha.md", "tsakoswelsby.md"]
 keywords: ["homescape", "home", "homeland", "household", "homelife", "diaspora", "displacement", "tahgeer" ,"Nubia", "Nubian", "Aswan High Dam Campaign", "war", "genocide", "resettlement", "Kom Ombo", "stereotype", "longue durée"]
 ---