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@ -21,8 +21,8 @@ However, Nubia was perceived as "The Corridor to Africa" by these same
empires. This permitted the partial independence of Nubia while under
the political dominance of these empires. This unique situation enabled
the Nubians to be influenced by the belief systems of neighboring
empires, which became entangled with long-standing Nubian traditions
(Smith 2020).
empires, which became entangled with long-standing Nubian
traditions.[^1]
After the construction of Aswan dam in 1902, and its subsequent
heightenings in 1912 and 1933, Northern Nubian (*Kenuz*) villages, were
@ -56,20 +56,20 @@ taken-for-granted notions of home. When the displaced person lives in a
new place, he/ she does not feel like home automatically. Home is much
more than a house or a shelter, rather it is a complex and multi-layered
concept. Some of these layers are existential; the "immersion of a self
in a locality" (Brah 1996). Home is a physical place that embodies the
state of being-at-home with its particular emotions; privacy,
familiarity, safety/comfort, control, the expression of personal
identity and the social norms and values of his community. Thus, home
does not simply exist but is made and lived. The term home-making
implies a process that turns a meaningless space into a home. Material
and social practices of home-making are undertaken to overcome the
displacement gap by reflecting one's expectations not only in his/ her
new house, but also the larger public environment in the neighborhood
and the city. Home is materially made by building structures, placing
furniture and decorating the house. Home is socially made through both
routinized and seasonal social practices including; domestic chores,
caring of the household members, relaxation, celebrating birthdays and
religious rituals, communicating with neighbors and so on.
in a locality".[^2] Home is a physical place that embodies the state of
being-at-home with its particular emotions; privacy, familiarity,
safety/comfort, control, the expression of personal identity and the
social norms and values of his community. Thus, home does not simply
exist but is made and lived. The term home-making implies a process that
turns a meaningless space into a home. Material and social practices of
home-making are undertaken to overcome the displacement gap by
reflecting one's expectations not only in his/ her new house, but also
the larger public environment in the neighborhood and the city. Home is
materially made by building structures, placing furniture and decorating
the house. Home is socially made through both routinized and seasonal
social practices including; domestic chores, caring of the household
members, relaxation, celebrating birthdays and religious rituals,
communicating with neighbors and so on.
In this research, I explore how the people of Abu Hor, a Kenuz Nubian
village, could remake their homes and homeland aftermath their
@ -106,7 +106,7 @@ passengers, goods, letters, and money orders from migrating men to their
families in the village.
Kawthar Abd El-Rasoul and Mohamed Riad visited the village in 1962 and
described it. Their description is worth quoting at length (2014, 68, 132):
described it. Their description is worth quoting at length:[^3]
> "This was the first time we saw Abu Hor on a summer morning, and the
> view was beautiful, (...) , the Nile had dropped below its winter
@ -124,23 +124,22 @@ described it. Their description is worth quoting at length (2014, 68, 132):
> green grass covered the remaining areas. Numbers of camels, perhaps
> more than twenty-five camels, and numbers of goats and sheep spread
> throughout the area.
>
> A little before four o\'clock we reached the hamlets of Abu Hor; The
> Nile is much narrower, the eastern plateau is high and continuous for
> kilometers, the western bank is less high and continuous and consists
> of groups of unconnected hills. (...) We rested a little on the west
> bank and saw many flying fish."
A little before four o\'clock we reached the hamlets of Abu Hor; The
Nile is much narrower, the eastern plateau is high and continuous for
kilometers, the western bank is less high and continuous and consists of
groups of unconnected hills. (...) We rested a little on the west bank
and saw many flying fish
![Photograph of Old Abu Hor in 1962 showing camels in front of the village.](../static/images/sadeq/fig1.jpg "Photograph of Old Abu Hor in 1962. Source: Riad, M. and Abdel-Rasoul, K. (2014), A journey in the time of Nubia.")
**~~Figure 1. Photograph of Old Abu Hor in 1962. Source: Riad, M. and Abdel-Rasoul, K. (2014), A journey in the time of Nubia.~~**
Abu Hor extended for ten kilometers and included twenty-three hamlets
built on the rugged lands at the eastern and western fringes of the
valley, leaving the narrow plain for agriculture. These hamlets extended
thinly along the Nile and were separated from each other by topographic
features like *khor*[^1] and steep hills. During the summer, as the
features like *khor*[^4] and steep hills. During the summer, as the
water level of the Nile used to recede, *khor* lands became visible and
people often moved between the hamlets by donkey or on foot. In winter,
the water of the Aswan reservoir filled the valley and backed up into
@ -242,17 +241,17 @@ Marriage rituals varied between seven and fourteen days in length; the
rituals used to start right after a new marriage was arranged and
announced, all the women and young females living in the *nag'* were
expected to assemble in the house of the bride\'s family to assist in
grinding the wheat to make *shaʼreya*[^2], while the men would visit the
grinding the wheat to make *shaʼreya*[^5], while the men would visit the
groom to congratulate him.
Before marriage, the bride, dressed in her bridal gown and accompanied
by an elderly female relative, had to visit all the houses around the
*nag'* to announce the day for starting the wedding ceremonies. In turn,
the women offered gifts of *karej*[^3] or a china plate. Then the bride
the women offered gifts of *karej*[^6] or a china plate. Then the bride
would continue on to visit all the major saints\' shrines in the village
and to *Abu Asha* shrine in the adjacent village, *Murwaw*. The groom,
dressed in his bridal attire, carrying a whip, riding a camel and
accompanied by the *arras*[^4], had to visit all the guesthouses in the
accompanied by the *arras*[^7], had to visit all the guesthouses in the
village to invite the men of other hamlets to his wedding. Wedding
ceremonies were occasions for three days and nights of feasting and
dancing in both the bride\'s and the groom\'s houses. On the morning of
@ -285,7 +284,7 @@ joyful atmosphere and bought sweets and toys from travelling vendors.
**After displacement**
On the 27th of December 1963, the displacement of the people of Abu
On the 27^th^ of December 1963, the displacement of the people of Abu
Hor began to their village in New Nubia, where the new Abu Hor is one of
the five villages that are under the administrative local council of
Kalabsha, a main village which provides the neighboring villages with
@ -362,7 +361,7 @@ planting trees. The whole village collected money to build a communal
guesthouse (*sabeel*) not only for accommodating visitors, but also as a
gathering place where men can meet in the evening, gather in ritual
feasts, and hold public meetings. The people of Abu-Hor cooperated in
celebrating religious rituals
celebrating religious rituals.
An elderly woman, who was a custodian of a saint's shrine in the Old Abu
Hor, built a shrine in the new village. Some women, especially in the
@ -390,8 +389,8 @@ practiced by women domestically. Thus, the courtyard had to be wide
enough to accommodate the guests attending these ceremonies. The Nubian
house functioned as a generative mechanism for the Nubian culture,
underwriting habitus and reproducing its elements for the inhabitants.
As Bourdieu and Sayad stated (1964: 26) "the structure of habitat is the
symbolic projection of the most fundamental structures of a culture."
As Bourdieu and Sayad stated, "the structure of habitat is the symbolic
projection of the most fundamental structures of a culture."[^8]
The Nubian house served as the centerpiece of all Nubian social
organization. The spatial configurations separated the house from the
@ -414,7 +413,7 @@ Following displacement, as people are forced to leave their homelands, a
place where they had felt socially, culturally and emotionally embedded,
they are likely to experience a sense of loss of community, history, and
identity. Thus, emplacement is not simply re-placing people in new
place, but it is a continuous process of making one's place in the
places, but it is a continuous process of making one's place in the
world. Emplacement implies the social processes, relations and
encounters through which displaced people engage with the new
environment, and therefore transform the new place into a personalized
@ -427,9 +426,9 @@ disempowering and disruptive process that remaking one involves a
lengthy effort with no obvious start or end point. The process of
remaking a home entails more than building a physical place of shelter
and finding a source of livelihood. It requires inhabitants to establish
a feeling of being "'at home" (Hage's, 1997: 102). This process of
feeling at home involves four dimensions; a material place, a familiar
landscape, a social world, and an emotional and existential place.
a feeling of being "'at home."[^9] This process of feeling at home
involves four dimensions; a material place, a familiar landscape, a
social world, and an emotional and existential place.
The home is not only a place where individuals can satisfy their basic
needs and protect themselves from harm threatening otherness (weather
@ -459,8 +458,7 @@ sense of home.
> Becoming at home is linked to the "refrain," a form of expression with
> a different meaning every time it is repeated, as a song ventures
> forward with each verse before returning to the refrain (Dovey, 2010,
> 18).
> forward with each verse before returning to the refrain.[^10]
Familiarity is also created when people possess a maximal spatial
knowledge of the new village and its features become familiar through
@ -469,11 +467,11 @@ opacity of the body."
> In movement, gesticulating, walking, taking its pleasure, is what
> indefinitely organizes a here in relation to an abroad, a
> \"familiarity\" in relation to a \"foreignness\" (Leach, 2016, 299).
> \"familiarity\" in relation to a \"foreignness.\"[^11]
As Korac (2009: 42) stresses, "emplacement does not take place in a
social vacuum; rather it occurs within the context of intra- and
inter-group relations." Creating a sense of home in New Abu-Hor required
As Korac stresses, "emplacement does not take place in a social vacuum;
rather it occurs within the context of intra- and inter-group
relations."[^12] Creating a sense of home in New Abu-Hor required
reconstructing a social world in the new village based on shared
traditions and values after centuries of belonging to *nag'* kin groups.
Reconstructing the social world aimed to regaining a sense of belonging
@ -485,9 +483,9 @@ in *mastaba*, the people of Abu-Hor could create new social attachments
within the place of resettlement, thus creating a sense of home.
Building the village guesthouse (*Sabeel*) was another way the people of
Abu-Hor could reconstruct their social world, by creating "new material
forms which symbolize a former community" (Schultze,2020, 291). The
guesthouse could be conceived as a "memorialized locale" (Lofland, 1998,
65) which symbolizes the lifestyle of the past culture.
forms which symbolize a former community."[^13] The guesthouse could be
conceived as a "memorialized locale,"[^14] which symbolizes the
lifestyle of the past culture.
Displacement involved separating from a place that Nubians described as
"homely," a place where they had felt emotionally embedded. Displacement
@ -506,9 +504,9 @@ ceremonies. Although the new setting lacked the geographical features in
which these traditions were practiced -- the Nile, mountains, old
shrines, and so on -- creativity and imagination helped them to
reproduce cultural traditions by evoking the landscape that they were
forced to abandon. As Obeid writes (2013: 374), "what seems like a
yearning for the past can contribute very much to the creation of the
present and the future."
forced to abandon. As Obeid writes, "what seems like a yearning for the
past can contribute very much to the creation of the present and the
future."[^15]
**Conclusion**
@ -536,19 +534,19 @@ resettlement place into a home.
Former narratives of Nubians displacement were often colored by rosy
view of Old Nubia, which became a mythical place to which Nubians still
long to return. Such narratives emanates from the static and fixed
long to return. Such narratives emanate from the static and fixed
Heideggerian ontology of being-in-the-world, which conceive of home and
homeland as a place of rootedness. However, the Nubian displacement, and
other experiences of displacement worldwide, challenge this discourse.
Even after displacement disrupted people's social worlds-- the
individuals' sense of being at home and their social relations -- the
displaced are often able to recreate home, or what Naila Habib (1996)
calls "the evolving meaning of home" as "a dynamic and constantly
changing process." This dynamic notion of home denotes that belonging to
a place can be understood as fluid territorialisation -- in the
Deleuzian sense -- through giving meaning to the place by individual and
collective behavior, which reminds us of Appadurai\'s (1995) thesis on
the production of locality. According to this thesis, a locality is not
displaced are often able to recreate home, or what Naila Habib calls
"the evolving meaning of home" as "a dynamic and constantly changing
process."[^16] This dynamic notion of home denotes that belonging to a
place can be understood as fluid territorialisation -- in the Deleuzian
sense -- through giving meaning to the place by individual and
collective behavior, which reminds us of Appadurai\'s thesis on the
production of locality.[^17] According to this thesis, a locality is not
a given, but it is created by social practices, ritual activities, and
the collective effort of the community in order to socialize the space
and localize the people. In the case of Abu Hor, villagers turned to
@ -567,16 +565,16 @@ research discussed the resiliency and the spatial practices through
which Nubians could contribute to processes of homemaking and
(re)territorialisation on different spatial scales.
**Bibliography:**
**Bibliography**
Appadurai, Arjun. "The Production of Locality." In Counterwork: Managing
the Diversity of Knowledge, edited by Richard Fardon. London: Routledge,
1995.
Appadurai, Arjun. "The Production of Locality." In *Counterwork:
Managing the Diversity of Knowledge*, edited by Richard Fardon, pp.
107-16. London: Routledge, 1995.
Brah, Avtar. *Cartographies of Diaspora: Contesting Identities*. London:
Rouledge, 1996.
Routledge, 1996.
Bourdieu, Pierre and Sayad, Abdelmalek. *Le Déracinement. La Crise de
Bourdieu, Pierre and Sayad, Abdelmalek. *Le déracinement. La Crise de
l'agriculture traditionelle en Algérie*. Paris: Minuit, 1964.
Dovey, Kim. *Becoming Places*. Abingdon, Oxon; New York, NY: Routledge,
@ -590,58 +588,85 @@ Homeland*. Khartoum: The Nubian Studies and Documentation Center, 2000.
Jaritz, Horst. "Notes on Nubian Architecture." In *Nubians in Egypt:
Peaceful People*, edited by Robert A. Fernea. Austin and London:
University of Texas Press, 1973: pp.
University of Texas Press, 1973: pp.XX
Korac, Maja. *Remaking Home: Reconstructing Life, Place and Identity in
Rome and Amsterdam*. New York and Oxford: Berghahn Books, 2009.
Leach, Neil. "Belonging: Towards a Theory of Identification with Space."
In *Habitus: A Sense of Place,* edited by Jean Hillier and Emma Rooksby.
Abingdon, Oxon; New York, NY: Routledge, 2016: pp. 297-313.
In *Habitus: A Sense of Place,* edited by Jean Hillier and Emma Rooksby,
pp. 297-313. Abingdon, Oxon; New York, NY: Routledge, 2016.
Lofland, Lyn H. *The public realm: Exploring the city's quintessential
social territory. Communication and social order*. Hawthorne and New
Lofland, Lyn H. *The Public Realm: Exploring the City's Quintessential
Social Territory. Communication and Social Order*. Hawthorne and New
York: Aldine de Gruyter, 1998.
Obeid, Michelle. "Home-Making in the Diaspora Bringing Palestine to
London." In *Diaspora and Transnational Studies Companion*, edited by
Ato Quayson, and Girish Daswani. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2013:
pp. 366--80.
Ato Quayson, and Girish Daswani, pp. 366-80. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley &
Sons, 2013.
Perez Murcia, Luis Eduardo. "Remaking a Place Called Home Following
Displacement." In *The* *Routledge Handbook* *of* *Place*, edited by Tim
Edensor, Ares Kalandides, and Uma Kothari. Abingdon, Oxon; New York, NY:
Routledge, 2020: pp. 468-76.
Edensor, Ares Kalandides, and Uma Kothari. Abingdon, pp. 468-76. Oxon;
New York, NY: Routledge, 2020.
Riad, Mohamed and Abd el-Rasoul, Kawthar. *A journey in the time of
Riad, Mohamed and Abd el-Rasoul, Kawthar. *A Journey in the Time of
Nubia*. Windsor: Hindawi Foundation, 2014.
Schultze, Henrik. "The Symbolic Construction of Community Through
Place." In *The* *Routledge Handbook* *of* *Place*, edited by Tim
Edensor, Ares Kalandides, and Uma Kothari. Abingdon, Oxon; New York, NY:
Routledge, 2020: pp. 285-93.
Edensor, Ares Kalandides, and Uma Kothari, pp. 285-93. Abingdon, Oxon;
New York, NY: Routledge, 2020.
Smith, Stuart T. "Colonial Entanglements: Imperial Dictates and
Intercultural Interaction in Nubia." In *Archaeologies* *of Empire:
Local Participants and Imperial Trajectories,* edited by Anna L. Boozer,
B.S. Düring, and B.J. Parker. Santa Fe, NM: SAR & UNM Press, 2020: pp.
21-56.
B.S. Düring, and B.J. Parker, pp. 21-56. Santa Fe, NM: SAR & UNM Press,
2020.
United Nations Archives at Geneva, Survey of Egypt, Kalabsha, 1935.
<https://archives.ungeneva.org/kalabsha-4>
Hassan Fathy, <https://www.archnet.org/sites/14965>
[^1]: Khor: an Arabic word stands for a natural swale
[^1]: Smith, \"Colonial Entanglements.\"
[^2]: Brah, *Cartographies of Diaspora*.
[^3]: Riad and Abd el-Rasoul, *A Journey in the Time of Nubia*.
[^4]: []{dir="rtl"}Khor: an Arabic word stands for a natural swale
cutting through the desert plateau at right angles to the Nile.
[^2]: Shaʼreya: a vermicelli-like food with milk and sugar which was
[^5]: Shaʼreya: a vermicelli-like food with milk and sugar which was
served as breakfast to the guests and to the bride and groom after
the wedding.
[^3]: Karej: Nubian traditional plates weaved of brightly
[^6]: []{dir="rtl"}Karej: Nubian traditional plates weaved of brightly
colored palm fiber strips.
[^4]: Arras: a young boy relative of the groom who accompanied him
[^7]: Arras: a young boy relative of the groom who accompanied him
everywhere for the whole week prior to the wedding. His role was to
serve the groom and "guard" him from his friends\' pranks.
[^8]: Bourdieu and Sayad, *Le déracinement*, p. 26.
[^9]: Hage's, 1997: 102.
[^10]: Dovey, *Becoming Places*, p. 18.
[^11]: Leach, "Belonging," p. 299.
[^12]: Korac, *Remaking Home*, p. 42.
[^13]: Schultze, *The Symbolic Construction of Community Through Place*,
p. 291.
[^14]: Lofland, *The Public Realm*, p. 65.
[^15]: Obeid, *Home-Making in the Diaspora*, p. 374.
[^16]: Habib, \"The Search for Home."
[^17]: Appadurai, \"The Production of Locality."

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content/issue/dotawo9.md
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@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
---
title: "Dotawo 9: Nubian Homescapes from Antiquity to the Present"
editors: ["annaboozer.md", "annejennings.md"]
has_articles: ["tsakoswelsby.md"]
has_articles: ["sadeq.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"]
---