Dwellings The Nuba people reside in the foothills of the Nuba Mountains. Villages consist of family compounds. A family compound consists of a rectangular compound enclosing two round mud huts thatched with sorghum stalks facing each other called a
shal. The
shal is fenced with wooden posts interwoven with straw. Two benches run down each side of the
shal with a fire in the middle where families will tell stories and oral traditions. Around the
shal is the much larger yard, the
tog placed in front. The fence of the
tog is made of strong tree branches as high as the roof of the huts. Small livestock like goats and chickens and donkeys are kept in the tog. Each compound has tall conical granaries called
durs which stand on one side of the
tog. At the back of the compound is a small yard where maize and vegetables like pumpkin, beans and peanuts are grown.
Languages The Nuba people speak
various languages not closely related to each other. Most of the Nuba people speak one of the many languages in the geographic
Kordofanian language group of the
Nuba Mountains. This language group is primarily in the major
Niger–Congo language family and may be the oldest group of languages in the region. Several Nuba languages are in the
Nilo-Saharan language family. Over one hundred languages are spoken in the area and are considered Nuba languages, although many of the Nuba also speak
Sudanese Arabic, the common language of Sudan.
Culture The Nuba people are primarily farmers, as well as herders who keep cattle, chickens, and other domestic animals. They often maintain three different farms: a garden near their homes where vegetables needing constant attention, such as onions, peppers and beans, are grown; fields further up the hills where quick growing crops such as red millet can be cultivated without irrigation; and farms farther away, where white millet and other crops are planted. A distinctive characteristic of the Nuba people is their passion for athletic competition, particularly
traditional wrestling. The strongest young men of a community compete with athletes from other villages for the chance to promote their personal and their village's pride and strength. In some villages, older men participate in club- or spear-fighting contests. The Nubas’ passion for physical excellence is also displayed through the young men's vanity—they often spend hours painting their bodies with complex patterns and decorations. This vanity reflects the basic Nuba belief in the power and importance of strength and beauty.
Religions The primary religion of many Nuba people is
Islam, with some
Christians, and traditional
shamanistic beliefs also prevailing. Muslim Men wear a sarong and occasionally a skull cap. Older women and young women wear beads and wrap a sarong over their legs and sometimes a cloak tie on the shoulder. Both sexes practice scarification and
circumcision for boys and
female genital mutilation for girls. Some men shave their heads, older Muslim men wear skull caps and grow beards, women and girls braid their hair in strands and string it with beads. The majority of the Nuba living in the east, west and northern parts of the mountains are Muslims, while those living to the south are either Christians or practice traditional animistic religions. In those areas of the Nuba mountains where Islam has not deeply penetrated, ritual specialists and priests hold as much control as the clan elders, for it is they who are responsible for rain control, keeping the peace, and rituals to ensure successful crops. Many are guardians of the shrines where items are kept to insure positive outcomes of the rituals (such as rain stones for the rain magic), and some also undergo what they recognize as spiritual possession.
Politics In the 1986 elections, the
National Umma Party lost several seats to the Nuba Mountains General Union and to the Sudan National Party, due to the reduced level of support from the Nuba Mountains region. There is reason to believe that attacks by the government-supported militia, the Popular Defense Force (PDF), on several Nuba villages were meant to be in retaliation for this drop in support, which was seen as signaling increased support of the
SPLA. The PDF attacks were particularly violent, and have been cited as examples of
crimes against humanity that took place during the
Second Sudanese Civil War. During the military dictatorship of
Omar al-Bashir, Nuba people in the capital Khartoum were repeatedly attacked and some even killed by pro-government students and agents of the National Intelligence and Security Service. As a result of discrimination by governments and parts of the Sudanese society, Nuba people have been largely excluded from the official national Sudanese identity, and hardly ever been represented in the government.
Nuba people in Khartoum Following the Nuba Cultural Heritage Festival in 2011 in Omdurman, Nuba residents of Greater Khartoum have been celebrating Nuba culture in the capital. Part of these celebrations has been the selection of educated, young Nuba women as Beauty Queens of the Nuba Mountains. In 2014,
Natalina Yacoub, at the time a student at
Ahfad University for Women, was chosen as Nuba Beauty Queen and subsequently gave the first
TEDx talk of a Nuba person. == Nuba Mountains ==