The Nubians, the largest ethnic community in Egypt, saw their ancestral homelands disappear beneath the waters of the Nile from the dawn of the 20th century through to 1964. The massive displacement of this population has been the subject of numerous literary works by Nubian writers who seek to save their heritage from oblivion and to preserve their Nubian collective memory. Despite the renewal of socio-political interest in Nubia in post-2011 Egypt, the authors of Voices from Nubia, all non-Nubian Egyptians, claim that art in general and literature in particular remain the domain in which the problematics of what has been called the Nubian Question can be primarily vocalized. Only through a thorough reading and analysis of the literary output of Egyptian Nubians can the complexities of Nubia, its people, and culture can find full expression. The rich literary heritage of contemporary Nubian literature allows for a multiplicity of critiques that makes possible a reading of this literature that crosses the borderlines between literature, history, geography, politics, gender, and ethnicity. The diversity of themes and tropes in Voices from Nubia reflects a hallmark of Nubian literary output which is generally marked by a common feeling of solidarity around the Nubian cause. The array of critical studies included in the volume’s eight chapters covers a multiplicity of approaches: cultural, postcolonial, ecofeminist, and critical race theory. Voices from Nubia constitutes an attempt to go beyond the dichotomy between the activist Nubian writer who views the Nubian Question as a human rights issue and Arab-Egyptian nationalists who consider the discussion of Nubians as a distinct ethnic group or minority a threat to societal cohesion and national security. The editors conclude the book with interviews with three Egyptian Nubian writers belonging to different generations and expressing different positions with regards to the Nubian Question. It is thus hoped that this book will introduce the English-speaking reader to the rich tradition of contemporary Nubian literature from Egypt, written in Arabic. On the other hand, the book also forces the Egyptian-Arab reader to question some of the most cherished assumptions and ingrained ideas about the nature of culture, history, and identity. As such, Voices from Nubia has far-reaching implications for how we think about the diverse nature of our societies and nations.

Every year millions of people are displaced from their homes, livelihoods and communities due to land-based development projects. There is no limit to what can be called a ‘development project’. They can range from small-scale infrastructure or mining projects to mega hydropower plants; can be public or private, well-planned or rushed into. Knowledge of development-induced displacement and resettlement (DIDR) remains limited even after decades of experience and research. Many questions are yet unanswered: What is "success" in resettlement? Is development without displacement possible or can resettlement be developmental? Is there a global safeguard policy or do we need an international right ‘not to be displaced’? This book revisits what we think we know about DIDR. Starting with case studies that challenge some of the most widespread preconceptions, it goes on to discuss the ethical aspects of DIDR. The book assesses the current laws, policies and rights governing the sector, and provides a glimpse of how the displaced people defend themselves in the absence of effective governance and safeguard mechanisms. This book is a valuable resource for students and researchers in development studies, population and development, and migration and development.

Flooded Pasts examines a world famous yet critically underexamined event—UNESCO's International Campaign to Save the Monuments of Nubia (1960–80)—to show how the project, its genealogy, and its aftermath not only propelled archaeology into the postwar world but also helped to "recolonize" it. In this book, William Carruthers asks how postwar decolonization took shape and what role a colonial discipline like archaeology—forged in the crucible of imperialism—played as the "new nations" asserted themselves in the face of the global Cold War. As the Aswan High Dam became the centerpiece of Gamal Abdel Nasser's Egyptian revolution, the Nubian campaign sought to salvage and preserve ancient temples and archaeological sites from the new barrage's floodwaters. Conducted in the neighboring regions of Egyptian and Sudanese Nubia, the project built on years of Nubian archaeological work conducted under British occupation and influence. During that process, the campaign drew on the scientific racism that guided those earlier surveys, helping to consign Nubians themselves to state-led resettlement and modernization programs, even as UNESCO created a picturesque archaeological landscape fit for global media and tourist consumption. Flooded Pasts describes how colonial archaeological and anthropological practices—and particularly their archival and documentary manifestations—created an ancient Nubia severed from the region's population. As a result, the Nubian campaign not only became fundamental to the creation of UNESCO's 1972 World Heritage Convention but also exposed questions about the goals of archaeology and heritage and whether the colonial origins of these fields will ever be overcome.

Publisher Description

Making Home(s) in Displacement critically rethinks the relationship between home and displacement from a spatial, material, and architectural perspective. Recent scholarship in the social sciences has investigated how migrants and refugees create and reproduce home under new conditions, thereby unpacking the seemingly contradictory positions of making a home and overcoming its loss. Yet, making home(s) in displacement is also a spatial practice, one which intrinsically relates to the fabrication of the built environment worldwide. Conceptually the book is divided along four spatial sites, referred to as camp, shelter, city, and house, which are approached with a multitude of perspectives ranging from urban planning and architecture to anthropology, geography, philosophy, gender studies, and urban history, all with a common focus on space and spatiality. By articulating everyday homemaking experiences of migrants and refugees as spatial practices in a variety of geopolitical and historical contexts, this edited volume adds a novel perspective to the existing interdisciplinary scholarship at the intersection of home and displacement. It equally intends to broaden the canon of architectural histories and theories by including migrants' and refugees' spatial agencies and place-making practices to its annals. By highlighting the political in the spatial, and vice versa, this volume sets out to decentralise and decolonise current definitions of home and displacement, striving for a more pluralistic outlook on the idea of home.

This study examines a people who had to be relocated when the Aswan High Dam was constructed along the Nile River. The author, an Egyptian anthropologist, traces various stages of response and adjustment and draws conclusions about the nature of forced resettlement, its impact, and government policy. The book is written in four parts. Part I, Technical Development and Forced Change, introduces elements of the Egyptian Nubian culture prior to the building of the Aswan High Dam and the resultant flooding of the Nubian homeland. Studies and surveys by the Egyptian Government and the resettlement policies are analyzed, including the concerns and hopes of the Nubians upon leaving their homeland for new villages away from the lake region. Part II, Culture Change and Coping Strategies, examines the problems faced by the Nubians in adapting to their new location and the means by which the displaced Nubians coped with the various changes. Part III, Recent Developments and Future Trends, reveals the strength of the attachment Nubians felt for their homeland in their moving back to the shores of the lake as close to former home sites as possible. Nubians abroad and the London case are included to show how those outside the region had the objective of saving enough money to invest back home. Part IV, Research Theory and Policy, evaluates the plans and procedures associated with the uprooting and resettlement of people, using the experience of the Egyptian Nubians as a case study.

Through his character's pain and suffering, Idris Ali paints in vibrant detail, with wit and a keen sense of history's absurdities, the story of cultures and hearts divided, of lost lands - impossible dreams, and abandoned loves.