Nubians

The Nubians (Nobiin) people the central Nile from southern Egypt to northern Sudan, heirs of one of earth's earliest civilisations: Wadi Halfa's Neolithic camps reach 7000 BCE. Kingdoms of Kerma, Kush and Meroe traded gold, ivory and archers with Pharaohs, sometimes as subjects, sometimes as conquerors; the Twenty-fifth Dynasty of 744 to 656 BCE united all Egypt with Nubia down to Khartoum, the Black Pharaohs ruling from Napata. As warriors the ancient Nubians were famed bowmen of the Egyptian armies. Christian Makuria and Alodia held the middle Nile for a thousand years after Meroe fell. Arabisation pressed but never erased them: Nobiin, Kenzi and Dongolawi tongues still sound in the river villages and Khartoum quarters, and Nubian date farmers, dam-displaced twice over, still petition for the drowned homeland. Meroe's pyramids still outnumber Egypt's in the desert. Nobiin grandmothers still scold in the old tongue. Khartoum quarters still speak Nubian at weddings. Nubian is taught in Khartoum heritage schools.