Nubians fight to save an ancient language and identity

Jehad Ashraf is the first member of her family to grow up not understanding her mother tongue

- Edmund Bower

“I lived in Aswan my whole life, ” said the 29-year-old, who was born and raised in Nubia, southern Egypt, “but none of my family spoke Nubian to me at home.”

In just two generations the language, once widely spoken, has almost vanished. In her village, a date farming community on the Nile, “the youngest who speak Nubian are 61 or 62 . It is becoming extinct,” said Ashraf.

It is the same throughout Egypt and that’s something she wants to change. Last year, she helped launch the online service Nobig Koro (Learn Nubian) to encourage young people to learn the language. It is one of a number of initiatives in recent years to reach young Nubians at home and abroad and keep the language and culture from dying out.

Ashraf started taking Nubian classes in Cairo where she went to study legal translation. “Since I was young, I was attracted to the language,” she said. She made two friends on the course, the 31-year-old Wessam Fathy and Mostafa Fares, also 31. Both were born to Nubian parents but were unable to speak the language.

The three of them started a weekly study group to go over what they learned in class and practise singing the songs their teacher wrote out for them in Nubian and Arabic. “Nubian songs have everything you find in the language”, said Ashraf, “so we would memorise them, practise singing them and discuss the words we didn’t know.”