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4 Nuba and urban identity: The discourse of resistance and the practice of integration (4) ϯϭΎΑϮϧΎϳ ΪϨδΗ ϝΎΤϣ ϕϮη ϪΑ΍ϮΑϭ ΪόΘϳΎϣ ΓήϴϴϴϴϴϴΘϛ ϰϧΎϣ΍ϭ ήϴΨϟ΍ ΡΎΒλ SebaaH al-khair wa amaani katiiiiiira ma yit‘ad wa bawaabat shuuq muHaal tisned ya nuubaawii ‘Good morning, I have so much hope, it can’t be measured, and the door of missing is impossible to shut, you Nuba (person)’ Joseph’s story Joseph Kuku, a 23 year-old student at the University of Khartoum, was the recipient of the above text message sent by Intesar, a female friend at Sudan University. Joseph and Intesar knew each other from childhood. They are Krongo1 , one of over fifty “tribes” from the Nuba Mountains, but both grew up in Dongola and later moved to Khartoum for university. Intesar’s poem is framed by the vocative ya nuubaawii ‘you Nuba (person)’, which signals their in-group alignment, both as people coming from jibaal al-nuuba, the Nuba Mountains, a label which also indexes their ethnic identity as Black African. Interestingly, she uses the word nuubaawii ‘Nuba person’, referencing the entire Nuba region, instead of krongawi ‘person from Krongo tribe’ which would more accurately capture their shared tribal identity. However, such regional appellations, e.g. shimaaliyyiin ‘Northerners’, gharbaawiyyiin ‘Westerners’ or januubiyyiin ‘Southerners’ are common ways that people in Khartoum broadly differentiate themselves into ethnic categories. Nuba people sometimes say they are from South Kordofan province, an ambiguous label which could mean Arab or Nuba. 1 Krongo is an existing Nuba ethnic group, but not the actual ethnic group of Joseph and Intisar. I have used it to protect their identities. Chapter 4 54 Intesar’s flirtatious use of the term nuubaawii, is an example of positioning. She indicates the dual identity she is claiming for herself and for Joseph, both as a person with Nuba origins, but also, that of an outsider, by assigning their origins in an undifferentiated way to an entire region. These kinds of contradictions seem to characterize the problem of ethnic identity in Khartoum, where some such as the Nuba claim tribal or regional affiliations on a sliding scale, as a resource more than permanent structural attribute. Joseph is a fourth year student in linguistics at the University of Khartoum. Although he was born in Argo, Northern Sudan, his family is all Krongo, and his maternal tongue is Krongo as well. He later learned Arabic and English at school. He says that speaking Krongo is easiest for him, then Arabic, but really he prefers speaking English. For his Bachelor’s thesis he is documenting an aspect of Krongo grammar, and is interested in possibly working to standardize the language. His uncle is active in promoting the learning of Nuba languages in the Nuba Mountains and runs a language center in Omdurman offering basic language courses and literacy materials in a number of Nuba Mountain languages. Joseph is active in student life: he attends class and plays football during the day and studies in the evening. He is a member of the University’s student Nuba Association and SPLM Association. He is also the General Secretary for an intrauniversity student NGO, the Krongo Charity Organization for Properity and Development, and for the past four years in Khartoum has lived alone in a studio above the KCOPD office. He says that he prefers living alone so that he can focus on his studies. As I had been interested in the use of Nuba languages used in texting, I was introduced to Joseph specifically because of his Nuba connections on campus. After he agreed to participate in my research and to help me find contacts, we took a walk through the University campus together and collected his friends, mostly a group of politically-minded young men with origins in the Nuba Mountains but also from Darfur and Southern Sudan. Joseph Kuku, not coincidentally, was named after Yusuf Kuwa Makki, the former commander of the SPLA’s rebellion in the Nuba Mountains. Although this group’s common language was Arabic, most of them spoke English well, and claimed to prefer it to Arabic. One of them from the Ghulfan tribe “hates” that he had to learn Arabic, although he speaks it best. Most also claimed an ability to speak the language of their tribe, Heiban, Ghulfan, Temein, Nyimang, Katcha etc. although I later learned that for some, this meant only a few words. These young men were enthusiastic participants in my research, however, because I was interested in them and their languages, as people from the Nuba Mountains. They...

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