ZAM

Nubian woman (39)

Before, there was a strong sense of community.  From the way people dressed you knew you were in a Nubian community. Back then, the community was intact.  All the norms of our community were followed.  The commandment in Kibera was Nubian.  But now, because of all the people who came and settled here and made it into this slum, the commandment in Kibera is not Nubian. 

Now, everything is slowly fading away.  Our traditional dress is slowly fading away just like the land we have lived on for all these years.  Just look at the names here. Most the areas in Kibera once had Nubian names, but they have been changed.  The orginal name of this land was Kibra.  That’s a Nubian name.  Now they say, Kibera, which is a Kikuyu name. We had Lomle.  That’s a Nubian name.  Now it is Ayany Estates.  We had Sarangombe.  That’s a Nubian name.  Now it is called Jamuhuri.  We had Salama.  That’s also a Nubian name.  Now it is Karanja.  All these places where we now have big estates, the original names were Nubian. 

So as much as we identify ourselves with Kibera and as much as Kibera represents Nubian identity, it is all just slowly fading away. 

Some people think that when you get independence, things change for the best, but for the Nubians, the change has not been positive. The land originally given to the Nubian soldiers by the British and the land the Nubians were told to settle on, is now almost nothing. There are other people now on the place those Nubian soldiers once knew as home.

They say we are not a recognized tribe of Kenya.  We are still called ‘others’.  They always think that the Nubians are from Sudan.  How can somebody tell you that you are from Sudan when you have lived in this country from the day you were born, and when your parents have lived in this country from the day they were born, and when your grandparents have lived in this country from the day they were born as well?  It belittles someone.  It makes you feel inferior.  

I don’t feel the Nubian community has a sense of purpose now.  We are just staying now. No matter how much I feel I am Kenyan.  We are just staying here for the sake of staying here because we have nowhere else to go.  All these other people who now live in Kibera, they have a place to call home.  If they die, they are carried back to the rural area where they were born and are buried there.  When a Nubian dies, the only home you know is Kibera and you are buried here, but here, we are considered to be squatters. So, we are just staying.

If a miracle happened and our great grandparents were resurrected and woke up, they would say, “God, I don’t want to witness this!’ Things now aren’t like how they used to be.  Things have lost their sense of authenticity. And even though we women are trying our best to preserve the community and preserve its norms and traditions, the Nubian tradition is slowly going away. The Nubian language is slowly fading away. We’re really trying out best, but they wouldn’t like what they would see. They would wake up, and want to go right back into their graves.