If walls could talk in Nubia, it would be in color

(12 Feb 2020) LEAD IN:   
The walls of traditional Nubian homes are usually popping with colour instead of being left blank and dull.
Nubians stand out from from the country's Arab majority in several other ways, including in their language and culture.

STORY-LINE:
Traditional Nubian homes are alive with colour but a local resident of Aswan is working hard to make sure that more of the Nubian cultures lives on and gets carried through to future generations.
Nubians are an ancient ethnic group whose lives have historically been intimately tied to the Nile River.
Their lands are in the south of Egypt, although many of their historic homes were lost under water when the High Dam was built.
Decades later, they are struggling to preserve their culture, especially as their eviction has forced some of them to scatter to faraway places in Egypt.
Tour guide Mohamed Sobhi opened his home to people, turning it into a museum of Nubian culture.
Sobhi believes that the Arab community's impact on the Nubian culture led to the disappearance of some traditions.
He started the museum to preserve Nubian heritage and educate people about his community's customs and traditions.
Called "Animalia", the venue showcases animals which he embalmed, such as reptiles and fish.
It also features typical household items made from pottery and straw, in the section that offers a gateway to the traditional Nubian home.
From Pharaonic times Nubians lived along the Nile in a stretch of territory from southern Egypt to northern Sudan, even becoming rulers for a period in the 25th Dynasty 3,000 years ago.
Darker skinned than most Egyptians, they have a language and culture distinct from the country's Arab majority.
Having to leave their ancestral homes and villages is a scar that runs deep for many Nubians.
Since their eviction in the 1960s to make way for the giant lake behind the Aswan High Dam, they have lived in desolate towns further north.
Some younger Nubians who grew in places like Cairo and other large cities barely speak the language.
Sobhi noticed that it was in decline, so he and his wife started a project to teach Nubian.
The 20th century brought a series of displacements to Egypt's Nubians.
Their dream since has been to return to land along the lake near their original villages.
But the village of Heisa, home to around 2,000 people, offers a glimpse into what life was like for Nubians in their homeland.
Heisa is an island only reachable by boat and not accessible by land.
It is perched on an island in the Aswan reservoir, which was created by the building of a small dam in 1902.
While other villages surrounding it were evacuated from the area, Heisa's people stayed, moving to higher ground.
Most of Heisa's farmland was lost under water.
Decades later, the Aswan High Dam was built upstream, sandwiching Heisa in between.
The islanders only speak to children in Nubian, says resident Ramadan Abdal-hafiz, who adds that he only learned of Arabic at school.
The houses in Heisa, built on rocky hills, are spacious and painted in bright colours, some with domes mirroring the traditional Nubian architecture.
The air is clean and crisp on the island.
In some places, the Nile stretches majestically for more than a mile into the distance to the surrounding desert shores.
Children go out in the river on small boats in the afternoons as young men swim to cool off.
Dozens of traditional sailboats called feluccas are anchored at small docks around the island.

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