Flooded Lands, Forgotten Voices: Safeguarding the Indigenous Languages and Intangible Heritage of the Nubian Nile valley

The construction in Egyptian Nubia of the Aswan High Dam in the mid-twentieth century motivated the biggest rescue operation of tangible heritage that has ever been undertaken in the world. However, no comparable focus was accorded to Nubia s intangible heritage, albeit a small team of ethnographers salvaged what they could in a very short amount of time. Nubia is an ancient land that stretches from the first cataract of the river Nile in Egypt to roughly the fourth cataract in the Republic of Sudan. At each of these cataracts there has been, and will be the construction of dams, which will result in the loss of the majority of the natural, material and cultural landscape of Nubia. Knowing how detrimental dam construction, and its concomitant displacement of the inhabitants, is to the continuity of their culture, the Nubians are initiating urgent safeguarding practices in response. These initiatives are assisted by a project team in the documentation, protection and promotion of Nubian languages and intangible heritage. This paper presents some of these current initiatives and highlights how the project fosters capacity for the Nubian community to act to keep their heritage alive.