Zizo learned to sail a felucca at age 10, the age to learn to row the Nile under the scorching Aswan sun. It’s a traditional rite of passage. Being a boatman was one of the main means of earning a living and an intergenerational profession among Nubians, but in the 1980s, this activity also required a very specific motivation.
“As long as the sails were out and the boat was moving, we played Bob,” says Zizo. And by Bob, he means Jamaican singer Bob Marley. The boat’s berth was called the “Bob Marley cabin,” where tourists could smoke cannabis. It was painted green and yellow – dominant colors of Jamaican culture and Bob Marley – Zizo remembers with a smile.
The singer’s presence in the southernmost province of Egypt is far from being confined to the Zizo sailboat. Bob Marley’s images, songs and symbols are an integral part of the Nubian aesthetic. It is an influence that is sometimes obvious, sometimes subtle and discreet. There are cafes and shops, and even people, who ostentatiously seek to imitate it.
Attractions include the Bob Marley themed guest house, as well as the many imitators on the various islands near Aswan. But sometimes you have to be more observant to spot other signs, like Rasta hats in souvenir shops or banners bearing the image of Bob Marley on the bows of boats, alongside the national flag and club pennants. football.
Common oppressions
Among Nubians, the Jamaican singer is a legend. He had in common with these people the color of his skin and the struggle, but also a way of life. Ahmed Idris, hotelier in Gharb Soheil, declares with certainty: “There is not a Nubian who does not love Bob Marley.”
No one really knows where it came from. Cassettes of his music may have arrived with tourists from the American continent, as Zizo remembers, or from Sudan, where the obsession is even more pronounced. Whatever the case, it is certain that from the 1970s and 1980s, and until today, Bob Marley has never left the Nubians and has made a place for himself among them, on their feluccas and, above all, in their hearts and souls.
Like many others, Zizo didn’t understand the lyrics at first. The pace, personality and vibe were catchy enough. But over time, he grasped recurring themes that he identified with, such as oppression, freedom, forced removal, and ostracization.
Zizo’s grandparents were among the thousands of Nubians displaced several times, when their villages and islands were submerged by the construction of two dams in quick succession: the Aswan Dam, initiated by the British and implemented in operation in 1902, which forced the first migrations, and the Aswan High Dam, built at the instigation of Nasser in the 1960s, which exacerbated the problem and forced more than 50,000 people from their homes.
These populations resettled in Cairo, Alexandria or even in the north of Aswan, thus losing their jobs as farmers and fishermen. Zizo compares the displacement of Nubians to that of Jamaicans, torn from Africa during the slave trade to be
2023-11-20 04:20:18
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