Master

Introducing the Nubian language in the Primary Schools : A feasibility Study

ABDALRAHMAN MOHAMED ALI, Nemat

Abstract

Nubian language is an ancient language spoken in southern , northern and western . According to the Ethnologue catalogue, this is a threatened language that requires a program of revitalization possibly through introducing it as a subject in primary schools. To begin with, it is important to involve the pupils' parents as stakeholders to see whether they would accept the concept or not. This study aims to provide insight into that concept and used two methods of data- collection (questionnaires and interviews) to present parents' point of view and their overall attitude towards the language. The results are positive and encourage further efforts towards the implementation of the revitalization program. The study also illustrated two experiences of promoting native languages, one in the local context and the other in neighboring countries. The local case example appears to be more feasible for implementation in the case of the Nubian language.

Reference

ABDALRAHMAN MOHAMED ALI, Nemat. Introducing the Nubian language in the Primary Schools : A feasibility Study. Master : Univ. Genève, 2020

Available at: http://archive-ouverte.unige.ch/unige:144936

Disclaimer: layout of this document may differ from the published version.

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University of Geneva,

Collage of translation and interpreting,

ABSTRACT “LANGUAGE IS THE Introducing Nubian Language In PERFECTThe INSTRUMENT OF EMPIRE” Primary Schools, (MORRIS,2003)

A feasibility Study, Nemat Introducing the Nubian Abdalrahman Mohamed Supervised by Prof Language in Primary François Grin Prepared By: Nemat Abdalrahman Mohamed SchoolsSupervised By: prof, François Grin

A Feasibility Study

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Acknowledgements The present study was motivated by my desire to preserve my own language, which has been prohibited in schools for a long time. I am grateful for the guidance and support of Professor François Grin, and Mr Marco Civico who offered a great amount of useful advice in meetings as well as over e-mail to enable the completion of this work. I thank Mr and Mrs Jaeger from Cologne, Germany, for providing me with numerous sources that are not available in Geneva. I also thank Dr Amany Syam of WHO for helping with the formatting and layout of the research and Dr Daniel Goldfischer for the linguistic editing. Finally, I thank all the respondents of the questionnaire and interviews as well as my family members specially my husband, Mr Abdelaziz Bushara This research is presented as a contribution towards a better understanding of the importance of Nubian—a language that has been looked upon as inferior but is of great cultural and even greater civilisational importance.

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Contents Chapter 1 ...... 4 1.1 Introduction ...... 4 1.2 General information about Nubian area and Nubian language ...... 6 1.2.1 Name and Boundaries ...... 6 1.2.2 The causes and effects of the exodus as well as migration from the homeland to and other parts of Sudan ...... 8 Supprimé: 7 1.3 Explaining the main question of the study: Would the parents accept introducing Nubian language in the primary schools? ...... 13 Chapter 2 ...... 15 2.1 What is language revitalisation? ...... 15 2.1.1 Fishman’s GIDS ...... 16 2.1.2 Ethnologue language vitality categories ...... 17 2.2 Education ...... 21 2.2.1 Positive effects of mother tongue education ...... 21 2.3 Language policy and planning in Sudan ...... 22 2.3.1 Historical background ...... 22 Chapter 3 ...... 28 3.1. A general linguistic context of Africa ...... 28 3.1.1 Before colonisation ...... 28 3.1.2. During colonialism ...... 32 3.2 Ethiopian experience in introducing minority languages ...... 33 3.2.1. Historical background on language policy in ...... 33

3.3 The experience of Moro language literacy in Sudan: ...... 0 Supprimé: 35 3.3.1 Historical background ...... 36 3.3.2 Literacy activities ...... 37

3.3.3 Isaac Kuku Academy ...... 37 Supprimé: 38

3.3.4 The objectives of the literacy program ...... 38 Supprimé: 39 3.3.5. Some recent activities ...... 39 Chapter 4 ...... 42 4.1. Methodology and data collection ...... 42 4.1.1 Questionnaires ...... 42 Page | 3

4.1.2. Interviews ...... 45 4.1.3. Range of study ...... 46 Chapter 5 ...... 47 5.1 Data analysis ...... 47 5.2 Analysis of questionnaires ...... 47

5.3 Analysis of Interviews ...... 59 Supprimé: 58

5.4 Families living in Khartoum City ...... 62 Supprimé: 60

5.5 Families living in the Nubian Villages ...... 66 Supprimé: 64

5.6 Families living in the local town ...... 75 Supprimé: 72

5.7. Interviews with persons with special positions...... 81 Supprimé: 77

5.9 Interview with the manager of curricula in the ministry of education ...... 84 Supprimé: 80

5.10 The analysis and results ...... 86 Supprimé: 83

5.10.1 Positive aspects in the interviews ...... 87 Supprimé: 84

5.10.2 Negative aspects in the interviews ...... 88 Supprimé: 85

Chapter 6 ...... 89 Supprimé: 86

6.1 Conclusion ...... 89 Supprimé: 86

6.3 Some recommendations for Nubian organisations and local authorities ...... 91 Supprimé: 88

References ...... 92 Supprimé: 89

Appendix ...... 96 Supprimé: 92

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Chapter 1

1.1 Introduction

When a language is threatened, its speakers must look for effective ways to preserve the language and prevent it from becoming extinct. The Nubian language is one such threatened language, according to Ethnologue (a website on which all the languages of the world are listed with their basic information and status). According to Fishman’s Expanded Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale (EGIDS), the language is in level 6b, i.e. it is used by all generations. However, the only people who can pass it on to their children belong to the child-bearing generation. The generation of grandparents, especially in Nubian villages, can help a lot because all the members of the extended family live with each other in big houses.

Many studies have been carried out, and efforts have been made by natives as well as non-natives to contribute to the revitalisation of Nubian, one of which is an article about the indigenous efforts to re-establish and digitalise the , here the word “digitalise” indicates some inventions such as a Nubian keyboard and Android application built by natives to make writing in Nubian easier, in this article, the author sheds light on the first few attempts and initiatives to revitalise the -Nubian languages (Jaeger, 2008). Another effort was a book written by Sabbar (2017), titled The Toponymy of Ishkeed1 and the Revitalisation of an Endangered Nubian Language. The book deals with the names of places in the village Ishkeed and the potential of these names in the re- establishment of the Nubian language (Sabbar, 2017). The same author has also made primers to be taught in primary schools using Nubian characters (see Appendix 4). Another move was through making two primers for teaching the language using Nubian

1 Ishkeed is the name of a village in northern Sudan. Page | 5

characters by El-Shafie El-Guzuuli (2012; see Appendix 2). Another book on writing and grammar by Khalil in 1979 (see Appendix 3) deals with the same subject. Notably, the first attempt to reinstate the Nubian language through primers to help students read and write in their mother tongue was by Hisên (1913), who used the Latin alphabet (see Appendix 1). Many papers and studies on language policy and planning in Sudan address policies implemented by governments throughout the modern and how they have affected minority languages in general. However, there is a lack of research pertaining to the use of the language in real life and suggesting programmes that may be suitable to reinstate the language.

The present study aims to discern if introducing the Sudanese Nile-Nubian languages/language in primary schools will be acceptable by the pupils’ parents in order to help revitalise the language(s). The study focuses on two variants of languages: Andaandi Nubian spoken in the Dongola Reach, between South of Kerma and Old Dongola and Nobiin, which is spoken in Mahas, Sukkot and Halfa areas, all of which are situated in the far northern region of Sudan. Notably, in the following chapters as well as the questionnaire, the term Nubian language is used to refer to the languages as the people consider themselves speakers of one language, the Nubian language. In fact, it is a controversial point that some Nubian researchers such as Suad Ibrahim Ahmed see it as one language because the grandparents’ generation was speaking and understanding the two variants while non-native researchers such as Marcus Jaeger see them as two different languages. The two variants have the same grammar, way of writing and pronunciation, so closer to being one language with two variants.

The inhabitants of the above-mentioned places are affected by many factors that discourage them from sticking to their language. These factors are economical, sociolinguistic, political and religious.

Two data collection techniques were used: first, questionnaires were distributed among parents in the villages, the local town (Dongola) and the capital Khartoum; second, Page | 6

interviews were conducted with elderly persons, who couldn’t answer written questionnaires, a few teachers, officers and policymakers such as the Ministry of Education (MoE) and the administrator of education curricula of general education.

The results of the questionnaire and the interviews show that the situation of the Nubian language is edging towards level 7 under Fishman’s EGIDS. Most of the respondents agreed with the idea of introducing Nubian in primary schools as it is well known that education is one of the means through which the capacity to speak a language is developed. “Schools are attractive venues of producing new speakers of a language” (Hinton, 2011).

1.2 General information about Nubian area and Nubian language

1.2.1 Name and Boundaries

The map below (1) depicts the southern part of Egypt and the northern part of Sudan. It was difficult to find Google maps which show all the places mentioned in the study. Most of the available are marked in , and some villages such as Binna do not appear at all. Page | 7

Map 1. the Nile Nubian borders (Southern Egypt and Northern Sudan) Historically, the word “Nuba” refers to the Old Egyptian word “Nebu”, which means gold (Eyma, 2007). Another theory claims that it originated from the name of a particular group of people. According to Adams, the boundaries of the Nubian area are as follows: the first cataract in the river Nile in the north and the conjunction of the Blue Nile and White Nile in the south. No clear boundaries exist to the east and west, but they can be distinguished by the ends of the cultivated areas on both the eastern and western banks of the river Nile. As the Nubian people are farmers and cattle ranchers, they prefer living near water resources, which is the Nile in this case. Of course, there are a few groups, primarily the Arabic-speaking tribes from Ababda and Elshukria who came from other Page | 8

parts of Sudan, that have settled down in the desert far from the banks of the river, and some might have come from northern Kordofan and with their cattle. Adams, in his book Corridor to Africa, describes Nubian areas as follows:

“The northern limit as sharply defined as the First Cataract itself. The eastern and western limits are also clearly marked by the limits of cultivation and habitation, … The southern limit is a little bit difficult to define it may reach as far as the confluence of the Blue and White Niles in (modern Khartoum)” (Adams, 1977:20).

1.2.2 The causes and effects of the exodus as well as migration from the homeland to Khartoum and other parts of Sudan

One of the most remarkable points in the modern history of the Nubian area was the exodus of people of in the far north of the country to Halfa AlGadida, demarking a new Halfa in eastern Sudan (map 4). The new town is known and marked in some maps as New Halfa in the eastern part of the country. These people felt completely lost in a different place with a new language, culture and even climate. This was in 1964, which was when the Egyptian government decided to build the High Dam on the Nile. “Almost 500 kilometres of the riverbank in southern Egypt and northern Sudan, had to be evacuated in 1964 ... Inhabitants of the area being flooded in Sudanese Nubia were moved in a very different direction and resettled in eastern Sudan near Eritrea” (Bell, 2009: 8). When the Nubian people moved to the Arabic-speaking community area, they lost their own language in the long term.

Another point was the migration of many to Gulf countries and the Sudanese capital Khartoum in search of better work opportunities and services such as healthcare or education in private schools. According to the map (5), Nubian language speakers were spread between (Egypt) in the north and old Dongola (Sudan) in the south as a continuous segment. There are some scattered places in southern Kordofan in the Nuba mountains, Jebel Meidob in Darfur, and the Nyala region in southern Darfur. However, Page | 9

this study covers the area form Kerma in the north (20 kilometres north of Dongola), where people speak Nobiin /Mahas, to Urbi, which is located about 40 kilometres south of Dongola, with Andaandi/Dongolawi speakers. It is important to indicate that the situation of the language differs from one place to another within the targeted study area; there are places where one can find the use of Nubian language as being considered normal among the young people, while in other places, people under 15 years may not speak or understand Nubian. This situational variation makes it complicated to provide a recommendation on the use of Nubian in schools. Some areas may require an introduction of Nubian as a subject, whereas other places may require it to be introduced as a language of instruction.

The previously mentioned places are identified on the maps below.

Map 2. Magassir Island

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Map 3. Wadi Halfa and Dongola

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Map 4. The Sudan and The South Sudan

Source : https://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/map/sudan_map.htm

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Map 5 Northern state and the names of Nubian villages along the river Nile

Source https://www.ecoi.net/en/document/1146693.html

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Map 6. Nubian language variants in all parts of Sudan

Source: Proceedings of the 11th Conference of Nubian Studies; Warsaw, 27 August–2 September 2006. Woldzimierz Godlewski, Adam lajtar. Warsaw University Press. 2010

As it is shown in Map 6 above, the Nubian language variants are; Nobiin and Donglwi/Andaadi in northern Sudan, Daju in the Nuba mountains, Miedob and Birgid in Darfur.

1.3 Explaining the main question of the study: Would the parents accept introducing Nubian language in the primary schools?

The sustainability and continuity of any programme mostly depend on the real need for it and people’s desire for change. As stakeholders, parents should be asked if they see introducing Nubian language in primary schools as important for them and their children. Page | 14

If they have no desire for change, they will not contribute in achieving the targets and sustaining the programme.

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Chapter 2

This chapter concentrates on the literature review and the studies available on language revitalisation, including its definition and the main categories of language status illustrated by linguists, such as Fishman’s Graded intergenerational Disruption Scale (GIDS) and EGIDS, the Ethnologue categories, and levels defined by UNESCO. This chapter also focuses on discussing the positive effects of mother tongue education. Finally, the chapter discusses language policy and planning in Sudan in different historical periods.

2.1 What is language revitalisation?

The word “revitalisation” refers to giving new life or vitality to something. Accordingly, language revitalisation is an attempt to strengthen a language by implementing different models for the same. The term indicates that a certain language is under threat of being replaced by another one. “Language revitalisation, by definition, takes place in communities that are undergoing a language shift” (Bayley et al., 2014: 792).

At times, language revitalisation and language maintenance could be confused with each other; in fact, it is difficult to differentiate the two. Language maintenance according to (Brenzinger 2006), appears in different contexts; while speakers of some widespread languages like French work a lot to maintain their languages, speakers of some endangered languages, refused to involve in activities which can promote and maintain their languages.

There are various methods for measuring language vitality and endangerment levels, among which are Fishman’s GIDS and EGIDS, the UNESCO language endangerment framework and Ethnologue’s language vitality categories. This chapter further discusses each of these. Page | 16

2.1.1 Fishman’s GIDS

Joshua Fishman (1991) is one of the well-known researchers in this field and has developed many of the notable concepts related to language use in communities. He has a renowned concept called reversing language shift (Fishman, 1991), better known as Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale (GIDS). It focuses on developing and maintaining languages and also indicates how languages can be brought forward through eight levels, from only being spoken by the generation of grandparents to being used in education, work, mass media, and the government.

Table 1. Summary of Fishman’s GIDS (Lewis and Simons (2010: 105)

GIDS Adapted from Fishman (1991) level Description 1 The language is used in education, work, mass media and by the government at the national level. 2 The language is used for local and regional mass media and government services.

3 The language is used for local and regional work by both insiders and outsiders.

4 Language literacy is transmitted through education.

5 The language is used orally by all generations and is effectively used in the written form in a community. 6 The language is orally used by all generations and is being learned by children as their first language. 7 The child-bearing generation knows the language well enough to use it with their elders but not their children. 8 The only remaining speakers of the language are members of the grandparents’ generation.

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2.1.2 Ethnologue language vitality categories

According to Lewis and Simons (2010: 105), the 14th, 15th and 16th editions of Ethnologue, written between 2000 and 2009, have five categories for language vitality: living, second language only, nearly extinct, dormant and extinct. Each level is described according to its criteria, as shown in Table 2 below.

Table 2. Ethnologue vitality categories (Lewis and Simons, 2010: 108)

Category Description Living Significant population of first language speakers Second language only Used as a second language only; no first language users but may include emerging users. Nearly extinct Fewer than 50 speakers or a very small and decreasing fraction of an ethnic group. Dormant No known remaining speakers, but a population links its ethnic identity to the language. Extinct No remaining speakers, and no population links its ethnic identity to the language.

Another method of assessing the situation of a language is through the UNESCO framework proposed in 2003. In this framework, the language is divided into six degrees of endangerment: safe, vulnerable, definitely endangered, severely endangered, critically endangered and extinct (Table 3). Each of these degrees has been explained in terms of intergenerational language transmission.

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Table 3. UNESCO (2009) framework (Lewis and Simons, 2010: 107)

Degree of Intergenerational language transmission endangerment Safe The language is spoken by all generations and with uninterrupted intergenerational transmission. Vulnerable Most children speak the language, but it may be restricted to certain domains. Definitely endangered Children no longer learn the language as mother tongue at home. Severely endangered The language is spoken by the grandparents and older generations; however, the parents’ generation may only understand it and do not speak it among themselves or with their children at home. Critically endangered The youngest speakers are grandparents and older generations; they speak the language partially and infrequently. Extinct There are no speakers left.

As seen in tables 2 and 3, one can notice that different terms are used for each level, but the last “extinct” level is common for both. Language extinction is sometimes confused with language death – a level from which you cannot move backwards on the GIDS to make any kind of revitalisation efforts. A helpful definition on the Teacher Finder website confirms this explanation, despite it not being a scientific document: “The label extinct applies to those languages which no longer associated with identities” (Teacher Finder, 2020).

As shown in Table 4, an expanded GIDS generated based on Fishman’s (1991) GIDS consists of 13 levels from 0 to 10 and two sub-levels 6 and 8 (6a and 6b; 8a and 8b). The EGIDS is more descriptive (as can be seen by the four columns): Level; Label, which shows if the language is region-wide, nationwide or international; Description, which presents the function of each level; and the UNESCO levels.

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Table 4. Expanded Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale (EGIDS; adapted from Fishman [1991], (Lewis and Simons [2010: 110])

Level Label Description UNESCO 0 International The language is used internationally for a broad Safe range of functions. 1 National The language is used in education, work, mass Safe media and government at the national level. 2 Regional The language is used in local and regional mass Safe media and governmental services. 3 Trade The language is used for local and regional work by Safe both insiders and outsiders. 4 Educational Language literacy is being transmitted through a Safe system of public education. 5 Written The language is used orally by all generations and Safe is effectively used in written form in parts of the community. 6a Vigorous The language is used orally by all generations and Safe is being learned by children as their first language. 6b Threatened The language is used orally by all generations, but Vulnerable only some of the child-bearing generation are transmitting it to their children. 7 Shifting The child-bearing generation knows the language Definitely well enough to use it among themselves, but none endangered are transmitting it to their children. 8a Moribund The only remaining active speakers of the language Severely are members of the grandparent generation. endangered 8b Nearly extinct The only remaining speakers of the language are Critically members of the grandparent generation or older endangered who have little opportunity to use it. 9 Dormant The language serves as a reminder of heritage Extinct identity for an ethnic community. No one has more than symbolic proficiency. 10 Extinct No one retains a sense of ethnic identity Extinct associated with the language even for symbolic purposes.

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According to Ethnologue and EGIDS, the Nubian language is threatened; thus, it appears in level 6b. This level requires a lot of effort to move the language to upper levels. In level 6a, the language is used orally by all generations and is being learned by children at home as their first language. These efforts can be applied through awareness programmes that concentrate on the importance of indigenous languages and cultures. These programmes can either be carried out through local mass media or by group leaders within the society. Level 6b is the closest to level 6a, which is considered a safe level and indicates the possibility of revitalisation. A special case of language revitalisation is shown in different tables with different labels and descriptions. According to Table 5, it is possible to push certain language levels upwards, i.e. from weak to stronger levels.

Table 5. Revitalisation EGIDS levels (Lewis and Simons [2010: 117])

Level Label Description 6a Vigorous The language is used orally by all generations and is being learned at home by all children as their first language. 6b Re-established Some members of the third generation of children are acquiring the language at home, resulting in an unbroken chain of intergenerational transmission that has been re-established among all living generations. 7 Revitalised A second generation of children are acquiring the language from their parents who also acquired language at home; language transmission takes place at home and in the community. 8a Reawakened Children are acquiring the language in the community and some home settings and are increasingly able to use the language orally for day-to-day communicative needs. 8b Reintroduced Adults of the parent generation are reconstructing and reintroducing their language for everyday social interactions. 9 Rediscovered Adults are rediscovering their language for symbolic and identification purposes.

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2.2 Education

The first question this section addresses the meaning of education. “The word education comes from the Latin word “e-ducare”, which means “to lead out”. It is difficult to define education; education is a relentless process of becoming” (Reddy, 1979: 50). Education to some people is the process of learning through writing and reading. To others, it is the acquisition of many skills, knowledge, values and even habits and transmitting these from one person to another individual or group of persons. According to the Exam Planning 2020 website, there are three types of education: non-formal, informal and formal education. The last, which is the type considered in this study, is carried out in schools and institutions and is structured in a hierarchical manner. It is also known for the certificates given out at the end of each educational level.

2.2.1 Positive effects of mother tongue education

One of the positive effects of learning in the mother tongue is, as many researchers have confirmed that it allows for better learning of all subjects, including a second language subject (Brigit and Utne, 2007; Bamgbose, 2005; cited in Babaci-Wilhite, 2014).

The language a child uses at home can help him/her better understand various subjects. But in many African countries, there is more than one language used by a community, making it difficult for policymakers to choose the most suitable one.

Another positive effect is that the pupils become self-confident and feel proud of their identity when learning in their own language. “The use of a local language in the education system contributes to self-respect and to pride in the local culture (Babaci- Wilhite, 2014: 13). Pupils who are educated in a language other than their mother tongue are likely to spend more time trying to understand the concepts they study. They may not understand them without an explanation in their own language, and if the use of the local language is not permitted in the school, the pupils might face confusion. Camoy argues, (2007: 95) cited in Babaci-Wilhite 2014:15 “How much pupils learn in school depends Page | 22

greatly on what concepts they are exposed to, how much time they spend studying these concepts and how effective their teachers are in communicating them”. Using a foreign language in school as the language of instruction makes the language a barrier rather than a means of learning. It becomes complicated for pupils to express themselves or participate in classes. Therefore, many pupils stay silent during classes, although they may have much to say; they may be afraid of speaking and committing errors when using the second language. Notably, using a language other than the pupils’ mother tongue is the current policy in all the schools of the Nubian area; moreover, pupils have even been punished for using their local language at schools. During the interviews for this study, one of the ladies said that she was punished on a daily basis because she couldn’t help but use her first language. This ultimately led to her leaving school.

2.3 historical background on Language policy and planning in Sudan

2.3.1 Some remarkable incidents

Before South Sudan’s secession to become an autonomous country in July 2011, there were more than 120 named Sudanese languages (Abdelhay et al., 2017: 263), making it difficult to manage the diversity, and it also raised many challenges for language promotion and codification, raising the question of which languages would be codified and why. According to Abdelhay et al. (2017), the first attempts for the codification of a number of Sudanese languages were by the colonial government. Sudan was one of the British colonies until 1956, and C. H. Armbruster was made governor at the beginning of the 20th century; he worked in Dongola in 1901–1903. Since each governor at the time was expected to learn the local language, he made a dictionary and grammar book in the Andaadi language.

The following section of this chapter discusses two main periods in the recent history of the country.

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§ Colonial period 1899–1955 A country study by Metz (1991) indicates that, in January 1899, the Egyptian rule came to power through an Anglo-Egyptian agreement but as part of joint authority exercised by Britain and Egypt. During this period, the official language was English, and, thus, education and governmental institutions were run in English. However, a key turning point was when The Rejaf Language Conference was held in 1928 (Rejaf was the name of a mountain in southern Sudan at the time). The conference was sponsored by the colonial government and attended by missionary representatives from African countries such as the Congo and Uganda, as well as some experts including Professor Diedrich Westermann from the International Institute of African Languages (founded in London in 1928 for the study of African languages). The conference’s primary agenda was as follows:

v Discussing the feasibility of adopting a system of group languages for educational purposes. v Studying the idea of adopting a unified orthographic system, so they adopted Latin to write the languages that will be chosen. v Examining the production of educational textbooks. v Designating a classified list of languages and dialects in the southern part of the country, which became an independent country in 2011.

The conference identified six group languages: Dinka, Bari, Nuer, Lotuko, Shilluk, Zande. (, 1999) Any of the listed languages was to be chosen to teach other language communities, indicating that the 1928 Rejaf conference focused on the languages in the southern part of the country at the time.

However, the colonial policy towards the vernaculars in the northern part of the country and Nuba mountains was different. The Nuba Mountains, for example, was regarded as a separate province in 1914 and was assigned to Sudan United Mission (SUM). This group was founded in 1901 by the missionaries Kumm, Karl and Guinness (Kumm, 1917). The SUM and another protestant mission from New Zealand and Australia began to provide Page | 24

missionary education in the Nuba Mountains, following the same pattern as southern Sudan; however, they faced many challenges, including the fluidity of ethnic boundaries in the region (Abdelhay, 2010).

§ Postcolonial period 1956–1985

o Arabisation Before the end of the colonial period, Arabic became the only official language of Sudan, one of the most ethnically, culturally and linguistically diverse countries in Africa.

According to many researchers, the Closed District Policy was renounced in 1946 as an attempt towards national unification; thus in 1949, Arabic became the official language of the entire country. It is important to mention that this policy was imposed by the Anglo- Egyptian government in Sudan; accordingly, the South was administered separately from the North and Arabs and Muslims were forbidden from going to the southern part of the country or influencing the population there in any way (LSE, 2020). Following independence, the linguistic policy of the Sudanese government was characterised by strong Arabisation and the teaching of vernaculars was discontinued altogether in 1964 (Albino, 1970; Nyombe, 1977; Oduho and Denge, 1963; Yokwe, 1984).

Regional movements such as the Beja Congress (1957) and the Nuba Front (1964) demanded better distribution of the country’s national wealth, but they did not focus on linguistic rights for the ethnic communities. This resulted in further marginalisation of these languages. The British closed off the southern region from most northerners in 1922, applying a policy, i.e. the Closed District Policy, to separate the two parts of the country (Elbattahani, 2006).

However, Nubians in the north have some awareness of their cultural heritage, owing to various archaeological excavations led by the Swiss archaeologist Charles Bonnet for example. Nubian archaeologists and intellectuals began to write their language by first using Roman scripts and then Nubian scripts initiated by Mukhtar Khalil in 1990s (see Page | 25

Appendix4). Associations such as The Nubian Studies and Documentation Center (NSDC), which was established in London in 1995, began their linguistic activities in Khartoum and Cairo. One of their periodic publications was called Nubokeen.

The 1928 Rejaf conference was one of the important events that introduced principles of language policy and planning in the period before independence. The Addis Ababa Agreement in 1972 was also a key point in putting an end to the First Sudanese Civil War. The most notable consequence of this agreement was that the south achieved its autonomy and became a separate province. Article 6 of the agreement declared Arabic as the official language for the northern part of the country and English for the southern part Addis Ababa Agreement, Chapter ii Article 6. (UN. Peacemaker, 1972) as well as reintroducing the vernaculars, which were stopped in 1964, in the southern part. Unfortunately, the agreement did not mention the local languages of northern Sudan, even though it is one of the most important issues.

One of the demonstrations of the language promoting was the Institute of African and Asian Studies (IAAS), which was established in 1972. The department of African and Asian linguistics was one of the main departments in this institute, and linguists from the department began to work with those from the Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL) and published many phonological and morphological documents.

Another conference was organised in southern Sudan in Juba, the capital of the southern province at the time, in 1974. It was on educational issues and endorsed the recommendations of the 1928 Rejaf conference. However, it allowed the use of Arabic as the language of instruction in the south. This was one of the ways in which the Arabic language gradually started entering the education system in a part of the country that was unique in its linguistic and cultural diversity. According to a publication in 2008, local languages in the south were classified into two categories: Category (A) Bari, Dinka, Kresh, Lotuko, Moru, Ndogo and Nuer; and Category (B) Acholi, Anuak, Baka, Banda, Didinga, Feroge, Jur-beli, Jur-Lou, Kakwa, Madi, Mundari, Murle, Shiluk, Toposa and Page | 26

Zandi. The languages in Category (A) were to be used for instruction in rural elementary schools (grade 1–3), whereas those in Category (B) were targeted for literacy training (Abdelhay, 2008). The bases on which these languages were classified according to Hindi (1999) were that they were the languages of dominant and big-size groups.

The MoE of the southern region signed an agreement with the SIL in 1977 for a programme to reintroduce the teaching of the Category (A) languages in rural primary schools. As mentioned before, the teaching of these languages has been discontinued in 1964 by the strong wave of Arabisation led by the then Sudanese government. The SIL played a vital role in translating the Bible into local languages. According to Persson, an expert of SIL in Sudan, the southern ministry encouraged SIL to assign linguists to other southern languages, and they were mandated to perform linguistic analyses, produce literacy materials and assist local churches in translating the Bible and other books they considered essential for the communities.

§ The period of the Salvation Government 1989–2019 The Salvation Government came to power on 30 June 1989 with the ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood, therefore, was keen to further spread Arabic within the non-Arabic communities. However, to avoid political struggles, the National Dialogue Conference was held in September 1989 to discuss the problem of war. One of the resolutions on language and education was to give a special position to English in the southern regions, implying that the government would not take lack of finance as the pretext for barring any indigenous languages from being used as a medium of instruction. So, the government adopted initiatives for ethnic groups to promote their languages and use them as the media of instruction for their children in rural schools (Assal et al. 2015).

The above resolution was made on paper, but the reality was different. The most distinctive step taken by the government during this period was the Arabisation of higher education for the entire country, including the southern regions. Manga said that Arabisation of higher education was implemented in all Sudanese universities, including Page | 27

those in southern Sudan, and all faculties, including the applied sciences (Assal et al. 2015).

Arabisation was intensified not only in higher education but also in primary schools. The curricula were focused on teaching Arabic vocabulary and grammar through other subjects, including the sciences: for example, in the first pages of the Biology book for the 5th grade, instead of scientific information, verses from the Holy Quran and other Arabic sentences can be found (see Appendix 9).

To conclude this section on language policy and planning in Sudan, it can be said that the policy was designed to serve the Arabic language more than the indigenous ones that had been widespread in the country for thousands of years. All the governments throughout the postcolonial period tended to work towards this objective.

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Chapter 3 The first part of this chapter presents the general linguistic context of Africa. It indicates the language families that existed in the continent before its colonisation by European countries and provides a map showing the corresponding countries colonised by European countries. In the same section, another division is mentioned of African languages into families.

Further, the chapter also discusses the Ethiopian experience of managing its minority languages and the policies that the different governments enacted. The reasons for this choice is that Ethiopia is one of the rich countries regarding linguistic diversity and that it has had a good reputation in managing and planning local languages throughout history. The final part of the chapter discusses the Sudanese experience of managing a minority language (i.e. Moro, which is spoken in the Nuba Mountains area) to provide an understanding of how the speakers of this language began language education programmes and who helped them implement these.

3.1. A general linguistic context of Africa

3.1.1 Before colonisation

Africa is looked at as a Black continent by most of the ethnicities there, giving some people the impression that there is no diversity in languages. However, there are six linguistic zones: (1) Arabic and Berber in North Africa; (2) languages of the Afroasiatic group in East Africa, including Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, and Somalia; (3) the languages in the Sudanic belt, which is the widest linguistic zone, including Savannah and Sub- Saharan Africa (its boundaries consist of the Sahel in the north, the Atlantic Ocean in the west and southwest, Lake Albert in the southeast and the highlands of Ethiopia-Eritrea in the east); (4) Bantu in Central Africa, which is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean in the west and the high lands of Ethiopia in the east; (5) languages characterised as Khoisan and Page | 29

Bantu in southern Africa, which includes semi-desert, savannah and temperate coastal regions; and (6) languages of the Greenberg group in the Rift Valley, which runs between northern Tanzania and southwestern Kenya, and most of the eastern part of the Great Rift Valley is included in this zone (Heine, 2006). All these zones are shown in Map 7.

There are four more categories of indigenous African languages described as families: Niger-Congo, Afro-Asiatic, Nilo-Saharan and Khoisan (see Map 8). “Africa is traditionally seen as hosting four large indigenous phyla, or families, Nager-Congo, Afro-Asiatic, Nilo- Saharan and Khoisan” (Sands and Gunnik, 2019: 1). Notably, the difference between the two classifications is that the former (which refers to zones) includes all the languages in Africa, i.e. indigenous as well as non-indigenous, while the latter (based on families) only includes the indigenous languages.

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Map 7 Linguistic geographical zones of Africa (before colonisation)

Source: Linguistic geographical zones of Africa Güldemann’s (2010) https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Linguistic-geographical-zones-of-Africa-Gueldemanns-2010- macro-areas-are-shown-by-grey_fig1_323178427

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Map 8. Language families in Africa before colonisation Source:

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3.1.2. During colonialism

Between 1870 and 1900, most African countries were European colonies with imposed languages, despite the fierce resistance from African ethnic communities against foreign languages and cultures. Most of the countries were colonised by France and Great Britain, and three were colonised by Italy, four by Portugal and four by Germany. Therefore, the official languages at the time were essentially English, French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese (Google Maps).

Map 9 A map of colonial Africa just before the outbreak of World War I (George Dvorsky, 2015)

Source: Google Maps (http://i.imgur.com/ZVXUq2J.jpg)

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“Unlike the other African countries, Ethiopia was never colonized by foreign countries except a five years invasion by Italy from 1936–1941” (Alemu and Tekleselassie, 2006: 152).

3.2 Ethiopian experience in introducing minority languages

Ethiopian experience is highlighted in this study because it is one of the richest countries regarding linguistic diversity in addition to having a good history in promoting the local languages. This section presents how Ethiopia as a state-managed linguistic diversity.

3.2.1. Historical background on language policy in Ethiopia

Ethiopia is rich in ethnic and linguistic diversity. According to the 1994 census, it has over 80 ethnic groups (Alemu and Tekleselassie, 2006). However, Amharic was the only language used for a long time as the language of instruction in elementary schools.

When the military government that replaced the Haile Sillassie government, came to power in 1974, it followed almost the same policy as the previous regime which was embedded in Marxist ideology. Therefore, Article no 5 of the National Democratic Revolution Programme of Socialist Ethiopia in 1976 stated the following:

“The right of self-determination of all nationalities will be recognized and fully respected. No nationality will dominate another one since the history, culture, language and religion of each nationality will have equal recognition in accordance with a spirit of socialism” (Bender, 1985:273).

Some academics prepared a programme to promote Ethiopian languages and initiated a panel discussion on topics related to linguistics. One such programme prepared by the Ethiopian Academy has the following aims:

• Studying all Ethiopian languages as well as registering them. • Inventing a set of alphabets for languages that have no writing systems. Page | 34

• Studying the phonological and morphological elements of all Ethiopian languages as well as preparing dictionaries and grammar books for each. • Studying the common elements between the local languages to support the development of a national language. • Finding suitable ways for the development of a national language. • Using other Ethiopian vernacular languages when the need arises; Ge’ez words, for example, because Ge’ez is rich in written literature as it was written since the 4th and 5th centuries. • Publishing books related to literary such as grammar, dictionaries, and other books of literature and culture. • Publishing news bulletins showing recent findings of language and language studies by the Academy or other individuals. • Establishing some institutions in fields such as sociolinguistics. • Encouraging governmental and private organisations so as to follow the Academy’s sessions and resolutions related to the writing system, word usage, literacy works, etc. • Studying the phonological and morphological relationships between vernacular languages. • Studying the historical background of all the Ethiopian languages. • To scientifically study arts, culture and literature to transmit them to the next generation (Nigusé, 1981: 7–8). The above-mentioned programme was implemented by the Institute of Language Studies, University of Addis Ababa, which was later renamed The Academy of Ethiopian Languages.

For the programme implementation, a total of 21 academics was divided into three teams: dictionary compilation, literature and linguistics. The dictionary compilation team was further divided into sub-teams according to languages: Amharic, Oromo, Tigrinya and Welaita. They made timetables to finish their work.

The literature team had certain duties, including collecting and studying old stories, proverbs and folktales.

The team of linguistics had specific duties, as follows:

1. Phonological studies and writing system for various languages Page | 35

2. Comparative studies of Ethiopian languages 3. Development of languages for science and technology 4. Grammatical studies of Ethiopian languages (Bender, 1985;274) Moreover, the socialist regime initiated a policy decision to conduct adult literacy programmes in 15 ethnic languages and transcribe these languages into the Ethiopic script (Ayalew, 1999). Despite the ambitious plans of promoting ethnic languages, the policy concerning educational affairs was not acceptable. The educational development in Ethiopia was low and disappointing, according to the MoE data. The enrolment ratio at primary and secondary schools was 64.4% and 19.3% respectively. Concerning higher education, the gross rate of enrolment was less than 1% (MoE, 1999). According to Alemu and Tekleselassie (2006), one of the reasons for such low enrolment was the defective policies of the governments. Amharic was one of the national languages, but it seemed that it was the dominant one as it was used mostly all over the country as the language of instruction in primary schools, although it was not spoken by the majority of the population in the country. According to (Jordan2015), the most widely spoken language was Oromo (33.8% of the total population), followed by Amharic (29.3%;). 3.3 The experience of Moro language literacy in Sudan:

Moro is one of the tribes living in the Nuba Mountains in South Kordofan. It is the largest out of the 99 ethnic groups living in the area.

Map 10. Map of the languages of the Nuba Mountains

Source : https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Map_of_the_languages_of_the_Nuba_Mountains.svg

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3.3.1 Historical background

Although the Nuba people have lived in the Nuba Mountains for centuries, some historians indicate that they came from the north, especially the Dongola area, after the Arabs had occupied it many centuries ago (Peter Lang, vol 95). The same was verified by an old male respondent of the present study, who is a member of a Nubian studies group (Ibrahim and Jaeger, 2006). However, some researchers such as Rilly (2009) hold a contrary opinion, stating that considering the Nile Valley as the cradle of the Nubian language is simply a vivid myth in Sudan and the fact is that the language came from the west of Africa. As the Nuba were proceeding southwards, some of them had settled in the Nuba Mountains, sometimes called the Nuba Hills, while others continued further to settle in the south of Sudan, which later became an independent country.

In the Nuba Mountains, each ethnic group lives on a separate hill and has their own language and culture, albeit with some similarities between them. The Moro group lives in the eastern side of the Kadogli town; the population is estimated as 200,000. However, the Moro are of the opinion that the population would have been much more, but due to war and the instability of the area, it is not easy to access a recent census.

“The Moro tribe is one of the biggest tribes of the mountains, their language is a branch of the Heiban group the Moro population is estimated to be 500.000 of which about 90% believe Christianity. The Moro people live in Moro Hills and are divided into seven big areas, and each of these groups has its own dialect” (Schadeberg and Bench, 2013journal of African languages vol36).

Economically, the Moro depended on the traditional cultivation of crops and cattle breeding as well as fruit collection. The education rate was low due to the Closed District Policy under the colonial system. However, they were able to preserve their language and were proud to use it. They lived in peace and led a stable life before the Second Civil War in 1983. Their language was also spoken by other tribes around them. Page | 37

3.3.2 Literacy activities

The linguistic activities began in 1936 when some missionaries came to the area and began developing the Moro language orthography using Roman letters. As the Moro were used to writing in Arabic, which has no capital letters and is written from right to left, they found it difficult to adopt the new system. The missionary decided to make an orthography of small letters only in order to overcome the difficulty of adopting new system. A mission of three persons who were sent from Australia in 1954–1955 invented a new set of alphabets, but they did not continue with it because of certain difficulties. Another work related to the alphabet was started in 1958 by Mr and Mrs Black, who were able to do better work in the linguistic course, especially related to grammar and alphabet. They wrote a dictionary as well as a crucial book on grammar. The Bible was translated into the Moro language by church leaders; some teachers were trained and seven reading primers were prepared by the end of 1959. The first edition of the New Testament was published in 1965, besides many other books, but the literary activities concentrated on reading rather than writing. Three training centres for teachers were opened in Khartoum and Omdurman, enabling many Moro youths to graduate and teach people in their residences. Between 1960 and 1970, the missionaries were expelled from Sudan, and the Moro took responsibility for teaching and preserving their language by themselves.

In 1985, an association for language and translation was formed by church leaders in Khartoum. It was supported by other leaders of the church as well as tribal communities. The chairman of this association was Mr Isaac Kuku, who died in 1996; he and other important persons of his tribe attended many workshops for writing stories in the Moro language.

3.3.3 Isaac Kuku Academy

After Isaac Kuku died, some religious men saw the situation of their language as critical and decided to call for a comprehensive meeting of all the Moro people of different Page | 38

dialects. Five people were selected to be in the technical team, and a development committee was formed by 21 members to support the technical team with the finances and work evaluation. The technical team attended courses in literacy skills and translation. Later, they established a Moro training centre for teachers and leaders in Khartoum under the name of Isaac Kuku Academy for Moro Language. To facilitate the literacy process, they produced a vast amount of literature, including religious books. The following are some examples of the literacy books produced: Alphabet books, alphabet storybook, primer book, folk storybook, counting book, weather book, time book, primer teacher guide book and grammar book 1. They also produced a guide on how to write a letter and a book on the important domain of public health to raise awareness of dangerous diseases; it was titled What is AIDS? The guide also covered some social topics.

Moreover, there were some religious books as the association was established by churchmen. Some examples include Book of Genesis, Book of Exodus, Book of Ruth, Book of Songs, Gospel of Mark, Book of Noah, Bible Answer About God, Bible Answer About the World, Bible Answer About Jesus, Christianity in Sudan and Our African Spiritual Heritage.

3.3.4 The objectives of the literacy program

The key objectives of the literacy programme were as follows:

§ To help the Moro people read and write in their own language. § To enable them to study the Word of God in their mother tongue. § To enable people to have the whole Bible, including the Old Testament (Naser, 2013).

The programme concentrated on the religious aspects but also supported in preserving the Moro language and culture. The difference between the spread of Islam in the northern part of the country and the missionary works from these parts is that Islam imposed the Arabic language on its new believers. People in the northern part learned Page | 39

Arabic to read the Quran, unlike Christianity, which translated the religious books into local languages.

3.3.5. Some recent activities

In December 1999 and 2000, 20 teachers were trained by the Khartoum Workshop Programmes (KWP) to teach the Moro language.

In 2002, an agreement of ceasefire was made between the government and the Sudan People Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A). Thus, Mr Naser (the author of the book on the Moro language and also one the respondents in the present study) decided to run a course on teacher training in the Moro area of the Nuba Mountains. However, he could not implement this plan because the area was isolated with no means of transportation to access the villages. He carried many books with him, and when the villagers heard about him, they sent a camel with two youths to carry the books, while Mr Naser continued on foot for a long distance. This event is an illustration of the extent to which the Moro people were keen on preserving their language and protecting it from extinction (Naser 2013).

As parts of the Nuba Mountains are ruled by the SPLA and considered independent of the central government, they have their own policies regarding their languages.

The MoE introduced Act No 9, which ensured that the Moro language would be taught in primary schools, starting from the 2007–2008 academic year. This initiative was announced at a great ceremony held in Omsardibba, one of the Moro villages, on 5 April 2007.

The main achievements between 1996 and 2011:

v Six people were trained and qualified by the Kuku Workshop Programme (KWP) to be tutors and trainers. v 25 persons (male as well as female) were trained and qualified by the Sudan Workshop Programme (SWP) to translate and publish literacy books. Page | 40

v Eight persons were trained in translation courses. v More than 85 teachers of both genders were trained in the Moro language, and 30 of them taught on a voluntary basis. v More than 50 teachers (male and female) were trained in Khartoum, and most of them volunteered in areas where they lived. v Women were trained in maternity health (women and child health). v A Moro training institute called Isaac Kuku Academy for Moro Language was established in Khartoum. v Through the Ministerial Act, the Moro language was introduced as a subject in primary schools in the homeland of Moro. v More than 25 literacy and 15 religious books were published. v A monthly bulletin was published. v Many centres were opened near the Moro residences in Khartoum. v A cultural celebration was conducted annually.

The Moro Language Committee in Sudan established and fulfilled many objectives and goals such as preserving and developing the Moro language, introducing the language in primary schools and encouraging people to read and write in it. Translating religious books and other social sciences and developing their language to become the main local language in the entire Nuba Mountains were other achievements. They also managed to introduce the language at the university, establishing language centres in cities and conducting researches on Moro history and cultural heritage (Naser, 2013).

In 2011, a war broke out between the government and the SPLM, resulting in many Moro people leaving their homeland for other towns such as Dongola in the northern province, Madani (see map4) in the central province and Port-Sudan in the eastern province. They integrated with people of these areas and began to lose their language and forget their culture. Initially, they began to change their names to Arabic ones to keep pace with the Page | 41

Arab people, followed by speaking only in Arabic. These changes were made to initiate agreements and stop the war to go back to their homeland.

Comparing the Moro’s attitude towards their language with the Nubians in northern Sudan, one can notice that the effect of the missionary groups and the SIL’s activities with the Moro people shows they are prouder of their language than the Nile Nubians. They are also more confident in themselves and know that their language represents their culture and identity.

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Chapter 4 4.1. Methodology and data collection

Given the topic of the present research,—the feasibility of introducing Nubian language in primary schools—it was important to determine the following factors: the current situation of the language in different places where both Andaandi speakers and Nobiin speakers live; the acceptability of the idea among parents; and the situation with policymakers of the new government. A couple of methods were used to collect data and determine these factors.

4.1.1 Questionnaires

As a data collection method, questionnaires have both advantages and disadvantages. Some of the advantages are as follows:

• Questionnaires are not so expensive, especially when they are distributed by the researcher or online. • They are a practical way to gather data. • They give easy and quick results. • The results are easy to analyse and visualise in different forms, such as charts and tables. • They also allow respondents to be anonymous, especially if it is online.

Some disadvantages of questionnaires are as follows:

• Dishonest answers: some respondents may provide partial truth for many reasons, such as attempting to protect privacy or to please the researcher. • Missing data: Respondents may leave some questions unanswered because they do not see them or forget to answer them. Page | 43

• Respondents may not understand the questions if the questionnaire is not explained. • Respondents might be unable to convey emotions and feelings, especially in close- ended questions. To overcome this problem, however, one can use rating scales, i.e. instead of using only “agree” and “disagree”, using “slightly agree” and “strongly disagree” as well (Milne 1999).

In this study, a simple questionnaire consisting of 10 questions and three introductory questions was used. A copy of the questionnaire was distributed in both English and Arabic (see Appendix 1,2). Page | 44

The significance and function of each question

Question one: level of education to identify the link between the level of education and the interest of using the Nubian language or at least the awareness of its Importance as a language of culture.

Question two: work to see the influence of work in using or not using the Nubian language.

Question three: income, again, to see if the level of income will help in the provision of books or tutors for their children, in case the language is introduced in schools.

Question four: skills in the Nubian language to see to what extent the participant will help his/her child in revising the subject.

Question five: use of the language in different domains, including at home with children, which can help them acquire the language as a subject in school.

Question six: the extent of importance to the participants, which will contribute to his/her acceptance of the Nubian language in school.

Question seven: if the participant thinks that Nubian language would need more support, accordingly, one can see if introducing the language in schools will be feasible or not.

Question eight: the number of people who speak the Nubian language fluently or easily whom the participant knows, which may affect the desire of the participant in using the language.

Question nine: a direct question on the acceptance of the participant in introducing the Nubian language in schools.

Question ten: it depends on the previous one’s answer; it is about the idea of introducing the language as either compulsory or optional.

The total number of respondents was 66, including people from villages, the local town and the capital Khartoum.

The questionnaire was in Arabic and was handed out by the researcher who provided explanations, wherever needed. Page | 45

4.1.2. Interviews

An interview is defined as an oral or written conversation between two people to collect information that is relevant to the subject of the research interviews can pursue in-depth information about a topic.

There are five types of interviews: personal, telephone, focus group, in-depth and projective techniques. Interviews have various advantages, one of them being that the interviewer can provide direct feedback and clarification to the respondents, probe for more details if the answers are too short or if they are too long, the interviewer can restrict the responders from giving more details. On the other hand, interviews have several disadvantages, such as the possibility of the interviewer’s bias and the cost of conducting interviews. McNamara (1999).

The interviews in the present study were also applied in the same areas as the questionnaires, but the former targeted three groups:

• Households; • Officers and decision-makers such as the minister of general education and the manager of educational curricula; and • Persons who occupy positions such as a driver of a public transport, a guide at the museum of Kerma, a cleaner at the University of Dongola, a primary school teacher in one of the villages and a high school teacher at the local town.

To some extent, the questions differ from one interview to another; for example, for people who had originally come from the region of the local language to the local town or the capital Khartoum, there was a question about the time period they had already spent there and the reason for migrating. This was asked to know whether the period they spent in a different community that spoke languages other than the Nubian affected their usage of their language. The language used in the interviews was mainly Arabic and sometimes Nubian for those who had difficulty understanding Arabic. The latter was Page | 46

generally much older respondents, typically in the role of grandparents, as opposed to parents. A total of 40 interviews were conducted. However, only 29 were selected from the recorder because of the length of the thesis.

To select respondents for the interviews, the researcher prepared two groups based on the type of household: the first included a father and a mother with one to four children; the other group was extended family, which included a mother (maybe widowed) with her sons, daughters and grandchildren.

4.1.3. Range of study

As indicated in Map 1, the Nubian area in Sudan runs between Buhen in far north and Khartoum. However, the Nubian language has been partially or totally replaced by Arabic in most of the areas north of the capital Khartoum and old Dongola. Therefore, this study covers the area between Modoke, a village situated about 30 kilometres north of the local town Dongola and Urbi, a village about 40 kilometres south of Dongola. The study also includes the local town of Dongola itself.

Villages covered in the Nubiin areas were Kerma (20 kilometres north of Dongola), Burgage, Kabernarty and Modoke. Villages covered in Andaadi areas were Urbi (40 kilometres south of Dongola), Alkhannag, Magassir, Binna (west) and Binna Island. (map5)

To implement the research methods described earlier, it was necessary to travel to Sudan and conduct interviews with the people as well as distribute the questionnaires among the three target regions:

i. Nubian speakers (both Andaandi and Nobiin) who live in their own villages in northern Sudan. ii. Nubian speakers (both Andaandi and Nobiin) who live in the local town Dongola. iii. Nubian speakers (both Andaandi and Nobiin) who live in the capital Khartoum. Page | 47

Chapter 5

The purpose of this chapter is to analyse the data collected through the two collection methods: questionnaires and interviews. The data were used to identify if there was an acceptance of introducing the Nubian language in the primary schools or not. The analysis of the questionnaires includes five detailed tables: the first one presents the key characteristics of the respondents by locality, the second is the language skill level by locality, the third is on the Nubian language rate of use by locality, the fourth is on its importance, and the last one is on introducing the language in schools as either a compulsory or an optional subject.

The second part is the analysis of the interviews; after illustrating each interview, there will be a diagram with the focused questions and answers of each group.

5.1 Data analysis

The data from the questionnaires are presented in five summary tables. There were ten questions, including ones that do not need detailed tables as most of their answers were almost the same or not distinguishable. Also, three tables are provided for each locality— Khartoum, the villages and the local town—to summarise the basic information about the respondents of the interviews.

5.2 Analysis of questionnaires

As mentioned in the previous chapter, the total number of respondents was 66. Each questionnaire was composed of 10 questions; to analyse them, the questions were divided into three groups based on the location of the respondents: villages, the local town and Khartoum. Page | 48

The questionnaire was in Arabic and was handed out by the researcher; eight questionnaires were distributed by German acquaintances working in the same field (studying and making a dictionary in the Andaandi variant) in the southern area of Dongola. They commented on two questions in the questionnaire: the first was on income, for which, they said, it would embarrassing for them because a significant income gap was likely to appear between the third-world respondents and the European interviewers; of course for the researcher, it was normal to ask the question without feeling embarrassed because she is a part of the same community; the second question was that the options provided in the last question were limiting as they only indicated whether the language should be introduced as a compulsory or as an optional subject. In their opinion, there should have been a third choice of it being compulsory in the Nubian areas only and optional in other parts of the country.

In Table 6, the locality is divided into three main categories: the local town Dongola, the capital Khartoum and the villages, which are further divided into the south (S. villages) and the north (N. villages) based on their orientation from Dongola. The number of respondents was 12 from the local town, 12 from Khartoum, 32 from the N. villages and ten from the S. villages. The male and female ratio was not equal in respondents due to the random selection of the sample. In Dongola, all the respondents were female because the interview was carried out during the day when most men/husbands are at work. So, the female respondents constituted 100% in Dongola, 33.3% in Khartoum, 50% in N. villages and 40% in S. villages. The dominant age group in Dongola was ≤ 25, while in Khartoum it was 45+ due to the random selection of individuals places of gathering in Dongola and the villages. Further, in Khartoum, the respondents were members of households responding together, i.e. a husband and wife, a daughter and her mother, etc. The data also indicates that the dominant level of education in Dongola is the primary certificate.

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Table 6. Key characteristics of the respondents by locality

Key Characteristics of the Respondents by Locality Dongola Khartoum N village S village Total Gender Female 12 8 16 4 40 Male 0 4 16 6 26 Age Group ≤ 25 yrs 5 1 8 2 16 26-36 2 2 13 2 19 37-45 2 4 7 3 16 45+ 2 5 4 3 14 (missing) 1 0 0 0 1 Level of Education Primary 6 0 6 1 13 High School 0 5 16 5 26 University 5 6 9 3 23 Higher Ed 1 1 1 1 4 Currently working No 5 5 18 3 31 Yes 7 7 14 7 35

Average (NA) 5 5 18 3 31 Income ≤ $100 7 5 12 4 28 > $100 0 2 2 3 7 TOTAL 12 12 32 10 66 S = villages south of Dongola. N = villages north of Dongola The first noticeable thing in this table is the lower number of male than female respondents (26 vs 40), as the sample was selected at random and mostly from residences during the day time when most males were at work, i.e. at farms, shops or offices.

Half of the families lived in the villages and had some form of income generation. They worked as farmers, merchants of crops and a few as primary school teachers. Farmers Page | 50

and merchants interact with people within the village, so no fear of the Nubian language negatively affecting the income generation was present. Teachers use Arabic more frequently, in accordance with the government policy that made it the only language of education.

Nubians who live and work in the local town partially use the Nubian language with people who visit the town from the villages for shopping. For those who live in the capital, opportunities to use the Nubian language at workplaces was less because they are surrounded by Arabic speakers.

As shown in Table 6, most of the working people in all groups earn less than 100 US dollars. The significance of mentioning the income is to see if people who move from one place to another earn better as they have moved seeking for better incomes. It is obvious that moving from villages to towns or the capital did not make a difference, with income figures follows: among people living in Khartoum, none earns >100$; of those who live in Dongola town, 16.6% earn >100 $; of those who live in N. villages, 6% earn >100$; in S. villages, 30% earn >100$. This was known for most parts of the country as they have faced economic challenges for a long period. However, the supply of services is especially bad in the villages, forcing inhabitants to leave home in search of better services, such as better medication and better schooling elsewhere. Summing up, villagers often need to leave their home to look for better-paying work. When they leave, they integrate into other communities and start speaking other languages. Furthermore, it was observed that large numbers of Nubian people originally left their homes to move to the Gulf countries, where they live for long periods. This negatively affects the use of their mother tongue.

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Table 7. The Nubian language skill levels by locality

Nubian Language Skill Levels Dongola Khartoum N S Total village village Speaking None 0 3 0 2 5 Basic 2 2 1 0 5 Intermediate 3 2 5 2 12 Advanced 7 5 26 6 44 Understanding None 0 0 0 1 1 Basic 0 2 0 1 3 Intermediate 4 1 5 0 10 Advanced 8 9 27 7 51 (NA) 0 0 0 1 1 Reading None 0 7 8 5 20 Basic 2 2 11 2 17 Intermediate 6 3 6 1 16 Advanced 4 0 7 1 12 (NA) 0 0 0 1 1 TOTAL 12 12 32 10 66 * None (score 0); Basic (score 1–2); Intermediate (score 3–4); Advanced (score 5) According to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), language proficiency can be graded into six levels, ranging from A1 to C2. These levels are not known to the respondents, so the researcher asked them directly about their language skills in Nubian. As shown in Table 7, they are rated from none/0, i.e., those who can’t form a single understandable sentence orally, to advanced/5, i.e., those who can speak Nubian easily without faltering. Interestingly, two respondents could not utter a single sentence in Nubian, although they live in a community that uses the language on a large scale (villages). The situation is reversed for the respondents who live in the local town: they registered neither (0) nor (1), and almost half of the respondents speak the Nubian language easily. Page | 52

The score (0) means that they do not understand a single sentence, while (5) means they understand everything in Nubian, even the language of the older or the grandparents’ generation which doesn’t have many Arabic words, unlike the younger generation’s language.

Notably, it is a good indication that the highest rate in all localities for both speaking and understanding was a score of 5, while the highest for reading was none (0). It is important to mention that reading the questionnaire used in this study was not identified by a certain alphabet, so many respondents added that they could read Nubian words in the . Three or four respondents said that they prefer reading in English because English sounds are, to some extent, similar to those in Nubian. Further, very few could write and read Nubian orthography. However, this study did not take into account the issue of reading and writing programmes as that would be related to the implementation phase.

The data presented in Table 8 indicates the rate of using the language at home, which is the most important category for this study. The exchange of the language between different generations will help pupils understand the language as a subject in the school too, as it will be easier for them to read and write in. The scores for the same are as follows: For the local town, 25% score none/0 and 50% score Advanced. For the capital Khartoum, 50% score Intermediate and 25% Basic. For the N. villages, 53% are Advanced and 34.4% Intermediate. For the S. villages 40% are Advanced and 30% Intermediate. So, it is good that half of the respondents of the local town use the language fully at home, though they are surrounded by Arabic speakers. At the same time, it is strange that in S. villages, only 40% use the language fully at home.

The scores for those who never use the Nubian language at work are as follows: 25% of the respondents from Dongola, 50% from Khartoum, 25% from the N. villages and 20% from the S. villages. The rates seem to be logical for Khartoum because people who work there are in governmental offices or companies, where they do not interact with many Page | 53

Nubians. For Dongola, it is less because the offices or companies include many employers from the neighbouring Nubian villages. Further, the rate of using the language with friends are as follows: who never use the language are 0% in Dongola, 25% in Khartoum, 6.3% in N. villages and 20% in S. villages. Notably, all respondents use the language with their friends in Dongola, where the community mainly speaks Arabic. This could either mean that their friends are also Nubians or by friends they mean only Nubian friends. The rates of using the language when shopping seems to be reasonable.

Arabic is the language of trade mainly in the capital Khartoum and the local town Dongola, because the owners of the stores and shops come from different parts of the country and Arabic is the lingua franca for the whole country. Regarding the villages, most of the shopkeepers and vegetable sellers live in the same villages where Nubian could therefore be used as the language of trade. Page | 54

Table 8. Nubian Language rate of use by locality

Rate of Using the Nubian Language* Dongola Khartoum N S village Total village At home None 3 2 3 2 10 Basic 1 3 1 1 6 Intermediate 2 6 11 3 22 Advanced 6 1 17 4 28 At work None 3 6 8 2 19 Basic 1 1 6 2 10 Intermediate 4 1 5 1 11 Advanced 1 0 1 4 6 (NA) 3 4 12 1 20 With friends None 0 3 2 2 7 Basic 7 3 1 1 12 Intermediate 4 4 17 1 26 Advanced 1 2 12 5 20 (NA) 0 0 0 1 1 When shopping None 5 5 7 2 19 Basic 2 3 9 2 16 Intermediate 4 2 11 2 19 Advanced 1 2 5 3 11 (NA) 0 0 0 1 1 TOTAL 12 12 32 10 66 * None (score 0); Basic (score 1–2); Intermediate (score 3–4); Advanced (score 5) Table 9 below presents the importance of the Nubian language as the question focuses on the attitude towards the language; the answers have been thoroughly analysed based upon the locality as well as the characteristics of the respondents.

91.7% of the respondents from Dongola town, 83.3% from Khartoum, 84.4% from the N. villages and 90% from the S. villages indicate that the Nubian language is of great Page | 55

importance. 92.5% of females and 76.9% of males indicated that Nubian language is of great importance. This gap is also noticeable in the interviews, wherein some women told the interviewer that their husbands do not allow them to use Nubian with kids at home.

The age groups of those who expressed that the Nubian language of great importance are as follows: 81.3% are ≤ 25; 89.5% are 26–36 years; 87.5% are 37–45 years; and 85.7% are 45+. Regarding the level of education of these respondents, 92.3% of the respondents had a primary certificate, 80.8% had a high school certificate, 91.3% had a university degree, and 75% had a higher education degree.

Table 9. The importance of Nubian language by locality The Importance of Nubian Language Great Little No Importance Total importance Importance Locality Dongola 11 1 0 12 Khartoum 10 2 0 12 N village 27 4 1 32 S village 9 1 0 10 Gender Female 37 2 1 40 Male 20 6 0 26 Age Group

≤25 yrs 13 2 1 16 26-36 17 2 0 19 37-45 14 2 0 16 45+ 12 2 0 14 (missing) 1 0 0 1 Level of Education Primary 12 0 1 13 High School 21 5 0 26 University 21 2 0 23 Higher Ed 3 1 0 4 TOTAL 57 8 1 66 Page | 56

Almost all the respondents (97%) agreed that the Nubian language needs more support. Most of the respondents (87.9%) knew more than ten people who spoke fluent Nubian and almost all (97%) agreed that the Nubian language should be introduced as a subject in primary schools. Page | 57

Table 10. Nubian language introduction at primary schools by locality Introduction of Nubian as a Subject in Primary Schools NA A compulsory An optional Total language one Locality Dongola 1 2 9 12 Khartoum 0 3 9 12 N village 1 13 18 32 S village 0 4 6 10 Gender Female 1 7 32 40 Male 1 15 10 26 Age Group

≤ 25 yrs 0 2 14 16 26-36 0 9 10 19 37-45 1 8 7 16 45+ 0 3 11 14 (missing) 1 0 0 1 Level of Education Primary 1 3 9 13 High School 1 8 17 26 University 0 10 13 23 Higher Ed 0 1 3 4 TOTAL 2 22 42 66

One of the objectives of this study is to introduce the Nubian language in primary schools. From the data illustrated in Table 9, it is clear that the majority of the respondents agreed with the idea behind this objective. However, it is also important to identify a suitable way of introducing the language (Table 10) as either an optional or a compulsory subject.

The answers to the question about the suitable way of introducing the language, were as follows: Page | 58

In general, 63.3% of the respondents agreed with the idea of introducing the language as an optional subject, 33.3% indicated that it should be compulsory, and 3% accounted for missing information. Page | 59

5.3 Analysis of Interviews

In this section, three tables present respondents’ profiles by region of residence. These lists include the number of respondents as it appears in the recording device. The records were in two folders: A and B. Then, the characteristics and information about the respondents such as age, gender, place and date of interview are mentioned. For the respondents from Khartoum and the local town Dongola, it was necessary to mention the period of time spent in these places as well as the reasons for their relocation from the village to the town or capital.

The total number of interviews is 40, but, for brevity, only 29 were chosen randomly from the recorder, including the two respondents with special positions.

Table 11. List of respondents of households in Khartoum

No Gender Age Place of Date of Period spent Reason of Fold A, B interview interview in the capital transmission from the village 103 f 61 Khartoum 13. Jan 2020 40 years Education

107 m 65 Khartoum 13. Jan 2020 54 Work of father

110 f 42 Khartoum 13. Jan 2020 20 Medical reason

111 f 60 Khartoum 16. Jan 2020 55 Work of father

112 f 80 Khartoum 16. Jan 2020 55 Work of husband

114 m 44 Khartoum 17. Jan 2020 39 Work of father

9 b f 55 Khartoum 17. Jan 2020 17 Join husband

*** Interviews conducted in Nubian

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Table 12. List of respondents of the households in the Nubian villages

No Gender Age Place of Date of Period spent out Reason of Folder A interview interview of the village in leaving village Arabic speaking areas 120 m 55 N. village 22.Jan 2020 About 10 y Work

119 f 50 N. village 22.Jan 2020 Short periods Medical reasons

117 f 61 N. village 22.Jan 2020 Short periods Visiting relatives

116 f 56 N. village 22.Jan 2020 Short periods Medical reasons 118 m 32 N. village 22.Jan 2020 10 years Work

115 f 77 N. village 22.Jan 2020 1 year Visiting relatives

17 b f 50 S. village 28.Jan 2020 Short periods Medical reasons

18 b f 43 S. village 28.Jan 2020 Short periods Social occasions

13 b f 46 N. village 26.Jan 2020 4 years Education

11 b f 65 N. village 26.Jan 2020 Short periods Medical reasons

10 b f 75 N. village 25.Jan 2020 Short periods Medical reason

*** Interviews conducted in Nubian *** Interviews with persons of special positions The above list of the households living in the villages includes information about : the time spent outside the village, the reasons of leaving, in addition to the gender, age and the place and date of the interviews. These elements are important to draw conclusions and to generate recommendations.

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Table 13. List of respondents of the households in the local town

No Gender Age Place of Date of Period spent in Reasons of interview interview the local town transmission to the town 122 f 32 Dongola 31 Jan 2020 9 years Join husband

123 m 42 Dongola 31 Jan 2020 5 years Work

124 f 55 Dongola 30 Jan 2020 35 Exodus because of war in Nuba mountains 125 m 63 Dongola 31 Jan 2020 12 years abroad Work 15 in Dongola 21 b f 52 Dongola 29 Jan 2020 20 Join husband

22 b f 45 Dongola 28 Jan 2020 18years Join husband

23 b f 54 Dongola 28 Jan 2020 21 years Work

1 C m 46 Dongola 31 Jan 2020 15 Work 2C m 31 Dongola 31 Jan 2020 18 Work of father

*** Interviews with persons of special positions

N 124 is a lady, originally a Moro, but has stayed in Dongola for a long time.

No 127 is the manager of curricula in the MoE.

13 b is a primary school teacher in the village.

21b is a secondary school teacher in the local town.

23b is a cleaner in the University of Dongola.

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5.4 Families living in Khartoum City

Interview No 103

This 61-years-old lady was born in a village in the northern (Sawarda) and underwent primary education there, after which she moved to the capital to live with her grandmother and completed secondary education in Khartoum. She got married and now has three daughters and two sons. She has no job; the family depends on the income of the husband, who earns less than 100 US dollars. 100 $ = 6600 SDG, at the time of the study, is the cost of renting a small house of two rooms per month

The respondent was one of the pupils who got punished for using their mother tongue in primary school. This was a bitter experience for her, so she was keen on using Nubian at home, and her mother helped her in this as it was difficult for her to use Arabic with her grandchildren.

The elder daughter speaks and understands Nubian easily; the other kids also understand and can speak to some extent. The whole family is keen on attending events such as parties or seminars hosted in the Nubian language. She and her husband support the introduction of the Nubian language in primary schools as an optional subject.

Interview No 107

This respondent is a gentleman in his mid-sixties, born in far north of the country, moved to Egypt with his parents and then came to Khartoum in 1966 and stayed there up to the present with his family.

When asked about the use of Nubian with his children, he indicated that he did not use it because he had grown up in Cairo, and his father used to speak Arabic with him at home. So, it was normal for him to use Arabic more than Nubian with his children. He indicated that he is keen on attending Nubian events in the capital Khartoum. Page | 63

Interview No 110

This respondent is a 42-year-old woman born and raised in one of the villages of northern Sudan and completed her primary and secondary education in the same village. She moved to Khartoum with her husband for medical reasons in 2000. Her husband started working as an entrepreneur, and they stayed on with an income of less than 100 US dollars.

Interestingly, she said that she has a strong desire to talk in Nubian. She indicated that shopkeepers and many people in the neighbourhood began to speak Nubian because of her insistence to use her own language with them. She is proud of her language and not embarrassed when making mistakes in Arabic, among other speakers. However, she uses more Arabic with her sons and daughters. She said that her elder son and daughter understand Nubian and can speak a little, but the rest can’t; although they understand almost everything, they respond only in Arabic. The woman is fluent in speaking and understands the language very well; she also can read Nubian but in the Arabic alphabet.

Interviews No 111 and 112: a lady and her mother who are living together.

Respondent No 111 is a woman who came to Khartoum with her family when she was about five years old; she has completed only primary school. She understands and always speaks Nubian with her mother (respondent No 112), who has great difficulty in speaking Arabic, in spite of the long period she spent in the Arabic speaking community of Khartoum.

This respondent is a widow with no children. She indicated that she was not able to communicate with her siblings and their children in Nubian because they did not understand it. One of her sisters, who is a teacher in a primary school, said it would be difficult for children to learn Nubian as they already have great difficulties in learning English. One of the respondents’ neighbours also said that the Nubian language is one of Page | 64

the important languages nowadays because Europeans have begun using it, referring to a German researcher who was carrying out his research in the Nubian language.

Respondent No 112 is a grandmother of about 80 years; she preferred to speak in Nubian and spent a long time explaining how it was difficult for her to stay in a community of Arabic speakers. She said she had insisted on going back to the village, despite her husband’s refusal. She had eventually gone back to her village, leaving her children with their father in Khartoum, but she couldn’t stay for long without them. She came back to join her family. She said that on her return, she requested her husband to leave the area they lived in so they can go to another area where Nubians live.

About the use of language with her children, she indicated that her elder son had no desire to learn Nubian and sometimes even became angry and embarrassed in front of his friends when she spoke in Nubian to him. She added that if they had spent more vacations in the village, her children would have learnt more Nubian. She also indicated that she could only speak basic Arabic with her grandchildren, who sometimes laughed about it.

Interview No 114

This respondent is a 44-year-old man who was born in Libya and came to Khartoum with his family as a child 39 years ago. He completed his high school in Khartoum and got married; he has one child who understands Nubian as his mother usually speaks in it with all members of the family, although the respondent can’t speak it. He indicated a desire to speak the language and also wanted his son to learn from his mother, who is from Binna, a Nubian village in the north. His wife now uses the language with her mother-in- law, and she started to speak with her child (2.5 years old) to teach him some basic words. Both the parents were supportive of introducing the Nubian language in primary schools. However, the wife indicated that it would be difficult for her to assist her child with his schoolwork since she didn’t know the Nubian orthography. She proposed language classes for adults. Page | 65

Interview No 9b

The respondent is a 52-year-old woman who was born and raised in a village that is located north of Kerma. She has a primary school certificate. She indicated that she left the school for no specific reason. There were indications that she could have been one of the pupils who got punished for using her mother tongue in primary school, which was the main reason most pupils dropped out of school. This came across as a negative practice with children to stop them from using their language. She married and left the village with her husband to Saudi Arabia, where they spent two years before returning to the village. They later left it again to stay in Khartoum since 2003 up to the present times.

The respondent has three sons and two daughters who speak and understand the Nubian language. She speaks Nubian with her children, especially her eldest son and daughter and also with her husband. She indicated that she is fluent in both understanding and speaking the language; she also said that she could read and write in Nubian characters. She indicated that she was taught how to read and write the Nubian language by her cousin and some of her relatives. She added that she used Nubian in social media exchange messages and that her eldest son had requested that they use more Nubian at home.

She used Nubian with her Nubian friends and neighbours, even in the presence of Arabic speakers. At times, they were accused of being racists, but they did not let that stop them from using Nubian in their conversations in public, she said.

Despite the respondent having lived a long time away from her village, being in Saudi Arabia and Khartoum, she was proud of Nubian and used it frequently at home with her family members.

Interestingly, this lady stayed outside the village for a long period (in Saudi Arabia and Khartoum) but was still proud of using her language. Page | 66

5.5 Families living in the Nubian Villages

Interview No 115

This respondent is a 77-year-old woman born, raised and married in the village. She didn’t leave her village, except for the one year she spent in Egypt. She also left for a short period—not more than one month—to visit the holy places in Saudi Arabia. She has two daughters and a son with whom she always speaks in Nubian. She indicated that, even in Egypt, she never uses Arabic with her children as it is a difficult language for her. When faced with situations requiring her to speak Arabic, she always engaged her husband or other Nubian friends as interpreters.

She indicated that she uses only Nubian at home with her grandchildren, who respond in Nubian as well. She speaks to her eldest granddaughter in Nubian because she doesn’t understand Arabic. She indicated that her grandchildren understand and speak excellent Arabic, adding that she speaks only Nubian with her daughter-in-law, who is also an excellent Arabic speaker.

When the respondent goes to town for her medical appointments, she is accompanied by her twin brother who serves as her interpreter. Her brother has travelled to many cities to visit his children, he also went to Khartoum and stayed there for long periods of time, so he has good command over the Arabic language.

For this woman and many others, speaking Arabic is very difficult due to the important differences between the two languages. Phonologically, there are sounds in Arabic which They .(ح) / and / ħ (ع) / do not exist in Nubian, e.g. the epiglottal voices such as / ʕ pronounce them as ə and h. No lexicon in common between the two languages but young generations inserts many words when speaking Nubian. Regarding syntax Nubian has no feminine and masculine because the word order of the sentence is S.O.V., so, it is difficult especially, for people from older generations to speak Arabic accurately.

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Interview No 116

This respondent is a 56-year-old woman who left school in the second year of high school to get married. Although she could speak Arabic very well, she had no desire to use it; she asked the interviewer to conduct the interview in Nubian.

She told the interviewer that when she went to primary school in the early seventies, it was not allowed to speak any language except Arabic and that she had been severely punished for using Nubian. She learned speaking Arabic at school gradually. She said it was difficult for her to learn in Arabic because at home nobody spoke Arabic with her, neither her mother nor her father, who worked in France. Instead, their father taught them a lot of French during his vacation. Due to fear of being ridiculed for her poor Arabic in school, she would keep silent. She progressed in school despite being good only in written Arabic.

She had three daughters and four sons, all of whom, except for the youngest son, spoke Nubian at home. Her eldest daughter was married and lived in an Arabic-speaking village; she had great difficulty in communicating with her neighbours. She indicated that her granddaughters spoke only Arabic in the village where they lived but switched to Nubian when visiting her.

She said it would be very good to have Nubian introduced in primary schools by the officers. She indicated that some parents feared that their children’s school performance would deteriorate because of using Nubian, but she opined that this was not true because children knew Arabic very well and they could learn their own language (Nubian) like they learn English.

The respondent was proud of her mother tongue, and she had influenced her neighbours as well as friends to speak in Nubian and not Arabic.

She said, Page | 68

“When I found two or more persons chatting in Arabic, I did not hesitate in interfering and asking them why they use Arabic instead of their own mother tongue”.

Of course, such an attitude could be normal in the village community, as people are so friendly and take things easy.

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Interview No 117

The respondent is a 60-year-old unmarried woman who lives with her mother in Magassir —one of the islands of the river Nile in the northern part of the country. She hasn’t left the island, except for some short periods of time to visit her sister in Atbara, which is an Arabic-speaking town.

She did not undergo any formal education. She tried many times to learn Arabic through adult literacy classes that were set by the government. In these classes, they teach Arabic for reading and write messages as well as basic mathematics and Quranic studies. However, she found it very difficult and discontinued. Her nephews and nieces who lived in the town, understood Nubian well and would reply to her in Arabic. She was weak in speaking Arabic with her sister’s neighbours, but without feeling embarrassed. She indicated that sometimes Arabic speakers laughed at her for the use of wrong grammar and pronunciation, but she did not care about it because she was proud of her language. She indicated that because of her courage, she was chosen to be a member of a women’s federation.

Interview No 118

This respondent is a 32-year-old man with primary school education. He dropped out of school and worked as a farmer before leaving for Saudi Arabia for better work opportunities. He lived in Saudi Arabia for ten years, then came back to the village, which is an island on the river Nile. He established a small shop of iron products, and he also worked as a taxi driver, driving between the boat station and further places on the island.

Originally, he belonged to one of the groups that were described by Arabs as immigrants in the island a long time ago; they still spoke Arabic, which, in some cases, mixed Nubian words.

He indicated that he did not have a challenge in communicating with his taxi customers when they spoke to him in Nubian because he understood it well; however, he replied in Page | 70

Arabic. In some cases, some understood him and some would ask for help from other passengers for translation.

The respondent indicated that his wife belonged to another Arabic-speaking group that came from Egypt and stayed on the island until about 100 years ago. He also indicated that their children had no chance of hearing Nubian at home, but they could have come across some words from their classmates at school. He added that their grandparents worked as farmers with Nubian people, so they were able to communicate with them in inaccurate Nubian.

Although he is not a native Nubian-language speaker, he likes the idea of introducing it in primary schools:

“People used to tell us that we will not get benefits from Nubian beyond Dongola. I have recently known that Nubian language is a language of a great civilization and people began to do researches in it, so it would be nice that our children learn such a language”.

Interview No 119

This respondent is a 50-year-old woman who was born and raised in an island on the river Nile. She completed her primary school education in the same village; she had not left there, except for some time for medical reasons. She was married and lived with her husband, three daughters and three sons.

She indicated that, despite using Arabic in school, teachers would at times use Nubian to explain, she said, “In school, all lessons were in Arabic. However, when we couldn’t understand everything, some teachers were forced to explain in Nubian, so it was allowed to use Nubian in the class sometimes”.

She also said that they used both languages at home: Page | 71

“I usually use Arabic with my children, but I also speak Nubian with them. The two older sons respond to me in Nubian, other children reply in Arabic though they understand everything in Nubian. With my husband, I always use Nubian except for very few times when he initiates a conversation in Arabic”.

She speaks Arabic to her children, stating that the current generation is different:

“Using Arabic with children nowadays is normal. This generation is different from ours. Our parents used to use Nubian with us, but we are forced to use Arabic with our children because it is the language of instruction and the street nowadays. Our children will not benefit from Nubian if they go to other countries or to other parts of Sudan”.

She added that she mainly spoke Nubian when she was in the neighbourhood but spoke Arabic when she went shopping in town and rarely used Nubian then.

The respondent agreed that the Nubian language should be introduced in primary school as an optional subject.

Interview No 120

This respondent is a man in his mid-50s, married and with three sons and three daughters. He was born and raised in one of the villages in the north, where he completed his primary education. When he was 20-year-old, he left the village in search of work, so he spent ten years in the west of Sudan and Khartoum.

He said the time that he had spent away from his village had not affected his mother tongue. He began learning Arabic only when he went to primary school. They were punished in school for using their mother tongue.

He and his wife use Arabic with their children despite communicating in Nubian with each other. Their children understand Nubian well but respond only in Arabic. He said they were influenced by the school and the street in using more Arabic. He added that he felt Page | 72

sorry when their children replied to them in Arabic because they were embarrassed to use Nubian. He was sure that they could speak it but did not want to.

According to him, it would be good to have Nubian introduced as a compulsory subject in the primary schools of the Nubian areas.

Interview No 10b

This respondent is a widow of 75 years, born in an Arabic-speaking village, south of the local town; she had moved with her parents to Magassir, an island on the river Nile is shown (in ) at the bottom of the map (2). She further moved north with her husband to another village, Hafeer, where she stayed with him and their eight children, —three sons and five daughters—all of whom were now married and had their own children.

She spoke more Nubian with her eldest son and daughter, who understood and spoke Nubian very well. She indicated that her eldest son began speaking only Nubian with his children when he realised how the language had become important recently. Her eldest daughter also spoke more Nubian with her own children, all of whom understood, but responded only in Arabic.

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Interview No 11b (in Nubian)

Interviewer: How old are you?

Respondent: I don’t know exactly. I think 60 or 65. There were no birth certificates when we were born.

Interviewer: Were you born here in Binna (an island north of Dongola, and unfortunately not shown in Google maps) or in another place?

Respondent: I was born and raised here and did not move to anywhere, except for short periods of time to Khartoum.

Interviewer: How many children have you got?

Respondent: I have three sons; two of them are married and live with their families in Saudi Arabia, and one is working in Dongola. And I have four daughters; three of them are married and live here in Binna, and the youngest one lives with me.

Interviewer: Do you have a certain work, like breeding goats or planting vegetables?

Respondent: No, due to medical reasons, I am not able to work.

Interviewer: From the very beginning, were you speaking Nubian or Arabic with your children?

Respondent: (Laughing) Till now I cannot speak Arabic even when I go to the doctor, I speak only Nubian, and my son translates. My sons and daughters understand and speak Nubian very well.

Interviewer: How do you communicate with your grandchildren?

Respondent: They understand all that I say, so I speak only in Nubian. When I give them orders, they follow.

Interviewer: And when they speak Arabic with you? Page | 74

Respondent: The problem is when they speak Arabic, I do not understand all what they want to say.

Interviewer: What do you think about introducing the Nubian language in schools for your grandchildren?

Respondent: Excellent idea. Then they can speak Nubian with me!

Interviewer: How do you communicate when you go to the town for shopping?

Respondent: In the vegetable market, they understand what I want. They know all the names in Nubian.

Interview No 17b

This respondent is a 50-year-old woman with a primary school certificate, married and lived with her husband in a village one hour south of the local town Dongola. She had six children out of whom five died; her only daughter is now married and lives with her.

She spoke Nubian well and said that she usually uses Nubian with her friends and neighbours and at the vegetable market. She said most vegetable sellers were from the village itself, so it’s easier for them to communicate with them in Nubian. At home, she always speaks Nubian with her husband and her 22-year-old daughter; however, her daughter would respond in Arabic.

She disagreed with the idea of introducing Nubian languages in primary schools, even as an optional subject. She said it would affect the accurate pronunciation of Arabic letters. As explained earlier, the gap between the two languages is very big regarding phonology, so this lady fears that if her children speak Nubian, that will affect their accurate pronunciation for Arabic sounds. She felt it would be better to introduce English from the first year of school because it would be useful for the students to find better opportunities of work in the future. It will take time to train more English teachers, but these are her wishes. Page | 75

Interview No 18 b

This respondent is a 43-year-old woman, born and raised in a village about 40 kilometres south of the local town of Dongola. She had the highest level of education—primary, intermediate and high school—from the same village. She was fluent in speaking and understanding Nubian. She said the use of Nubian was not prohibited in school and she spoke it both inside the class as well as during break time with her colleagues. This is because local languages were permitted to be taught in southern part of the country and no longer be suppressed in the north following an agreement between the SIL and the government.

She was married and had two sons and one daughter. The eldest son, who was 19 years old, understood and spoke Nubian very well, while his siblings only understood it. She added, “The more the children grow up, the more they understand Nubian better and try to speak it”. She said she mainly spoke Nubian with her husband, friends and neighbours.

She supported the idea of introducing Nubian in primary schools as an optional subject as it was of great importance.

5.6 Families living in the local town Dongola

Interview No 122

This respondent is a 32-year-old woman, born and raised on an island north of Dongola. She was married and had three children: two daughters and one son. She had lived with her husband in the town for nine years.

She had some difficulties communicating with her neighbours when she came to live in the Arabic-speaking community in the town. She was able to speak a very basic but understandable Arabic. She expressed her pride in the Nubian language, saying that she was not embarrassed when speaking inaccurate Arabic. Page | 76

She spoke Arabic with her husband because as he didn’t know Nubian; he was from another tribe. She also spoke Arabic with her children because her husband expected that of her, but she insisted on speaking Nubian with her younger daughter.

The respondent said when she was in primary school, she found many difficulties in progressing in Arabic; this led her to drop out of school after she finished 5th grade. She strongly supported introducing Nubian in primary schools to help her children better communicate within their family.

Interview No 123

This respondent is a 42-year-old married man. He is a pharmacist and has spent most of his life in Khartoum although he was born in one of the Nubian villages. He said that being in Khartoum for a long time did not affect his Nubian negatively: he still speaks it very well.

He lives in Dongola with his wife and two children: a 10-year-old son and a five-year-old daughter. He always spent the weekends with his parents in the village; this would make the children understand Nubian well, but they could only reply in Arabic. He spoke and understood Nubian very well.

He said he always uses Nubian with his parents and friends when he goes to the village. In his opinion, chatting in Nubian is more interesting. He added that he uses even more Nubian when he visits his parents-in-law because people rarely use Arabic in that village (Iris Island), and even their children always spoke Nubian. In his opinion, almost all the islands on the Nile used more Nubian than the villages on the banks. He said the Nubian people in the town were mixed with other ethnicities, so they had lost their language and had begun to imitate other people’s tone (by which he meant that the pronunciation of Nubian tended to be influenced by the sounds of Arabic) in speaking.

When asked about patients who came to take medicines from the pharmacy speaking Arabic or Nubian, he said, “whenever patients knew I spoke Nubian, they would shift into Page | 77

Nubian”. In cases where he felt they did not understand the prescription well, he would explain it in Nubian for them to have confidence in the medication and understand its proper use.

He said Nubian had become important due to some studies showing the great Nubian culture and civilisation. He added that it is the language that showed people’s identity and culture. He fully supported the introduction of Nubian in primary schools as an optional subject.

Interview No 124

This respondent is a woman and does not belong to the Nile Nubian community. She had come from Kadogli in southern Kordofan about 35 years ago. She lived with her husband and five children: four sons and one daughter. She also brought her relatives from Nuba Mountains because of the war between government of Sudan and SPLM, which began in 2011. The relatives stayed on as they couldn’t go back to their villages. She worked as a domestic cleaner, with an income of less than 100 US dollars. This suggests that she had left her village and moved to another province for no big difference in income.

The respondent spoke basic Arabic with her customers and grandchildren, but the main language that she used was her mother tongue Moro. She spoke Moro with her husband, sons, all her relatives and friends; but unfortunately, her sons would reply only in Arabic. She added that her children communicated with each other in Arabic.

She said she did not forget her mother tongue because there were many Moro speakers in the neighbourhood and they only spoke to each other in Moro. She revealed that at weddings parties, they would sing mainly in Moro and, in a few cases, in Arabic.

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Interview No 125

This is a 63-year-old man who was born on an island by the river Nile and moved with his family to the western bank when he was 15 years old, where Arabic was used. He was married to two wives, one had three daughters, and they lived in the village, while the other who lived with him in the town had one son. They all went to the village to join their family and spend time together often as they expect this to help their son understand more Nubian.

He said his children started speaking Arabic because of his sisters:

“When we returned back to the island in 1984 my sisters began to speak Arabic with my little daughter, so she was the first child who spoke Arabic in that island, so other families followed suit and Arabic became the first language for many children”.

These ladies shifted to Arabic when they moved to a village on the western bank with their family, where some Arabic speakers used to come and integrate with the villagers.

He was a shopkeeper in the local town, with an income of more than 100 US dollars. He had many customers from the villages. When asked what language he preferred to use with customers, he said, “It depends. If they begin to speak Nubian, I continue in Nubian; if not, I speak Arabic. But most of the villagers use only Nubian in my shop”.

Before living in Dongola, he spent 12 years in Kuwait. He had two Nubian colleagues at work, and they always spoke to each other in Nubian, despite him being keen to speak in Arabic with them. He indicated that other Nubians in the town of Kuwait always spoke Arabic, even during weekends: “Even in the club of Nubians, we always use Arabic”.

The respondent said his Nubian was not affected while he was away and that it was very good because he spoke with his son, who understood it well but would reply only in Arabic. He indicated that he spoke in Arabic with his wife, who responded in Nubian, but Page | 79

spoke in Arabic with their son because she feared that Nubian would affect his academic standards in school.

When asked about the introduction of Nubian in primary schools as a subject, he said it was a good idea:

“It is a good idea; Nubian language has become very important these days. I know many people who are doing researches in this domain; I even went with some of them to an old woman from whom they took many words”.

He said Nubian as a language could be introduced as an optional subject because some of the pupils may not be interested in it.

Interview no 22b

This is a 45-year-old woman who was born in a village where she completed her secondary school education. She got married and spent 14 years in Saudi Arabia with her husband and her three children; however, they used to visit Sudan every three years. When she was asked whether her time in an Arabic country affected her skills in Nubian, she said it did not interfere with her Nubian because her neighbours were also Nubians, so she used more Nubian than Arabic.

They came back to live in Dongola town 18 years ago. First, they lived in a square that was full of Arabic speakers and then moved to the current neighbourhood, where she found many Nubians. She never spoke in Arabic with them. Her fluency in Nubian was expressed by stating that she understood even the archaic words and could translate old songs to her sons and daughters.

She always speaks in Nubian with her husband, sons and daughter; however, they respond in Arabic. Her husband was from the same tribe (Dongolawi), but he had grown up in Port Sudan, a town in the east of the country. Her eldest son as well as her daughter Page | 80

had indicated a strong desire to learn Nubian, so they attended all the cultural events held in Nubian. She added that all the members of her extended family such as cousins, uncles and aunts brought Nubian singers to wedding parties.

She supported the introduction of the Nubian language in primary schools as a compulsory subject in the Nubian areas and as optional in other parts of Sudan.

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Interview No 23 b

This respondent is an uneducated 54-year-old widow who was born and raised in a village north of Dongola and did not leave until she came to the local town 21 years ago looking for work. She worked as a cleaner at the University of Dongola, College of Medicine, earning only 1200 Sudanese pounds per month (the equivalent of 25 $ dollars at the time of the study).

She was fluent in speaking and understanding Nubian because all her relatives spoke only Nubian.

When asked if she had any colleagues who spoke Nubian, she indicated the following:

“Yes, there are many, and they usually speak Nubian, especially men”.

She continued saying that she always chats in Nubian with her neighbours, who were all Nubian. In the square where she lived, she spoke Arabic with other people.

She did not think Nubian was an important language:

“Many people say that it is important, but I don’t think so, when many students of medicine, both Nubians and outsiders ask me to teach them, I enquire what they want to do with an useful, un known language which is not used in any place except our small villages”.

5.7. Interviews with persons with special positions.

Interview No 13b A primary school teacher

This respondent is a 46-year-old widow working as a primary school teacher in Binna (an island on the Nile); she was born and raised in this same village. She hadn’t left her village, except for four years when she went to Al-Damer town to study a teacher training diploma. Page | 82

She and her sisters used to use both Arabic and Nubian because her father was not from the same village where they lived. When she was in primary school, she and her classmates were punished for using Nubian in class. But they persisted in using Nubian, despite the teachers’ attempts to stop it, according to the policy those days. She indicated no difficulties in understanding the lessons because she used Arabic at home with her father. However, she knows many of her colleagues were suffering as they studied in Arabic, especially the classes of teachers who came from the Arabic-speaking areas.

She said that the use of Nubian was declining: it was neither used in the schoolyard nor in or outside the class or even outside the school. She said it was different for teachers by saying, “We as teachers from the same village, we usually prefer chatting in Nubian during breaks. Chatting in Nubian has a special taste.”

She felt it was her responsibility to teach her children their heritage, so she sometimes spoke Nubian to them, despite speaking Arabic at home most of the times. Her children would easily respond in Nubian to her.

She said she spoke Nubian in the neighbourhood and with her friends. She supported the introduction of Nubian in primary schools as an optional subject as it is an important part of their culture and civilisation.

“As a group of teachers, we are all from the village, we always use Nubian during break times, and we see that chatting in Arabic is not as interesting as it is in Nubian”.

Interview No 21b: A high school teacher.

This respondent is a 52-year-old high school teacher who was born and raised in Kerma in the northern state. She was married and had been living in the town with her husband and children for 21 years. She hadn’t left the village, except for the four years she was in Khartoum to attend university. Page | 83

She said when she was in primary school, some teachers who were from the other parts of the country used to discourage pupils from using their language, but couldn’t control them. They would pass a certain object to the pupils who used Nubian during school, then punished the last one who was found with the object. Despite all this, the Nubian- speaking pupils were more successful in Arabic lessons, compared to those who came from Arabic-speaking families. The pupils would face difficulty in pronouncing some epiglottal letters in Arabic, but they always got higher grades in written Arabic.

She was not embarrassed by the wrong pronunciation of Arabic sounds, and she was proud of her language. She could speak in front of a great audience without feeling inferior. She added that this was the biggest distinguisher between the Nobiin and the Dongolawi people.

She only spoke Nubian to Nubians, even in the classroom. This applied to both teachers and pupils for her. At work, she spoke Arabic in formal situations, but with Nubian teachers during break time, she never spoke Arabic. In the neighbourhood, she spoke Nubian because many of her neighbours were Nubians. What was interesting was that she indicated that in the market, she spoke Nubian at the Nubian stores and did the same in Arab stores to express her opinion about an item, the price and decision to buy or not.

At home, she speaks Nubian with her husband and children all the time. Her eldest daughter went to the university in Khartoum and came back with stronger Nubian language influence, indicating that they spoke Nubian in the other environments out of pride and a sense of dignity of their identity among other communities. She is fluent in Nubian; however, she hasn’t attempted to write using Nubian alphabets. She indicated that it was common for the Nubian people to write and read their language using the Arabic alphabet, however, for her, it was much easier to read Nubian if written in English letters. She supported the introduction of Nubian in primary schools as an optional subject.

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5.9 Interview with the manager of curricula in the ministry of education

Name: Omer Ahmed Elgarray The period spent in this occupation: 110 days (about four-month period). Interviewer: What is your opinion about the language policy of the state in general during the past periods? Mr Elgarray: The policy of the state was affected by the political orientation of people who ruled the Sudan after the colonisation. They all came from the middle-north of the country where the dominance of people who think themselves as pure Arab and also have more authority, so, they didn’t care about the other ethnicities in the other parts of the country. They neglected and marginalised them.

Interviewer: Have you any plans to introduce other Sudanese languages in the curriculum of primary schools? Mr Elgarray: No, until now, we have the desire to change the language of education to the mother tongue in some areas where pupils find it difficult to learn in Arabic. However, it is practically difficult to implement such a plan because of the limited time of the transitional government. There is also the lack of studies and plans which were supposed to be done by the Sudanese academics and specialists about the different areas of the Sudan and the languages in these areas, which would indicate which main languages do we need to teach in these areas. These studies are important to direct the general policy of the ministry of education. Therefore, to apply these studies in a scientific way, will need more time and the three years’ government transitional period will not be enough, let alone the big problems of the general curricula for all the other subjects. For example, all the scientific subjects in the previous curricula were linked to Quranic verses, and students should learn these verses by heart instead of concentrating on the scientific content. This is the reason for the backwardness of our universities. This curriculum is more harmful than not to learn in one’s mother tongue. We should solve these problems first; after that, the most important thing is the language of education, especially for Page | 85

those areas where pupils find great difficulty in learning in Arabic, such as the Blue Nile area.

Interviewer: According to the survey I did, it seems that the Nubian areas will not need the mother tongue as a language of instruction in the primary schools. Most of the pupils now understand Arabic well. My question is, is it possible to introduce Nubian language as an optional language like English and French in the high schools?

Mr Elgarray: No, not in high schools. It could be in universities and private institutions because they have more freedom in choosing their subjects. In general, education, introducing one language will raise questions of why not the other languages, so it is better to apply it in the primary schools of each area according to the main language they want.

Interviewer: Have you any studies about the areas which find difficulties in teaching and learning in Arabic?

Mr Elgarray: We have no studies, but we know which areas, are suffering from these problems through students and teachers. For example, in the Nuba mountains and Blue Nile areas we know there are teachers who have to explain the subject in the mother tongue for the pupils to understand the meaning. So, the priority is to reform the general curricula for the country, including special curricula for special areas.

Interviewer: Have you any studies about the rate of the dropouts from the primary schools due to difficulties of learning in Arabic?

Mr Elgarray: We have statistical data about the dropouts from the primary schools in general but not classified according to the reasons—these reasons can be economical or social or other reasons.

Interviewer: Is it possible for the Ministry of Education to give opportunities to carry out research into issues of dropout according to the difficulty of learning in languages other than the mother tongue? Page | 86

Mr Elgarray: This could be in the universities and higher education institutions; the ministry has teachers, not researchers.

Interviewer: Do you think, when you begin such programs that their implementation will cost a lot of money?

Mr Elgarray: No, I don’t think so. The biggest problem could be strategic.

5.10 The analysis and results

The previously mentioned interviews are divided into four groups: the first one is the group of the Nubian families that lived in Khartoum, the group of Nubian families who still lived in their villages and the group of families who lived or relocated to the local town Dongola, besides the group that occupied certain positions.

Most of the questions concerning the individuals’ skills and the use of the language were same for the three groups. However, some questions were different. For example, for the group of families living in Khartoum, there are questions about the period when they came to stay in the capital. This was to determine if there was a relation between the length of the period in a community speaking different languages and the respondents’ current skills in their own language. For instance, if their long stay in such a community negatively affect their language or not.

Another question was about the reason of moving to the capital to determine if the main reason of leaving their homeland was economical; for instance, in search of work opportunities or due to lack of services such as medical or educational services.

For the group of families living in their village, there were questions such as whether they had left the village for long periods of times, whether these periods had affected the skills in their language, the reason(s) for leaving their village for long periods, was it to look for a job or to get better services, etc. Another question was on the language they used when they went shopping in the local town. Page | 87

For the group of families living in the local town, there was a question on how long they had been in town and the reason of moving to town, whether it was for education, to look for work or other reasons such as floods for people who were living on islands. Another question was whether they went to villages in the weekends to visit their relatives or not.

Interviews of the group of the persons who held certain positions included focused on questions based on their responsibilities. For example, the questions posed to the manager of the curricula in the MoE was on his opinion on the policy of educational language in the state or if there was an intention of introducing local languages in the curricula of the primary education.

5.10.1 Positive aspects in the interviews

The age of respondents of the first group, though they were chosen randomly, ranges from 32 to 80 years. The periods they spent in the capital are also long: 55 to 17 years. In spite of these long periods, it is evident that many of them were not affected by the Arabic-speaking community; they still had difficulties in speaking Arabic. For instance, in Interview No 112, the grandmother who is up to now insists on speaking only Nubian with her daughters, sons and grandchildren. All the family members understand totally or partially what she is saying the day.

In Interview No 110, the respondent shows an example of a lady who made some impact on Arabic speakers in the neighbourhood in Khartoum through her insistence on speaking Nubian only; this lady has a strong character in that district, as said by her neighbours. Such a name can have significant influence in an Arabic-speaking community, especially on Nubians who have less desire to use Nubian. She may encourage them to use more Nubian with their families. Page | 88

The respondents of the second group—families living in the villages—show, in many situations, that there is still a good hope to revitalize the language from there. All the elder members of families speak Nubian at home and in the neighbourhood. If their relatives came from the local town or from the capital to spend some time there, they would learn Nubian better.

In case of the Interview No 11, the lady who can’t speak Arabic at all, she can force even her grandchildren or the children in the neighbourhood to ask and know what she means when she tries to communicate with them.

5.10.2 Negative aspects in the interviews

In the same family of the grandmother (80 years), in Interview No 112, all family members except for the eldest daughter couldn’t speak Nubian, and one of them who worked as a teacher believes that it will be difficult for kids to learn Nubian in primary school, just like English. She thinks that Nubian is as difficult as a foreign language.

In general, most of the families living in Khartoum speak more Arabic with their children, and they also said that their children understand Nubian well. The problem is that the coming generations will not find people who speak Nubian with them to understand, so the Nubian language could become extinct.

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Chapter 6 6.1 Conclusion The questions in both methods concentrated on the following aspects: 1. The real situation of the Nubian language through the first focused question (using the Nubian language) and the answer to this question was rated from 0–5 (divided into four categories in Table); a. None, which corresponds to 0 in the questionnaire. According to the answers to this question, people who never use the language at home are 10 out of 66; (15%) b. Basic, which corresponds to 1–2, is 6 out of 66; (9%) c. Intermediate, which corresponds to 3–4, is 22 out of 66; (33%) d. Advanced, which corresponds to 5, is 28 respondents of 66, (42.3%). So, the majority are using the language in an advanced way. Using the language at home by parents and grandparents is the most important part of this question because when parents use more Nubian language, it depicts that there is hope to go further for implementing the programme. 2-The second focused question is “To what extent you think that Nubian is important?” As illustrated in Table 4, the majority of the respondents 57 out of 66; (86.4%) answered that Nubian is of great importance; 37 out of 57 (65%) are females, and the majority are of the age group 26–36. For the third focused question, “Do you think that Nubian language needs more support?” almost all respondents (64 out of 66; (97%) agreed that it needs more support. These numbers indicate a good attitude towards the language which also an encouraging step to go forward. 3-The third focused question is about the parents’ acceptance of the introduction of Nubian as a subject in primary schools; again, almost all respondents (64 out of 66) agreed that it should be introduced in primary schools and this is an excellent percentage which shows that the programme will be sustainable when implemented regarding other factors such as financial aspects and strategic details. For the second question: whether Page | 90

the language should be compulsory or optional, a majority of the respondents 42 out of 66; (63.6%) chose optional and the rest chose compulsory. To conclude, introducing Nubian as an optional subject in primary schools is acceptable by most of the parents who represent a significant part of the stakeholders. However, the policymakers in the new government are not ready at present. Regarding the availability of the studies, however, they have the intention of introducing local languages in primary schools. The matter of implementation will be a matter of other studies.

6.2 Orientation of the research

This research illustrates two models: the Ethiopian model and the Moro model in Sudan. The Ethiopian model has a rich historical background in introducing local languages. Ethiopian governments throughout many decades have established institutes and academies to train teachers; thus, they have implemented many programmes to advance and encourage the usage of local languages. The situation is the opposite in Sudan. Governments throughout modern history have made no attempt to introduce local languages in primary schools and have even prohibited their use. Pupils who used their mother tongue in the schools were punished so they would favour using only Arabic. Moreover, from the interview with the manager of the curricula, it is clear that the official authorities of the new government are not presently ready, as there are no studies and no ready programmes. According to them, it will take time to introduce local languages in general and the Nubian language in particular in primary education. As mentioned in conclusion, the situation of the Nubian language is going backwards, from level 6b to level 7 in the EGIDS; thus, it is better to begin popularly supported efforts, like in the case of Moro. What helped the Moro people make their way, in addition to their popular efforts, was the intervention of missionaries and SIL groups who supported their programme by developing Page | 91

writing standers. They followed programmes that could preserve their culture and language. For the Nubian language, the curriculum is ready. There are some primers for use in teaching; however, the need to train teachers and to provide adult education classes will remain difficult without the intervention of NGOs such as SIL.

6.3 Recommendations for Nubian organisations and local authorities

1- Introduce more Nubian language programmes on local radio and TV through songs, dramatic series as well as educational lessons. 2- Publish storybooks in Nubian for both kids and adults. 3- As the population seems to be closely linked to religion, it will be a good idea to publish some religious books, such as stories of the prophets. 4- Encourage the private sector to establish institutes to teach Nubian to the adult people as well as kids. 5- Encourage families who live in other parts of Sudan or abroad to spend their vacations in Nubian villages. 6- Encourage using Nubian on social media. 7- Encourage organisations such as SIL and other NGOs. As it is known, SIL is currently working in this field to help many minority languages speakers.

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Appendix 1. Questionnaire

No :……….. Place: ……….. Date: ………… Age: ………………….

1. Level of education: a. Primary certificate b. Secondary certificate c. University certificate d. Higher education 2. Work: a. Yes b. No 3. Income: a. more than 100 US dollars/month b. less than 100 US dollars/month 4. Skills in the Nubian language: a. Speaking: 0 1 2 3 4 5 b. Understanding: 0 1 2 3 4 5 c. Reading: 0 1 2 3 4 5 5. Language usage: a. At home: 0 1 2 3 4 5 b. At work: 0 1 2 3 4 5 c. With friends: 0 1 2 3 4 5 d. In shopping: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6.How important is the Nubian language for you? Page | 97

a. of great importance b. of little importance c. of no importance 7. Do you think that the Nubian language needs some more support? a. Yes b. No 8.How many fluent speakers do you know? a. Between 0–5 b. Between 5–10 c. More than 10 9. Do you think that the Nubian language should be taught as a subject in schools? a. Yes b. No 10. If yes, should it be a compulsory subject or an optional one? a. A compulsory subject b. An optional subject

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1. Primers by Samuel Ali (1913) Page | 99

2. Primers by El-Shafie El-Guzuuli (2012)

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3. Nubian grammar book by Dr Mokhtar Khalil Kabbara (1979)

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4. Nubian Language Primers; Book 1 by Abdel Halim Sabbar

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Photo 1. Kabernarty: The health centre of the village.

Photo 2. Tourist resort in Kerma; 20 kilometres north of Dongola (design of the Nubian gate)

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Photo 3. Kerma Museum – Kings of Black Pharaohs

Photo 4. Before crossing the river to Binna Island

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