American University in Cairo AUC Knowledge Fountain Theses and Dissertations Student Research Spring 7-1-2021 On Displacement and Music: Embodiments of Contemporary Nubian Music in the Nubian Resettlements Fayrouz Kaddal The American University in Cairo AUC, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://fount.aucegypt.edu/etds Part of the Ethnomusicology Commons Recommended Citation APA Citation Kaddal, F. (2021).On Displacement and Music: Embodiments of Contemporary Nubian Music in the Nubian Resettlements [Master's Thesis, the American University in Cairo]. AUC Knowledge Fountain. https://fount.aucegypt.edu/etds/1591 MLA Citation Kaddal, Fayrouz. On Displacement and Music: Embodiments of Contemporary Nubian Music in the Nubian Resettlements. 2021. American University in Cairo, Master's Thesis. AUC Knowledge Fountain. https://fount.aucegypt.edu/etds/1591 This Master's Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Research at AUC Knowledge Fountain. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of AUC Knowledge Fountain. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The American University in Cairo School of Humanities and Social Sciences (HUSS) On Displacement and Music: Embodiments of Contemporary Nubian Music in the Nubian Resettlements A Thesis Submitted to The Department of Sociology, Egyptology, Anthropology In partial fulfilment of the requirements for The degree of Master of Arts in Sociology-Anthropology By Fayrouz Kaddal Under the supervision of Dr. Hanan Sabea Fall 2020 Page 1 of 183 Acknowledgments To the Nubian people in the villages of Nasr El Nouba and in particular Toushka El Tahgeer; without your inspiration throughout my life, the help you offered, and the warm welcoming you gave me, this work would have never happened. This thesis is as much yours as it is mine. It used to take a community to build the waterwheel; it has taken all of you to create this. May it feed us all. A very special thank you to Uncle Hussein Kaddal, Aunt Sekina and their daughter Safaa Kaddal, it was through your generous hospitality in letting me stay at your home that I was able to conduct my fieldwork in Toushka. More importantly, your stories and discussions throughout my life and research have brought me ever closer to you. I feel that my relationship with Uncle Hussein has been strengthened over the past two years and is more like a grandfather to me now. I owe this achievement to him. Am Ramadan Abdel Ghaffour, Aunt Tamah and their two daughters, Youssra and Fatma showed such generous hospitality, that they made adjusting to life in the village easy, and taught me what it really means to have an extended family. I have great gratitude to Am Tawfick Kaddal and his family; it is thanks to Nawal Fakkir, his wife that I learned a lot about displacement from women’s perspective, and she helped me to translate some of the songs mentioned in chapter three. Am Galal GahAllah, my only link and relative from my Kenouz side of the family, bore my extensive questioning of the Kenzi history of migration with patience and humour, and for this deserves deep respect. Also in Toushka El Tahgeer, I would like to thank Hamza Gaber, Am Abdel Ghaffour, Sharaf AbdAllah Abdin, Yasmin Basha, Zeinab Kaddal, Saber Yehia In the displaced village of Malki I had the honour and pleasure to meet Adel Abdel Moneim, Hassan Abdel Rahman, Ibrahim Sharqawi. I would like to thank them all for sharing Arabs of Olaikat’s history and views on the displacement. The highlights of Nubian music in Cairo as well as in the displaced villages of Nubia, I would like to thank Akram Mourad, Thabit Tabet, Ahmed El Noubi, Ahmed Hemat, Hisham Batta, Mohamed Youssef and Zizotag. In Alexandria, I owe High Dam Band, RT Nuba and Ahmed Loon a big thank you for their work and inspiring conversations. Mohamed Omar and Momen Talosh (Nubi app) deserves applause for their inspiring work he has instigated in encouraging the Nubian language. He was kind in translating some of the songs mentioned in this thesis. To my professors at the Sociology-Anthropology department at the American University in Cairo; it has been a truly enjoyable and informative two years. Particularly I would like to extend and focus my gratitude to members of my committee. This research and thesis, has often felt collaborative, and your guidance and thoughts have been essential. The first time I went to see Dr. Hanan Sabae in her office to discuss the thesis project, she was very welcoming, excited and encouraging to bring into the thesis my half-Nubian identity as well as my Page 2 of 183 experience as a musician, and her enthusiasm has never lessened. Without her encouragements I wouldn’t have had the confidence to adopt auto-ethnographic methods. Dr. Hanan was consistently an amazing supervisor for understanding and carefully hearing what I really wanted to do with this project. I was also very lucky to be supervised by someone who is understanding of personal life challenges and hick-ups. She is not only an academic supervisor but also a inspiring mentor. Dr. Reem Saad, was someone I so much looking forward to meeting and work with before even applying for the MA at the AUC; her extensive work in Upper Egypt and valuable expertise on conducting ethnographies on rural Egypt was the reason I chose to study anthropology in Egypt, and not to seek opportunities abroad. I was not disappointed, as she was truly an inspiration, and I hope she will continue to have opportunity to inspire others. I am very thankful for Dr. Reem’s generosity of time, comments and discussions before and after my fieldwork. Her course on methodology of fieldwork was transformative once I was in the field. Every comment, question and insight has been key to shaping this thesis. Being student in Dr. Manuel Shwab’s Contemporary Social Theory, Thesis Writing and Trauma and Violence classes were fascinating and thought provoking. It was our discussions and readings in Contemporary Social Theory class that has inspired the main theme for this thesis project. I can’t be more thankful for having him on my thesis committee. Having an ethnomusicologist and practicing musician on my thesis committee was very much needed, but Dr. Tom Western wasn’t just any ethnomusicologist; his work on migration and sound is of essential relevance to shaping how I have explored Nubian music. I am very thankful for the generous time and efforts he has put into this project. Throughout our conversations and discussions over last two years, he wasn’t just an external reader to this committee but someone whose expertise within the particular field was vital; there was no one in Egypt able to offer these particular perspectives, and I was fortunate to find someone as approachable, interested and patient as Tom. It has been wonderful and a privilege to have worked with Dr. Martina Rieker through her Mobilities and Gender and Critical Geography classes. Both of these classes has been a major help and influence in designing the first chapter of this thesis. Dr. Martina and Dr. Hanan Sabae both have been truly wonderful in encouraging me to apply to Humanities and Social Sciences (HUSS LAB)’s Travel Grant. The grant has allowed me to travel to Makanda, South Africa, visit the International Library of African Music, where I was interested to search archival material on displacement and music, as well as to meet professors of ethnomusicology and anthropology. I would like to thank Dr. Adham Ramadan, Dean of Graduate Studies, and Aya Morsi, Assistant Dean of Graduate Studies, for the Research Grant I received to conduct fieldwork in the displaced villages of Nubia, Egypt, as well as in the Phonogrammarchive in Vienna. Whilst the situation with Covid-19 made the latter impossible at this stage, the fieldwork in Egypt would have been much more limited without this support, and the potential of travel to Vienna, even if unrealised at this stage, has opened future pathways. Dalia Edris, Executive Assistant to Chair Person and Shorouk ElSayed, Senior Administrative Affairs Assistant, in the department, honestly I can’t thank you enough for all the hard work that you do in this department and baring the amount of emails I send asking about guidance and help. I would like to thank the department of Anthropology at Rhodes University, South Africa, especially Dr. Michelle Cocks, Dr. Patti Anderson, Dr. Dominique Santos for the amazing time and Page 3 of 183 discussions I had with all of them. These conversations has formulated a lot of the ideas discussed in this thesis. I would like to dedicate a special thank you and appreciation to Dr. Chris De Wet and Mrs. De Wet for their dinner invitation and the amount of time that Dr. De Wet has generously spent with me discussing similarities and differences between dam construction and displacement between Egypt and South Africa. Learning from Dr. De Wet’s profound expertise has been truly enriching. I would also like to thank him for his comments on an earlier draft of Chapter 1 in this thesis that has been a major help in formulating this chapter. Visiting The International Library of African Music, was an eye opening experience, learning a great deal from the amazing ethnomusicologists that met across there. Learning about how this institution started and the fantastic work they are doing at the moment there was truly important in shaping my ideas on ethnomusicological practices and research. I would like to thank Dr. Andrew Tracey for sparing the time to meet and answering my long list of questions and to offer sincere thanks Dr.