Resistance and response: Ethnocide and genocide in the Nuba Mountains, Sudan

Abstract

The Nuba claim that they are the indigenous inhabitants of the Nuba Mountains of the Sudan. Indigenous peoples here refers to pre-existence, non-dominance, cultural difference and self-identification as indigenous. As such the Nuba are politically and economically marginalized and suffered persecution and dominance under external and internal colonialism. Human rights abuses, including genocide and ethnocide (or cultural genocide) have persisted and the Nuba are increasingly under pressure to give up their traditional way of life, and lose access to their lands and other natural resources for immigrant Baggara and Jellaba ethnic groups are supported by the state. This paper traces the origins of Nuba abuse and oppression, and delineates their uneasy and turbulent relationship with the Sudanese state.