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Uganda Foreigners
Nubians
Roughly 10,000 Ugandans of Sudanese descent are
classified as
Nubians, referring to their origin in the area of the Nuba
Mountains in Sudan. They are descendants of Sudanese
military
recruits who entered Uganda in the late nineteenth century
as
part of the colonial army and were employed to quell
popular
revolts
(see Early Development
, ch. 5). Their ethnic
identities
varied, but some spoke Western Nilotic languages. The
Acholi
people were their closest relatives in Uganda, but Nubians
spoke
a variant of Arabic, and they practiced Islam. Moreover,
they
believed they were superior to Ugandans because of their
mercenary status. Nubian armies raided surrounding
villages,
capturing slaves and wives. Their villages were organized
around
their military status. They raised cotton, most of which
was used
for making uniforms, and they were paid salaries
throughout most
of the protectorate years.
Both colonial and independent governments attempted to
regularize the status of the Nubian community. Many
Nubians
settled in northern Buganda, near the site of the colonial
military headquarters. Others lived among the Acholi in
northern
Uganda and among other Ugandan Muslim communities in the
north.
In the 1980s, they were primarily a dispersed urban
population.
They have generally avoided Western education, opting to
send
their children to Quranic schools instead. Nubians often
work as
unskilled or semi-skilled laborers, or as traders. Most
speak
Swahili--a Bantu language with strong Arabic influence.
Baganda
tolerate, but do not especially welcome, the Nubian
population
that lives among them, along with other non-Baganda.
Data as of December 1990
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