The Nubis of Kibera : a social history of the Nubians and Kibera slums

Smedt, J.V.A. de (2011)

Doctoral Thesis

This thesis is based on research conducted in Kibera slums in Nairobi, Kenya, from 2004 to 2008; it focuses on the Nubi ‘tribe’, an ethnic group that developed from an Islamised mix of Sudanese, Ugandan and Congolese people, many of them former soldiers of the Egyptian army in southern Sudan. When in the early 1890s they were recruited by the British to serve in Uganda, they brought with them thousands of wives, children, servants and slaves. All these people ‘melted together’ to form a community with a collective military identity, and with their own distinct customs, language, food, and religion. The Nubi soldiers later formed the backbone of the British colonial armies in East Africa, also serving in Kenya, where they demobilised and settled down in various Nubi villages. One of these villages was near Nairobi, a place where the Nubis created a new ‘tribal land’, their village Kibera.This thesis is an account of the history of both the Nubis and Kibera, from the early days in southern Sudan, up to the third millennium, when Kibera has become one of the largest slums of Africa, and problems of poverty and ethnic violence are the order of the day.

• Colonial history East Africa
• Ethnic violence
• Ethnicity
• Kibera slums
• Nairobi, Kenya
• Nubis
• Slum upgrading

• All authors: Smedt, J.V.A. de
• Supervisor: Ross, R.J.
• Co-supervisor: Donge, J.K. van
• Qualification: Doctor (dr.)
• Awarding Institution: Faculty of Humanities, Leiden University
• Date: 2011-05-12
• Court: LEI Universiteit Leiden