The Nuba people are indigenous inhabitants of central Sudan. Nuba are various indigenous ethnic groups who inhabit the Nuba Mountains of South Kordofan state in Sudan, encompassing multiple distinct people that speak different languages which belong to at least two unrelated language families. Since 2011, when the southern part of Sudan became an independent state as South Sudan, the Nuba live in the southern part of Sudan. Estimates of the Nuba population vary widely; the Sudanese government estimated that they numbered 2.07 million in 2003.
The term should not be confused with the Nubians, an unrelated ethnic group speaking the Nubian languages living in northern Sudan and southern Egypt, although the Hill Nubians, who live in the Nuba Mountains, are also considered part of the Nubian people.
The Nuba people reside in the foothills of the Nuba Mountains. Villages consist of family compounds. A family compound consists of a rectangular compound enclosing two round mud huts thatched with sorghum stalks facing each other called a shal. The shal is fenced with wooden posts interwoven with straw. Two benches run down the each side of the shal with a fire in the middle where families will tell stories and oral traditions. Around the shal is the much larger yard, the tog placed in front. The fence of the tog is made of strong tree branches as high as the roof of the huts. Small livestock like goats and chickens and donkeys are kept in the tog. Each compound has tall conical granaries called durs which stand on one side of the tog. At the back of the compound is a small yard where maize and vegetables like pumpkin, beans and peanuts are grown.
Languages of the Nuba Mountains
The Nuba people speak various languages not closely related to each other. Most of the Nuba people speak one of the many languages in the geographic Kordofanian languages group of the Nuba Mountains. This language group is primarily in the major Niger–Congo language family. Several Nuba languages are in the Nilo-Saharan language family.
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South Sudan (suːˈdɑːn,_-ˈdæn), officially the Republic of South Sudan, is a landlocked country in Central Africa and politically grouped in Eastern Africa region. It is bordered by Ethiopia, Sudan, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, and Kenya. Its population was estimated at 11,088,796 in 2023. Juba is the capital and largest city. South Sudan gained independence from Sudan on 9 July 2011, making it the most recent sovereign state or country with widespread recognition as of 2023.
Circumcision is a procedure that removes the foreskin from the human penis. In the most common form of the operation, the foreskin is extended with forceps, then a circumcision device may be placed, after which the foreskin is excised. Topical or locally injected anesthesia is generally used to reduce pain and physiologic stress. Circumcision is generally electively performed, most commonly done as a form of preventive healthcare, as a religious obligation, or as a cultural practice.
Scarification involves scratching, etching, burning/branding, or superficially cutting designs, pictures, or words into the skin as a permanent body modification or body art. The body modification can take roughly 6–12 months to heal. In the process of body scarification, scars are purposely formed by cutting or branding the skin by various methods (sometimes using further sequential aggravating wound-healing methods at timed intervals, like irritation). Scarification is sometimes called cicatrization (from the French equivalent).