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Legacies of Slavery in North-West Uganda: The Story of the ‘one-Elevens’

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2011

Mark Leopold
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Abstract

This article outlines the history of a people known as ‘Nubi’ or ‘Nubians’, northern Ugandan Muslims who were closely associated with Idi Amin's rule, and a group to which he himself belonged. They were supposed to be the descendants of former slave soldiers from southern Sudan, who in the late 1880s at the time of the Mahdi's Islamic uprising came into what is now Uganda under the command of a German officer named Emin Pasha. In reality, the identity became an elective one, open to Muslim males from the northern Uganda/southern Sudan borderlands, as well as descendants of the original soldiers. These soldiers, taken on by Frederick Lugard of the Imperial British East Africa Company, formed the core of the forces used to carve out much of Britain's East African Empire. From the days of Emin Pasha to those of Idi Amin, some Nubi men were identified by a marking of three vertical lines on the face – the ‘One-Elevens’. Although since Amin's overthrow many Muslims from the north of the country prefer to identify themselves as members of local Ugandan ethnic groups rather than as ‘Nubis’, aspects of Nubi identity live on among Ugandan rebel groups, as well as in cyberspace.

Résumé

Cet article décrit brièvement l'histoire du peuple que l'on appelle les “Nubiens”, musulmans du Nord de l'Ouganda étroitement associés au régime d'Idi Amin Dada et à un groupe auquel ce dernier appartenait lui-même. Ils étaient supposés être les descendants d'anciens soldats esclaves du Sud du Soudan qui avaient regagné l'actuel Ouganda vers la fin des années 1880 au moment du soulèvement islamique des Mahdis, sous le commandement d'un officier allemand nommé Emin Pasha. En réalité, cette identité est devenue élective, ouverte aux hommes musulmans des régions frontalières du Nord de l'Ouganda/Sud du Soudan, ainsi qu'aux descendants des soldats d'origine. Ces soldats, recrutés par Frederick Lugard de l'Imperial British East Africa Company, formaient l'essentiel des forces utilisées pour bâtir une grande partie de l'empire britannique en Afrique orientale. Entre la période d'Emin Pasha et celle d'Idi Amin Dada, certains Nubiens étaient identifiés par le marquage de trois lignes verticales sur le visage, appelées “One-Elevens” (unonze). Même si beaucoup de musulmans du Nord du pays préfèrent, depuis le renversement d'Amin Dada, s'identifier en tant que membres de groupes ethniques ougandais locaux plutôt que comme Nubiens, certains aspects de l'identité nubienne subsistent chez certains groupes rebelles ougandais, ainsi que dans le cyberespace.

Type
Research Article
Information
Africa , Volume 76 , Issue 2 , May 2006 , pp. 180 - 199
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 2006

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