infundibulum

SudanTribune article : A Language Lesson in the Nuba Mountains

The Sudan has recently been much in the news, despite the situation in Dar Fur having been plainly apparent since February 2003. The tragedy unfolding for the people there is also a tragedy for minority languages, many of which may never recover from the dislocation and dispossession that follows, as its inhabitants are turned into refugees in their own land. Broadly speaking, however, many groups have been scattered from their home area and now exist only as refugees in large Sudanese towns. Although the older members of the displaced communities are very committed to their language, the Sudanese Government is equally committed to the destruction of minority languages and the enforced adoption of Arabic. As a consequence, many ethno-linguistic groups are finding it difficult to maintain language competence among their children. This is particularly true in the case of the peoples of the Nuba Mountains in Southern Kordofan, where violent attacks on these communities during the 1990s caused many villages to be deserted and their inhabitants scattered or killed. If taken individually, the Nuba communities were always small in number by comparison with peoples such as the Dinka, Nuer, Fur and Zaghawa, and their languages correspondingly more fragile.

Of course, the death of people is immeasurably worse than the death of a language. Reading about the Sudan in general seems to be an exercise in hopelessness.