July is Nubian Heritage Month!

Commemorated every year in July, Nubian Heritage Month was launched in 2018 by a large network of social media users, institutions and initiatives dedicated to Nubian heritage conservation and revival.

In addition, World Nubian Day is celebrated on 7 July to commemorate the Nubia region, and its history and heritage.

The significance of seven in the Nubian culture

The 7th day of the 7th month of the Gregorian year was chosen to mark the Nubian Day, because the number seven is associated with many Nubian customs and rituals, including visits to the grave sites of their deceased relatives last for seven days, women pass seven times on incense after giving birth, and the child born is bathed in the Nile water on the 7th day of his birth. 

Nubia

Nubia is a region along the Nile River encompassing the area between the first cataract of the Nile in. the south of Aswan in southern Egypt and the confluence of the Blue and White Niles in Khartoum in central Sudan. It was the seat of one of the earliest civilisations of ancient Africa, the Kerma culture, which lasted from around 2500 BC until its conquest by the New Kingdom of Egypt under Pharaoh Thutmose I around 1500 BC, whose heirs ruled most of Nubia for the next 400 years.

Nubia was home to several empires, most prominently the Kingdom of Kush, which was a kingdom in northern Africa in the region corresponding to modern-day Sudan, and was the most powerful state in the Nile Valley around 1700 BC. Nubia was divided into three kingdoms (Kush, Meroe and Napata), including the Nile Basin countries: Ethiopia, Tanzania, Sudan and Congo. 

The people of Nubia are one the oldest civilisations in the world, and they have established themselves around the Nile for thousands of years in the area of southern Egypt and northern Sudan. Nubians are not to be confused with the people of the Nuba mountains and Darfur, Sudan.

There are many Nubian languages such as Kenzi (also known as Mattokki), Fadicca, Nobiin, Midob, Birgid, and Hill Nubian (or Kordofan Nubian).