So were the Funj Nubians? Or does nobody know who they really were? And doesn't anybody find it troubling how their heritage and presence was quickly erased, and how that relates to racial cleansing campaigns in modern day Sudan?
Lastly, I believe the Egyptians went on cattle raids and *slave raids*, not "slave-taking expeditions".
The Funj were Nubians; enough of their language, or words, survived for linguists to make that comparison (they also could have been predominantly non-Nubian peoples who were assimilated into Nubian culture, given their control of the riverine Sudan)
As for the Egyptians, they were in the south for ivory, cattle, and slaves. But slaves in particular were more profitable, easier to acquire, and in much greater demand than the other commodities (because of plantation agriculture associated with cotton farming, military recruitment across both Sudan and Egypt, and domestic slavery in the various cities from Cairo to Khartoum to the southern provinces themselves that, for the sake of comparison, was on a much greater scale than the island of Zanzibar)
Thank you, sir, for this article. It illuminates many aspects of the Luo peoples of western Kenya, in which I have a personal interest.
Incredibly detailed and impeccably referenced.
I appreciate it. This region is unfortunately overlooked.
So were the Funj Nubians? Or does nobody know who they really were? And doesn't anybody find it troubling how their heritage and presence was quickly erased, and how that relates to racial cleansing campaigns in modern day Sudan?
Lastly, I believe the Egyptians went on cattle raids and *slave raids*, not "slave-taking expeditions".
The Funj were Nubians; enough of their language, or words, survived for linguists to make that comparison (they also could have been predominantly non-Nubian peoples who were assimilated into Nubian culture, given their control of the riverine Sudan)
As for the Egyptians, they were in the south for ivory, cattle, and slaves. But slaves in particular were more profitable, easier to acquire, and in much greater demand than the other commodities (because of plantation agriculture associated with cotton farming, military recruitment across both Sudan and Egypt, and domestic slavery in the various cities from Cairo to Khartoum to the southern provinces themselves that, for the sake of comparison, was on a much greater scale than the island of Zanzibar)