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foto: Leni Riefensthal
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THE NUBAS - TWENTY YEARS AGO With their highest peak at 1,400
metres above sea level, the wildly scattered mountains of granite in
the middle of the savannah sea westward of the Nile attract rain.
Even in the high times of the dry season they keep water in their
breasts. The black soil in the valleys is extremely fertile. Their
dry season is sometimes like our winter, while during the rainy
period the country is resplendent in a
buoyant, gorgeous green that instantly recalls the Christian and
Muslim notions of the garden of Eden. The Nubian mountains are a
kind of natural fortresses. For centuries they granted refuge to
different African tribes that were on the run to avoid slave
hunters. Primeval Africa - and perhaps also genuine human
sensitivity - has survived in these remote valleys. The Nubas have never established
states, built monuments, made machines nor they have flown to the
Moon. They have had no tyrants to obey. Instead,
they have listened to the village elders that have taken care of
their health, fertility and coexistence. They did not even dare
to change anything in their architectural design
of tukuls, rounded and womblike huts for fear of offending
anyone or anything and in order for everything to remain as it was
and in perfect equilibrium with everything that exists. The Nubas
have evidently been far more attracted to innocence and purity than
to Mesopotamian, Egyptian, Greek or Roman enterprise. Even today
they do not have any urge to reach for the fruit of the Tree of
Knowledge. Their main motto has always been: whatever you do, do it
as beautifully as you can. But before deciding to do it, first ask
yourself what will it bring to the people, animals and even
vegetables and waters and to the whole environment. |