Beja people
Template:Short description Template:Infobox ethnic group
The Beja people (Template:Langx, Template:Langx, Template:Langx) are a Cushitic ethnic group<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> native to the Eastern Desert, inhabiting a coastal area from southeastern Egypt through eastern Sudan and into northwestern Eritrea.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite web</ref> They are descended from peoples who have inhabited the area since 4000 BC or earlier,<ref name=":0" /> although they were Arabized by Arabs who settled in the region. They are nomadic<ref name=":0" /> and live primarily in the Eastern Desert. The Beja number around 1,900,000<ref name=":0" /> to 2,759,000.<ref name="Bej">Template:Cite web</ref>
Some of the Beja speak a Cushitic language called Beja and some speak Tigre, a Semitic language; most speak Arabic.<ref name=":0" /><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In Eritrea and southeastern Sudan, many members of the Beni-Amer grouping speak Tigre. Originally, the Beja did not speak Arabic, but the migration of the numerous Arab tribes of Juhaynah, Mudar, Rabi'a, and many more to the Beja areas contributed to the Arabization and Islamization of them.<ref name=":1">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name=":2">Template:Cite web</ref> The Arabs did not however fully settle in the Beja areas as they looked for better climate in other areas.<ref name=":2" /> The Beja have partially mixed with Arabs through intermarriages over the centuries,<ref name=":2" /> and by the 15th century were absorbed into Islam.<ref name=":2" /> The process of Arabization led to the Beja adopting the Arabic language,<ref name=":1" /> Arab clothing,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and Arab kinship organization.<ref name=":0" />
While many secondary sources identify the Ababda as an Arabic-speaking Beja tribe because of their cultural links with the Bishari, this claim is uncertain and hasn't been verified; the Ababda do not consider themselves Beja, nor are they so considered by most Beja people.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
History
The Beja are traditionally Cushitic-speaking pastoral nomads native to northeast Africa, referred to as Blemmyes in ancient texts. The geographer Abu Nasr Mutahhar al-Maqdisi wrote in the tenth century that the Beja were at that time Christians.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Beja territories in the Eastern desert were conquered and vassalised by the Kingdom of Aksum in the third century.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The historian Al-Yaqubi documented five Beja Kingdoms in the 9th century. Originally, the Beja did not speak Arabic, however the migration of the numerous Arab tribes of Juhaynah, Mudar, Rabi'a, and many more to the Beja areas contributed to the Arabization and Islamization of them,<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" /> however the Arabs did not fully settle in the Beja areas as they looked for better climate in other areas.<ref name=":2" /> The Beja have partially mixed with Arabs through intermarriages over the centuries,<ref name=":2" /> and by the 15th century, the Beja were Islamized.<ref name=":2" /> The Balaw of the southern Red Sea coast may have come from the mixing of people from the Arab Peninsula and Beja people, but there has been significant historical dispute on this matter.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The Hadendoa Beja by the 18th century dominated much of eastern Sudan. In the Mahdist War of the 1880s to 1890s, the Beja fought on both sides, the Hadendoa siding with the Mahdist troops, while the Bisharin and Amarar tribes sided with the British,<ref name="Jenkins">Orville Boyd Jenkins, Profile of the Beja people (1996, 2009).</ref> and some Beni Amer - a subset of the Beja who live largely in Eritrea sided with the Ethiopian Ras Alula in certain battles, such as Kufit.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
The Beja Congress was formed in 1952 with the aim of pursuing regional autonomy from the government in Khartoum. Frustrated by the lack of progress, the Beja Congress joined the insurgent National Democratic Alliance in the 1990s. The Beja Congress effectively controlled a part of eastern Sudan centered on Garoura and Hamshkoraib. The Beja Congress sabotaged the oil pipeline to Port Sudan several times during 1999 and 2000. In 2003, they rejected the peace deal arranged between the Sudanese government and the Sudan People's Liberation Army, and allied with the rebel movement of the Darfur region, the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army, in January 2004. A peace agreement was signed with the government of Sudan in October 2006. In the general elections in April 2010, the Beja Congress did not win a single seat in the National Assembly in Khartoum. In anger over alleged election fraud and the slow implementation of the peace agreement, the Beja Congress in October 2011 withdrew from the agreement, and later announced an alliance with the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army.Template:Cn
Geography
The Beja people inhabit a general area between the Nile River and the Red Sea in Sudan, Eritrea and eastern Egypt known as the Eastern Desert. Most of them live in the Sudanese states of Red Sea around Port Sudan, River Nile, Al Qadarif and Kassala, as well as in Northern Red Sea, Gash-Barka, and Anseba Regions in Eritrea, and southeastern Egypt. There are smaller populations of other Beja ethnic groups further north into Egypt's Eastern Desert. Some Beja groups are nomadic. The Kharga Oasis in Egypt's Western Desert is home to a large number of Qamhat Bisharin who were displaced by the Aswan High Dam. Jebel Uweinat is revered by the Qamhat.Template:Cn
Names
The Beja have been named "Blemmyes" in Roman times,<ref>Stanley Mayer Burstein, Ancient African Civilizations: Kush and Axum, p. 167 (2008)</ref> Bəga in Aksumite inscriptions in Ge'ez,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and "Fuzzy-Wuzzy" by Rudyard Kipling. Kipling was specifically referring to the Hadendoa, who fought the British, supporting the Mahdi, the Sudanese leader of the war against Turkish-Egyptian rule, supported by the British Imperial administration.<ref name="Jenkins"/>
Language
Many of the Beja speak Arabic, while some speak the Beja language,<ref name=":0" /> known as Bidhaawyeet or Tubdhaawi in that language. It belongs to the Cushitic branch of the Afroasiatic family.<ref name="Ethnologuebej">Template:Cite web</ref> Cohen noted that the Beja language is the Cushitic language with the largest proportion of Semitic roots, and stated that they are in majority of Arabic origin.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
The French linguist Didier Morin (2001) has made an attempt to bridge the gap between Beja and another branch of Cushitic, namely Lowland East Cushitic languages and in particular Afar and Saho, the linguistic hypothesis being historically grounded on the fact that the three languages were once geographically contiguous.<ref name="vanhove">Martine Vanhove, The Beja Language Today in Sudan: The State of the Art in Linguistics 2006.</ref> Most Beja speak the Beja language, but certain subgroups use other lingua franca. The Beni Amers speak a variety of Tigre, whereas most of the Halenga speak Arabic.<ref name="vanhove" />
Although there is a marked Arabic influence, the Beja language is still widely spoken. The very fact that the highest moral and cultural values of this society are in one way or the other linked to their expression in Beja, that Beja poetry is still highly praised, and that the claims over the Beja land are only valid when expressed in Beja, are very strong social factors in favour of its preservation. True enough Arabic is considered as the language of modernity, but it is also very low in the scale of Beja cultural values as it is a means of transgressing social prohibitions. Beja is still the prestigious language for most of its speakers because it conforms to the ethical values of the community.<ref name="vanhove" />
Subdivisions
The Beja are divided into clan groups. These lineages include the Bishari, Hedareb, Hadendoa, the Amarar (or Amar'ar), Beni-Amer, Hallenga, Habab, Belin and Hamran, some of whom are partly mixed with Bedouins in the east. The Ababda may also be considered a Beja clan<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Beja society was traditionally organized into independent kingdoms. According to al-Ya'qubi, there were six such Beja polities between Aswan and Massawa in the 9th century. Among these were the Kingdom of Bazin, Kingdom of Belgin, Kingdom of Jarin, Kingdom of Nagash, Kingdom of Qita'a and Kingdom of Tankish.<ref name="Soghayroun">Template:Cite book</ref>
See also
References
Further reading
Ethnography
History
- A. Paul. A history of the Beja tribes of the Sudan, Cambridge University Press, 2012.
External links
- Beja People
- The Beja Congress
- Fighting erupts in Eastern Sudan
- The National Movement for Eastern Sudan - NMES
- Meet the Beja
Template:Ethnic groups in EritreaTemplate:Demographics of Sudan Template:Authority control
- Pages with broken file links
- Beja people
- Ethnic groups in Egypt
- Ethnic groups in Eritrea
- Ethnic groups in Sudan
- Ethnic groups in North Africa
- Cushitic-speaking peoples
- Semitic-speaking peoples
- Arabic-speaking people
- Pastoralists
- African nomads
- Modern nomads
- Indigenous peoples of North Africa
- Indigenous peoples of East Africa
- Blemmyes
- Ethnic groups in the Middle East
- Muslim communities in Africa