There is not a single reason that Sudanese women, born outside of modern Nubian tribes, should be stopped or policed for using the word "Kandaka" to describe themselves.
It's a name used for ruling Queens/ Queen mothers of ancient Nubia- ancestry that most modern Sudani women have a matrilineal genetic connection to.
Even during Arabisation: traders, nomads and Muslim settlers married indigenous Nubian women & thus contemporary tribes were born
Even during Arabisation: traders, nomads and Muslim settlers married indigenous Nubian women & thus contemporary tribes were born
The Beja tribe of East Sudan, Nuba people of the South and Nilotic tribes of South Sudan - Dinka, Nuer and Shillok - are recorded to have shared in the Nubian/Kushite civilisation and fought in military campaigns to protect the kingdom from foreign invasion.
Charles Bonnet, the Swiss archaeologist who unearthed remains of the Kerma chiefdoms that founded the Kush, believes the site to be "man's first home".
In reality, every black woman in the world can probably stake a "genetic" claim to the word "Kandaka".
In reality, every black woman in the world can probably stake a "genetic" claim to the word "Kandaka".
Genetics aside, it is a word that has empowered Sudan's female protesters to take to the streets - in the face of horrific state violence - and fight an Islamist dictatorship.
Just as "Nubian Queen" was used by popular culture to describe women like Angela Davis & Assata Shakur
Just as "Nubian Queen" was used by popular culture to describe women like Angela Davis & Assata Shakur
As Sudanese diaspora, we all carry the weight of a fragmented culture & conflict-ridden past.
We've all inherited trauma - from mild to extreme - and it's hard to see through that sometimes.
One thing I'm certain of: being divisive and divided got us nowhere.
We've all inherited trauma - from mild to extreme - and it's hard to see through that sometimes.
One thing I'm certain of: being divisive and divided got us nowhere.
When you go as far back as the rule of the Kandakas - who spoke Meroitic & lived 200 km NE of Khartoum two millennia ago - the culture bleeds down into different contemporary ethnic groups & feeds into a pan-African identity that covers the black diaspora.
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