Feature: Sudan's Nuba Mountains tribes dance for peace, renunciation of war

Over 57 folkloric bands of Sudan's Nuba Mountains tribes gathered in Omdurman city, west of the capital Khartoum, on Friday to perform for peace and renunciation of war, as part of the 4th Nuba Mountains Cultural Heritage Festival.

Throughout the years, the Nuba Mountains' tribes in Sudan's South Kordofan State have been known for their heritage dances on various occasions, as the values of peace and peaceful co-existence have constituted a major axis in the Nuba's culture.

The bands' performance reflected the talent of the Nuba tribes in using music and dance as means to express what those historical tribes experience of joy or sorrow.

The bands performed various group dances with the participation of men and women from all ages, in which dances like Al-Karan, Kambala and Nugara, accompanied by rhythms of drums and traditional musical instruments, have captivated the audience.

Hashim Hammad Abdalla, a member of the festival's organizing committee, told Xinhua that there are many threats to their culture and heritage.

"We had to look for a mechanism that enables us to preserve our cultural and heritage privacy," Abdalla said, adding a festival can "restore the bonds which link the Nuba as a peace-loving people that live in peace and renounce war."

He reiterated the importance of stopping the war in areas of the Nuba Mountains and disseminating the culture of peaceful co-existence.

"The Nuba people have historically been known for living in peaceful co-existence and it has never been mentioned in history that they have attacked any other population group. We want to deliver these values," he said.

Mohamed Nuwas Kafi, a king of Keila tribe in the Nuba Mountains, told Xinhua that this festival "proves the presence of the Nuba tribes in Sudan, because the different wars have forced the Nuba tribes to displace to different areas."

"The participants in this festival send messages through dances that express many meanings, including peace, peaceful co-existence and renunciation of war," he noted.

The two-day festival also selects Miss Nuba Mountains for the coming year. The organizing committee sets specific standards, such as that Miss Nuba Mountains should have the Nubian features, is educated and fluent in both Arabic and English languages as well as local dialects, and associated with the areas of the Nuba Mountains.

Natalia Ya'goub, the current Miss Nuba Mountains whose term is to end soon, told Xinhua that they want to reiterate that the Nuba are peace people. "We want to uphold the value of peace," she said.

During Ya'goub's term as Miss Nuba Mountains, she managed, in various activities, to raise the awareness of the Nubian communities with the importance of education.

"I have informed the communities with the risks of sexually transmitted diseases, female genital mutilation and others," she added.

Some modern studies divide the Nuba Mountains' tribes into 10 groups, each comprising 10 tribes, while others claim that the Nuba tribes amount to 99.

The areas of the Nuba Mountains in Sudan's South Kordofan State have been witnessing armed clashes between the Sudanese army and the rebels of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM)/northern sector since 2011. Endit