Barabra

Barabra is an old ethnographical term for the Nubian peoples of northern Sudan and southern Egypt. The word is variously derived from Berberi (i.e. Berbers), or described as identical with Barabara, figuring in the inscription on a gateway of Tuthmosis I, as the name of one of the 113 tribes conquered by him.[1]

In a later inscription of Rameses II at Karnak (1300 BC), Beraberata is given as the name of a southern conquered people. Thus it is suggested that Barabra is a real ethnical name, confused later with Greek and Roman barbarus, and revived in its proper meaning subsequent to the Muslim conquest. A tribe living on the banks of the Nile between Wadi Halfa and Assuan are called Barabra.[1]

The term is now rejected by Nubians, as it is understood as a pejorative term used as an insult in reference to skin colour, low intellect and brutishness.[2]

See also

• Barbara (region)

Notes

1. Chisholm 1911.
2. Smith 2006, p. 400.

References

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Barabra". Encyclopædia Britannica. 3 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 379.
• Smith, Elizabeth A. (2006). "Place, Class and Race in the Barabra Café. Nubians in Egypian Media". Cairo Cosmopolitan. Politics, Culture, and Urban Space in the New Globalized Middle East. The American University in Cairo.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)