Stephanie Diaz

 

Rediscovering Nubia: How Nubian Identity Can Bring Us Closer To Past

 

Abstract: Although Africa has played an important role in the origins of our human evolutionary history, African societies have been brushed aside throughout human cultural history due to colonial thought and prejudices. To decolonize African studies, it is detrimental to confront the foundations in which our knowledge has been formed. Recent discoveries have shown Nubia and the Kingdom of Kush, what is now known as northern Sudan, to be an emerging pinnacle in history with equal importance to the foundation of ancient civilizations as its northern neighbours and not just an extension of the Egyptian timeline. This former perspective of Nubia in constant relation to Egypt can be traced back to the enlightenment theories and practises of the nineteenth century, in particular those surrounding racial theories. How exactly have we reached this westernised version of Egyptian and Nubian history and in what ways does it affect our current understanding of these two ancient civilizations? Should we project modern concepts such as racial and cultural identity onto the past in our attempt to undo colonial thinking? This essay provides a historiographical account of Egyptocentric archaeology and its effects on academia, followed by a look at today’s experts and their interdisciplinary approach to postcolonial research.

 

Bio: Stephanie Diaz was born in Miami, Florida as a first generation Cuban-American. In her academic career, she devoted her Bachelor’s degree to History and Asian Studies at Florida International University. In her time at Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto, Japan, she established her knowledge in Japanese sociocultural heritage and history. Upon graduation, Stephanie moved to New York and worked in a variety of cultural organisations, gaining a rich background in both film and photography. In continuing her studies, she now attends the University of Amsterdam as a student of Museum Studies. Her objective is to present audiences with historical narratives told through a modern lens.